Integrating Industry 4.0 in Higher Education Using Challenge-Based Learning: An Intervention in Operations Management

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is predicted to significantly transform the jobs and skill profiles of workers. Implications for higher education may involve dramatic changes in the demand for knowledge and skills. In response to this, a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) intervention was designed with the aim of developing working skills for the future of work on undergraduate students by embedding the Industry 4.0 theme in the Operations Management curricula. The CBL intervention was implemented in two different academic terms at a UK university, and views from 302 undergraduate business students were captured using document analysis. The benefits are reported in terms of knowledge acquisition and the application and development of key desirable working abilities for the future. The results suggest that CBL increases students’ understanding of Industry 4.0 issues in real-life settings. It also provides an environment for soft-skills training for skills, including collaboration, communication, planning and problem-solving. This study provides a blueprint for the implementation of CBL in the Operations Management curricula. The study validates existing findings obtained from the application of CBL in other disciplines. Whilst the proposed CBL intervention might be easily replicated in business schools in the UK, the findings on students’ experiences might not be directly generalized to other contexts or disciplines.

Going from 2D to 3D in supply chain 4.0 education: an LSP approach

“…The 3D hands on approach of LSP also showed (through students' responses in Figure 7 regarding ideation and design phase feedback) that it can address the challenge of SC 4.0 complexity. Various research indicated that the complexity of both Industry 4.0 and SC 4.0 requires higher education to adopt a learn by doing approach (Hariharasudan and Kot, 2018), through a challenge-based problem (Vilalta-Perdomo et al ., 2022) in a didactic environment (González and Calderón, 2018) to be able to teach them to students. LSP as a platform fulfills these requirements and the results presented support such a claim.…”

“…Therefore, in preparing students to be the future SC 4.0 mangers there is a clear need to ensure that the pedagogy and curriculum they go through will be able to take them beyond current linear and deterministic thinking, capture the evolving nature of SC as well as explain the distributive and integrated nature of these systems. Many of the current SC management instructional resources lack the capability to engage with these challenges due to their reliance on mainly passing on a body of knowledge to the students in a classical static manner (Tortorellaa et al ., 2022; Vilalta-Perdomo et al ., 2022).…”

Towards a New Paradigm for Digital Health Training and Education in Australia: Exploring the Implication of the Fifth Industrial Revolution

“…Despite growth in the use of Industry 5.0 technologies that support the entire teaching and learning process [38], most educational institutions still focus on ensuring students develop familiarity with the tools used within simulated work scenarios [84] rather than incorporate authentic, real-world problems that involve multiple stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, industry partners, etc. Additionally, the barriers to, and enablers of, the successful adoption and implementation of Industry 5.0 technologies to support learning and teaching activities have so far been ignored or not well documented.…”

“…As a result, there will be increased demand for knowledge-based (cognitive) occupations, driven by a continuing shift from routine manual skills to non-routine, metacognition-based skills, such as problem-solving, collaboration, and leadership. However, education researchers have noted that the current research on preparing students for the future of work is still in its infancy [84,91,92]. Despite many of the digital technologies already existing in the higher education system [84,91,92], these are becoming less relevant in addressing the complex future labour market in the context of Industry 5.0.…”

“…However, education researchers have noted that the current research on preparing students for the future of work is still in its infancy [84,91,92]. Despite many of the digital technologies already existing in the higher education system [84,91,92], these are becoming less relevant in addressing the complex future labour market in the context of Industry 5.0. Hence, educational institutions require a comprehensive overhaul of their existing curricula and learning and teaching strategies to help students in becoming lifelong learners who know how to identify and define the right problems for complex systems that need solving and working collaboratively to achieve the desired outcomes.…”