Development of Innovation and Digital Fluency in the HEI Curriculum as an IR4.0 Enabler

Introduction

World Economic Forum (2016) discusses the higher education prospects in relation to Industry Revolution 4.0 that demands strong academia-industry relations. The IR4.0 has combined the physical and virtual world using technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) (Jazdi, 2014). The IR4.0 demands for cyber physical systems and computer enabled automation of the processes. Sound digital gadgets are now an integral part of our society. Digital gadgets such as computers, laptops, tablets, and mobiles are physical devices while digital technologies are developments, solutions, improvements in designs, and the efficient use of these devices. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 40% of the job market was based on the digital intensive sector between 2005-2016 (OECD, 2019). The new graduates coming out of HEIs need innovative and digital fluency skills to meet the needs of the work industry. The HEIs are to respond to these requirements since the emerging technologies are re-defining our work norms at a rapid pace. This not only involves familiarizing students with new technologies but also to build their skills in computational thinking and their ability to design digital solutions. Government entities and their affiliates all over the world are sparing resources and efforts to meet such new challenges.

The higher education sector is in transformation in recent decades changing the overall educational set up. The skill sets to be infused in students are to be sorted out. The HEI Curriculum is to be designed and updated to uplift student skills for pre-graduation and post-graduation employment needs. Education 4.0 is a term evolved in response to the needs of IR4.0 where human and technology are aligned to enable new possibilities. Education 4.0 is to promote learning the knowledge and skills and to identify the source to learn these knowledge and skills and to plan for future education strategies to enable students with necessary knowledge and skills. It also enables the practitioners to become lifelong learners, think out of the box, learn how to research and find information they need, evaluate the available information and take it to the next level in a real world context. Many HEIs have developed teaching and learning strategies to digitally literate their staff and students and various funding schemes have been introduced along with defining their key performance indicators (KPIs), policies, and procedures. One of the important areas is to re-define the curriculum of the higher educational institutes to cater to such needs. The curriculum should not only teach students how to be versed on these digital gadgets but should also make them understand the basic principles of designing the digital technologies enabling them to meet the challenges of IR4.0. In advanced countries, the graduates of many HEIs are required to complete courses which are aligned with requirements of the IR4.0 (KAMEL, 2019).

This article explores the development of innovation and digital fluency in students through the curriculum of the HEIs. The first section discusses the role of curriculum in teaching and learning process providing background of the study and then discusses how to strengthen digital skills using the curriculum by presenting a conceptual framework. Third section explores the major issue in implementing this framework to enhance the digital fluency of students and staff while the fourth section provides recommendations to overcome these issues. The final section concludes the discussion.