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The Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies (BAMS) program of the UP Open University (UPOU) expects its graduates to attain both theoretical and practical knowledge regarding the field of multimedia and ICT. Facilitating skills-oriented learning commonly involves a hands-on approach. While it was the initial intention to deploy production courses in residential mode, the realities of UPOU's student demographics prohibit its implementation. In turn, these courses must be deployed in such a way that it would be possible for students to take the entire course online and perhaps level the playing field with the students who are able to more often interact face to face with the course facilitator through the use of various tools and methods for online learning. This study documents the implementation of one such course: Photography in Multimedia. The study also looked into the socio-demographics and performance of the 37 students enrolled in the course during Summer2010 and how it relates to the level of class participation of the student based on the model/ICT employed. The students were also asked to accomplish a survey at the end of the course regarding course implementation and ICT use for learning. Results showed that while majority of the students considered face to face sessions as beneficial, poor academic performance could not be attributed to failure to participate in these sessions. By the end of the course, all 37 students cited self-improvements in different aspects of photography, most notably the awareness of principles and technical knowhow. Results of the facilitator's assessment alluded to the same finding. It is therefore concluded that while face to face sessions remain as an invaluable tool in handling a production course, it is still possible, through the use of various tools, for a student to learn and even excel in a fully online mode.

The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) has used Moodle, an open source course management system since 2007. While the application allowed the university to deploy all its courses online, Moodle still presents limitations. The compartmentalised nature of courses within the system inhibits the sharing of learning objects and resources across users. Furthermore, while it does have social networking capabilities to a certain degree (by many accounts more so than other learning management systems), Moodle provides little flexibility when it comes to collaborative learning. Technical issues also hampered the performance of a number of built-in functionalities, which in turn gets in the way of the learning experience. These limitations encouraged facilitators and students alike to opt for third party web applications to fulfil course requirements. This research project aimed to address these limitations by expanding upon the functionalities of Moodle. This was achieved through the installation of modules and plugins within Moodle itself and the integration of external web applications such as conferencing, blogging, e-portfolios and rich media content management through single sign on (SSO). This expansion brought about a number of achievements. First, learning activities were made available which were either new or improved upon what Moodle had by default. This expanded learning management system was piloted with two courses under the Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies programme, which Moodle has been historically ill-equipped to accommodate on its own. Findings of this study were based on the analysis of performance as well as firsthand feedback from users, which in turn is to be used for the continual improvement of UPOU's online course deployment.

The transition from Industry 3.0 to the fourth industrial revolution was a big jump that created a vacuum in many developing countries. Drawing upon institutional theory and resource-based view theory, the current study proposes a theoretical model linking the institutional pressures and resources (workforce skills) in context to the apparel industry of Bangladesh.

This study adopts a qualitative approach involving 20 semi-structured interviews, followed by thematic analysis using NVivo 12 software. The researchers impose both deductive and inductive thematic analysis to generate themes. The data analysis involves various stages applying the phenomenological approaches.

Institutional pressures (coercive) positively influences the workforce skills (technical and managerial) in the fourth industrial revolution in Bangladesh apparel manufacturing industry; institutional pressures (normative) is positively related to the workforce skills (technical and managerial) in 4IR in Bangladesh apparel manufacturing industry; institutional pressures (mimetic) has shown a positive association with the workforce skills (technical and managerial) in 4IR in Bangladesh apparel manufacturing industry; workforce skills (technical and managerial) are positively influencing the development of human resource capabilities in fourth industrial revolution in Bangladesh apparel manufacturing industry.

This paper is the first of its kind to offer a thematic analysis on human resource development 4.0 in the apparel industry of Bangladesh. The study provides an understanding of the role of institutional pressure on workforce skill development and the adoption of 4IR technology.