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Adult continuing education will be of increasing importance, as the median age of our society and the pace of change continue to increase. The paper begins with an examination of the goals of all learning. It focuses on a new paradigm for learning, tried so far only on a very limited basis: computer‐based tutorial learning, considered particularly important for adult learning. This paradigm, practical today with modern technology, allows a much more individualized approach to learning than is largely available today, for very large numbers at much lower total costs than at present. Student interaction with the computer will be frequent (every few seconds) and in the student’s native language. Little large‐scale experience is available with such highly interactive material, so we should begin with extensive experimental efforts in this direction. A large worldwide developmental effort in many languages would follow successful research.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a model for adopting social networked learning in higher institutions of learning in developing countries of Africa.

Mixed methods research methodology involving survey and interviews was adopted in the collection of data for building the model. The model was theoretically underpinned by the Technology Acceptance Model and the social constructivist learning theory, and was built and validated using structural equation modelling and Delphi techniques respectively.

Adoption of social networked learning in developing countries of Africa requires self efficacy, reliable technical and administrative support, infrastructure, system interactivity, adequate budgeting and accountability, and a flexible organisational culture.

The model provides a framework for integrating social software tools with the traditional learning systems of developing countries of Africa. This has a positive outcome of providing social constructivist information and communication technology (ICT) supported learning at low or no cost.

The model has the potential to encourage formation of communities of practice to encourage development of social learning and a student‐centered pedagogy.

The novelty of this research lies in the extension of the traditional technology acceptance models with constructs for proper budgeting and accountability and organisational culture. Time and other resources need to be devoted to developing social networked learning and the model takes this into account.

This paper explores the convergence of Education 4.0 and Industry 4.0 and presents a Twin Peaks model for their seamless integration.

A high-level literature review is conducted to identify and discuss the important challenges and opportunities offered by both Education 4.0 and Industry 4.0. A novel Twin Peaks model is devised for the convergence of these domains and to cope with the challenges effectively.

The proposed Twin Peak model for the convergence of Education 4.0 and Industry 4.0 suggests that the development of these two domains is interdependent. It emphasizes ethical considerations, inclusivity and understanding the concerns of stakeholders from both education and industry. We have also explained how continuous incremental adaptation within the proposed Twin Peaks model might assist in addressing concerns of one sector with the opportunities of the other.

First, Education 4.0 and Industry 4.0 are reviewed in terms of opportunities and challenges they present. Second, a novel Twin Peaks model for the convergence of Education 4.0 and Industry 4.0 is presented. The proposed discovers that the convergence is adaptive, iterative and must be ethically sound while considering the broader societal implications of the digital transformation. Third, this study also acts as a torch-bearer for the necessity for more research of this kind to guarantee that our educational ecosystem is adaptable and capable of producing the skills required for success in the era of IR4.0.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the expectations and reality perspectives accrued in a preliminary management course and understand if they impart and embed real-world skills and develop work readiness.

Primary data collected for the research were qualitative. A total of six focus groups were conducted with a total of 52 students enrolled at a large metropolitan university in Australia. NViVO was used to code and analyse the data.

The study found that at the commencement of university studies, the expectations were simple like, making new friends, getting around the campus and settling well into the university culture, which over time extended to getting a part-time job, securing internships, memberships of associations, desire to participate in exchange programs and get work-ready by the close of the first year. The research outcomes show that those who held a part-time job while studying demonstrated a better understanding of the preliminary management subject matter taught in class and obtained better grades. Primarily, the preliminary management course did not specifically impart work-ready skills and it would be fitting to embed employability skills in the management curriculum from the commencement of their programs in the first year.

Qualitative research is used to comprehend a research problem from the outlook perspectives of the local population it involves. The limitations of this methodology includes no objectively verifiable result, adept interviewing skills for interviewers, slow and time consuming during interviewing process and intensive category process also as qualitative inquiry is normally open-ended, the participants have more control over the content of the data collected.

The lack of skill mismatch and graduates who are not work-ready incurs significant economic and social costs. A number of policy implications emerge due to university-labour market links and skills mismatches and the impact on students and the labour market. The rise in unemployment and the skills mismatch seen after the economic crisis requires immediate attention. Job creation is crucial but so is the need to develop graduate with appropriate matching skills and qualities to do the job. Mandatory internships, apprenticeships and on-the-job training for university students would help. Governments can provide financial incentives and subsidies to organisations providing the above services and working cooperatively with the universities to get students work-ready. Universities must raise the educational requirements over time as jobs become more complex. Universities can build communities of practice with the assistance of this scheme to enable students to interact with the industry professionals. An additional year of vocational training could be recommended for the graduating students. This would help the young graduates to get work-related skills. Wheelahan et al. (2015) state that building better links between education and work can help provide a more rational approach to vocational development. They propose the use of vocational streams and productive capabilities in the education system and labour market to achieve this.

This requires a combined effort from all stakeholders. A systematic approach needs to be adopted. First, the gap between the knowledge provided by the universities and the skills required by the employers need to be reduced. Second, the employers and the universities should keep a watch on the labour market and develop strategies to meet the dynamic requirements of the labour market collaboratively. Third, career guidance will help inform students make a career choice to match the labour market opportunities. This should be a part of the policy agenda for responding to the lack of work-ready graduates in the labour market.

Learning and teaching activities must include industry interface and engagement right from the first year at university. The main findings from this research indicated the need for better understanding of first-year students’ expectations. The two significant student expectations that emerged were “need for collaborations” and “industry interface”.

For the past several years, libraries have been evolving. The traditional academic library housed print collections and provided space for studying, usually quiet space. With the advances in technology, libraries have had their own metamorphosis. No longer are they constrained by a physical space – they now have virtual spaces, which include virtual collections.

During this same time, the cost of higher education and textbooks has been on the rise. Universities and the federal government have enacted policies and laws in an effort to combat these rising costs. In support of the students and affordable textbook initiatives, libraries have become partners in helping lower the cost of textbooks for students through either purchasing them electronically or other means, such as course reserves. Indeed, a single library purchase can now provide course materials for an entire class.

This chapter will present an overview of the Affordable Learning Georgia Initiative and how the Georgia Tech Library has updated their collection development policies to support this initiative.

The COVID-19 pandemic has entailed a critical situation for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since restrictions on business activity have been imposed by authorities to reduce infections. The result is that SME managers must manage their firms through a crisis under very challenging conditions. The purpose of the present paper is to address how SME managers respond in the second “wave” of COVID-19 based on their perceived uncertainty as well as eventual learning from the first “wave” in early 2020.

Four hypotheses are presented, resulting in a theoretical model relating crisis impact, uncertainty, learning from crisis experience and effectuation behaviour. The theoretical model is tested through an empirical questionnaire-based quantitative study of Norwegian SMEs in the bar and restaurant sector, applying structural equation modelling as the analytical technique.

The results show that impact from COVID-19 leads to both uncertainty and learning and further that uncertainty primarily leads to a focus on affordable loss while learning leads to experimentation behaviour.

The present paper is novel in several ways. First, it empirically studies a unique situation where a crisis encompasses two “waves” of significant impact on the firms in focus. This provides the opportunity to address managers' learning through a crisis for application in a very similar situation later. Second, the present paper provides an empirically supported model of how uncertainty or learning leads to different dimensions of effectuation behaviour in a crisis situation.

This paper aims to describe a case study of the open and affordable educational resources (OAER) initiatives led by Penn State University Libraries (UL) and implemented at its many campuses which are designed to address the challenges students experience accessing and funding their course materials.

This case study will show how a broad administrative mandate for high-level OAER initiatives created the environment for Penn State (PSU) to evolve from individual pioneering units into coordinated university-wide initiatives. This shift, spearheaded by administration with strong UL involvement, allowed for customized and targeted initiatives at its many campuses. By using UL’s centralized, but geographically dispersed, structure, library faculty and staff have been supported in their efforts to expand OAER from the ground up to meet individual contexts and campus needs.

As a result of its many open and affordable initiatives, PSUL has been able to demonstrate both savings and increased access for students across PSU’s many campuses and World Campus. Broad administrative support has created an environment which enabled UL faculty and staff to lead various initiatives.

UL has long been a leader and partner in open and affordability initiatives at PSU because of its core mission of providing access. By sharing the processes and logistics of how a large research institution with many campuses of various sizes implemented a wide variety of library-driven open and affordability initiatives through a centralized but geographically dispersed structure, academic libraries will be able to replicate similar initiatives in their unique contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how decision making and learning are related to marketing planning among owner/managers with lifestyle in comparison to growth-oriented objectives in the New Zealand wine industry.

The study reports on 12 interviews with owner/managers of New Zealand vineyards. The vineyards were small to medium sized and independently owned to avoid bias from parent company decision making within larger scale corporate wine producers.

Different degrees of causation and effectuation-based decision making were found to exist among owner/managers starting from the nascent stage in their respective marketing planning processes. Learning to different degrees was evident in order to remain competitive in a climate of uncertainty and not least of which due to problematic exchange rates. An important issue influencing decision making was whether owner/managers were running the vineyard to maintain a lifestyle or a growth strategy; an issue affecting perceptions of risks and rewards.

The originality of the study is that it employs an effectuation lens in respect of the marketing planning process; specifically, decision making among owner/managers with differing objectives, experience and perceptions of risks and rewards.

The impact of Ubiquitous Computing on Learning is not confined within technical dimension. Besides its technical facilitation, this new computing paradigm also challenges human’s belief on learning, and compels us to rethink on the design of learning resources and environments. The paper explores the concept of Ubiquitous Learning, and proposes a conceptual framework for a Ubiquitous Learning Environment (ULE) design and implementation. A ULE is established on the combination between Real World and Virtual Space, Personal Space and Shared Space. Learning in a ULE is conducted in the interactions among three essential communicative elements: Social Human, Object in real world, and Artifact in virtual space. A learning process is a social transfer process between tacit and explicit knowledge. Context‐Awareness is indispensable to all kinds of interactions in a ULE. In particular, this paper gives a discussion to context‐awareness supported Interoperability and Adaptability in a ULE, and suggests a five‐dimensional (Who, What, How, When, Where) representation approach for modeling context and providing context‐awareness information. In the practical dimension, this paper presents a design framework for a ULE implementation by integrating the applications of present affordable learning devices, such as networked PCs (Personal Computer), PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), mobile phones, sensors, and RFIDs. A basic learning system architecture in a ULE and a prototype ubiquitous language learning system are also addressed in this paper.

This paper aims to clarify the challenges faced by higher education institutions such as budget cuts and the pressure to offer accessible, affordable anytime/anyplace learning and offer a solution in the form of the development of an e‐learning strategy.

The paper explores recent research on higher education and e‐learning strategies in an effort to offer a participatory pedagogy coupled with cost effective technology as a solution to overcoming the increase in market demand and socioeconomic pressures facing higher education institutions.

The paper provides pragmatic insights about the five stages of developing an e‐learning strategy, including determining the delivery method and technology, making curriculum and development decisions, integrating implementation and roll out strategies and monitoring and evaluating the new e‐programs.

The chosen research offers an approach as a starting point for developing an e‐learning strategy. Further research may be needed to generalize and apply the suggestions to individual higher education institutions.

The paper includes implications for higher education institutions and other organizations wishing to explore the option of e‐learning as a delivery system for knowledge, training and instruction.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study the implications of technology on learning.