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Increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education has, along with other consequences, shifted the context from teacher-centric to student-centric. These changes pose fresh challenges to the prevalent education systems all over the world, which already have fallen short of the expectations. The purpose of this study is to show that e-learning is not only about ICT following a holistic approach to learning which embeds systemic approach and learning loops but also about students and teacher’s actions in ICT-enabled learning environment. This study investigates the importance of engagement of students and teachers in blended learning with a focus on factors which affect this engagement.

Based on systems theory and socio-technological approach to e-learning, the paper documents an experiment which was carried out in a higher education institution. Postgraduate students of one course were divided into two groups. Instructor of the first group was not required to engage with the online content and had to deliver his course in a traditional face-to-face format. Instructor of the second group continuously spent time on the learning management system (LMS), developing more content, participating in online discussions and responding to students. LMS tracked the online activity of both the instructors, and semi-structured interviews of students were conducted.

Based on behaviour of 152 students of a postgraduate programme, students’ time spent online is directly proportional to the instructor’s online time, promptness of instructor’s response to online activities queries of students increased student engagement, the students’ engagement increases if the online content is related to the syllabus but engagement is not the same as the face-to-face lectures in the class.

The research was conducted in India and is based on the behaviour of instructors and students in India. It was focussed on engagement issues of blended learning, while other issues of blended learning have not been in the focus of the research.

The research is important for the practice of higher education, and the result of the study can be taken into consideration while developing online courses for students enrolled in higher education.

If higher education institutions take a strategic decision to use ICT in e-learning, engagements of participants and factors affecting engagement are crucial for the better quality of education. In such a way, blended learning fulfils requirements of a holistic approach to learning.

Despite the fact that e-learning as a way to deliver academic content has been extensively researched, there are not many studies focussed on engagement issues in blended learning, and even fewer studies have been conducted in an experimental way which allow in-depth research.

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze library marketing research output using select bibliometric indicators with the aim of identifying top-performing countries, subject subthemes, organizations, authors and journals in the area.

The present study has examined 520 publications in library marketing, as indexed in Scopus database during 2006–2017. The study has statistically assessed processed publications and citations data into tables in order to ascertain research growth rate trends, global publication output and share, citation impact and distribution of library marketing research by country of publication, international-level collaborating country share of publication, by broad subject areas and preferred media of research communication. The study also provides bibliometric profile of top research organizations and authors in terms of their publications and citation indicators.

The body of literature in library marketing research is still very small, highly scattered and has so far registered no growth during the last 12 years, i.e. 2006–2017. Library marketing research is yet to emerge as a popular research area in library and information science. The USA dominates The library marketing research in the world, whereas other top participating countries including India, China, Japan, Canada, etc., are distant cousins. Top research institutions in the area of library marketing across the world include City University of New York, Florida State University, University of Texas at Austin, USA, Loughborough University and University of Sheffield, UK. The major focus of library marketing research was on academic libraries, followed by public libraries and medical libraries. Of late, the use of social media has emerged as an alternative to traditional library marketing techniques.

The scope of study describing the status of library marketing research is limited to the period 2006–2017. The results of the study should interest researchers in finding solutions to formulating future library strategies and programs for achieving sustainable growth in this area of study.

The present study in library marketing research should be of interest to researchers in evolving, and formulating theories/best practices/and policies/programs for outreach to current and potential users for promoting library products and services.

The purpose of this paper is to make an assessment of the challenges in disseminating higher education to the learners in tribal communities, and problems solving capacity of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) by strategically making use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) taking a case of Madhya Pradesh (MP), which is the most tribal dominated state of India. The paper offers valuable insight in to the usage of ICT as a strategy for the ODL system presenting an account of how it can be utilized effectively to disseminate higher education in tribal communities.

Exploratory and descriptive techniques were utilized in this paper adopting the research strategy of case study in terms of the strategic potentialities of ICT in disseminating higher education in tribal communities by ODL using it as a strategy for their empowerment and development.

The findings of the paper reveal that dissemination of higher education in tribal areas is a challenging task especially due to their socioeconomic conditions and ethno cultural settings in addition to numerous infrastructural and access related issues. In view of the need of integrating education with the Indigenous perspectives, ICT can be used as an effective strategy by ODL for disseminating higher education amongst learners in those communities by reaching out to them.

This paper concludes that ICT can help ODL immensely in developing countries such as India strategically in reaching the tribal learners surpassing financial and geographical constraints with a learner centric approach increasing the capacity, quality and cost effectiveness of education system bringing the concept of strategy to center stage, at a time when ICT has fundamentally changed the strategies of different sectors including education with the unprecedented growth in its use.

This paper concludes that ICT has fundamentally changed the strategies of different sectors including higher education with the unprecedented growth in its use. It also concludes that Indian higher educational sector faced with multitude of challenges is not insulated from the effect of ICT, and its emancipatory and transformative potentials in higher education can play a major substantive role by extending support to meet the increasing higher educational needs of the tribal communities by sufficiently embedding it so that their greater contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be ensured.

Technology has penetrated in every aspect of society, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a part of every aspect of life. Over 20 years of ICT use, nearly every government and the big business area has been radically transformed. Education is a profoundly social profession, and historically, effective education has been associated with good instructors who have a high level of personal connection with students. The use of ICT in higher education allows for more student-cantered learning settings. Nevertheless, as digital media and information continue to take over our lives, the importance of ICT inside higher education continues to rise. The higher education system plays a crucial part in every country’s growth in improving human resources (HR); higher education should create an educated population that will bring peace and socioeconomic and societal growth. Education reform agendas benefit from the use of ICT in most developing nations. ICT in education is one of the most practical approaches to improve India’s higher education system. The purpose of this review chapter was to examine the role of ICT in higher education. This chapter addressed how ICT may promote and revolutionize higher education in India through new government initiatives. Furthermore, the chapter addressed the issues and challenges associated with the use of ICT for educational purposes.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in India were caught completely unawares by the Covid-19 pandemic and necessitated lockdown. Despite almost two decades of experimentation with online and distance learning by top-tier and private institutions, the vast majority were unprepared and looked for standalone solutions for different components of teaching and learning. Valuable lessons have been learned based on which a more comprehensive solution must be sought for the post-Covid-19 environment. The lockdown has provided the much-needed impetus to reshape higher education in India. Calls for the adoption of blended learning (BL) have been made on prior occasions; this chapter renews that call and stresses its urgency. It is imperative that educational institutions amplify the momentum gained during the lockdown and transition to a BL model supported by the adoption and use of learning management systems (LMSs). Government should support this initiative by providing a centralized LMS. Corporations must “adopt an HEI,” channeling their unused corporate social responsibility funds to support information and communication technology needs at educational institutions. All stakeholders must work together to transform the country to a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy as envisioned in the National Education Policy 2020.

Purpose: The research determines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected India’s burgeoning education technology sector and how the new normal responded to this advancement worldwide.

Need for Study: India’s education sector saw a boom in Ed-Tech funding during the pandemic. The Indian Education industry adopted technology as a partner and succeeded in being called as the Ed-Tech capital of the world. The country has a strategic edge in online education that, if explored and researched upon, can be deployed for market growth at a global level.

Research Methodology: The researcher prioritised rigorous original quantitative and qualitative methods of investigation on technology applications in educational contexts during COVID-19 pandemic and drew its conclusions after conducting a comprehensive literature review and collecting and analysing the data from numerous journals and published expert articles on the sector.

Findings: The study found that despite the global pandemic, the Ed-Tech industry was an expanding marketplace for start-ups in India. After the pandemic, the market expanded rapidly, and by 2025, it is expected to have quadrupled in size, expenditure, and investment. It is expected that the global e-learning business, which the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has bolstered, will grow to over 400 billion US dollars by 2026.

Practical Implications: The study sets forth the various Ed-Tech categories, outlining their user bases, growth projections, and the innovative technologies employed in developing these products. The research’s long-term investment projections are envisioned to aid consultants in positioning themselves for profitable operations in the era of digital Ed-Tech disruption worldwide.

The future of management studies is invariably steering towards online and hybrid modes of course delivery. Therefore, assessing the effectiveness of online course delivery is exceptionally crucial. This study attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of online course delivery in management education involving the instructor, participant and technological component. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in three ways. First, the study proposes an approach to assess the effectiveness of online courses in management education. The study demonstrates this by taking a case study of a business school (B-school) in southern India. Second, the study identifies the shortcomings and areas that need improvement to enhance the overall effectiveness further. Third, the study outlines suggestive measures to improve the effectiveness of online course delivery by addressing technical, infrastructural, instructor and student behavioral components.

To accomplish the objectives, a case study approach has been adopted and fuzzy logic has been used as a methodology to assess the effectiveness of online course delivery in management education.

The findings suggest that instructors' use of cases and animation during online sessions, use of whiteboards, digital pens and other tools, attempts to draw participant's interest and the users' sense of belongingness in the online cohort, self-discipline and motivation from students' side, easy to use Learning Management System (LMS), audio-visual platforms, active electronic communication and training on the technical aspect of the online platform need to be improved to enhance the effectiveness of online course delivery further. The current effectiveness of online course delivery in the case of B-school was found to be “Fair,” which is average in relation to the effectiveness labels.

This study doesn't investigate the factors that moderate the effectiveness of online course delivery and how the factors influence each other. Future research endeavors can be extended in this direction to enrich the body of knowledge with new insights. Apart from this, the results outlined in this study are about the status quo of the case B-school and can't be generalized. However, the methodology and approach can be adopted by other B-schools or higher educational institutes to measure the schools' and institutes' current level of effectiveness in online teaching.

So far, only a few studies have paid attention to the empirical assessment of the effectiveness of online course delivery consisting of engagement from the technical, instructor and participants' dimensions. This study proposes a novel approach to measure the level of effectiveness and identifies the shortfalls that impede good effectiveness in online course delivery.

The use of social media is becoming increasingly important for entrepreneurial marketing as a way to gain psychological empowerment through female entrepreneurship. The participation of female entrepreneurs on social media has witnessed an increasing trend. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of social media participation on female entrepreneurs towards digital entrepreneurship intention and their psychological empowerment.

This cross-sectional study integrates the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework with uses and gratification theory to understand and determine a theoretical framework in understanding the importance of social media for female entrepreneurship in the contemporary digital era. To ensure internal consistency of the latent constructs, this study determines Cronbach’s alpha for all the variables. Further, exploratory factor analysis is performed to ensure the unidimensionality of the latent constructs. Structural equation modelling is performed to test the theoretical framework.

Data analysis confirms the significant effect of social media participations on female entrepreneurs towards their digital entrepreneurship intention which further affects their psychological empowerment.

The practical contributions of this study highlight the importance of female entrepreneurship which is essential for attaining self-reliance by reducing the socio-economic barriers. Further, female entrepreneurs’ participation in social media communities enhances the levels of empowerment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the issue of post‐disaster livelihood recovery through economic rehabilitation, with the illustration of post‐tsunami promotion of microentrepreneurship activities generating employment and income among the affected populations.

The paper examines two field case studies in Aceh (Indonesia) and Tamil Nadu (India), where a well‐established European NGO carried out economic relief and microentrepreneurship rehabilitation in 2005‐2007.

Despite unlimited trust in rapid reconstruction capacity, post‐tsunami livelihood recovery has been chaotic and uncoordinated. Contrary to humanitarian agencies in charge of emergency relief, only a few development agencies and NGOs were able to deliver a rapid rehabilitation of microeconomic activities existing locally before the disaster.

There are values but also obvious limits to comparing the micro‐level experiences of a major European NGO in two different locations such as Aceh and Tamil Nadu, and to deducing macro‐ and meso‐level lessons to be learned.

There are difficulties in benchmarking the divison of labour but necessary coordination among development agencies and their humanitarian counterparts in the field of post‐disaster sustainable economic rehabilitation.

Post‐disaster economic security and livelihood recovery are at the forefront of current international policy research in humanitarian and development cooperation circles. Documented case studies and lessons to be learned are still scarce for feeding possible best practices.

The research in competitive facility location (CFL) is quite dynamic, both from a problem formulation and an algorithmic point of view. Research direction has changed immensely over the years to address various competitive challenges. This study aims to explore CFL literature to highlight these research trends, important issues and future research opportunities.

This study utilises the Scopus database to search for related CFL models and adopts a five-step systematic approach for the review process. The five steps involve (1) Article Identification and keyword selection, (2) Selection criteria, (3) Literature review, (4) Literature analysis and (5) Research studies.

The paper presents a comprehensive review of CFL modelling efforts from 1981 to 2021 to provide a depth study of the research evolution in this area. The published articles are classified based on multiple characteristics, including the type of problem, type of competition, game-theoretical approaches, customer behaviour, decision space, type of demand, number of facilities, capacity and budget limitations. The review also highlights the popular problem areas and dedicated research in the respective domain. In addition, a second classification is also provided based on solution methods adopted to solve various CFL models and real-world case studies.

The paper covers 40 years of CFL literature from the perspective of the problem area, CFL characteristics and the solution approach. Additionally, it introduces characteristics such as capacity limit and budget constraint for the first time for classification purposes.