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Chapter1. Digital transformation in higher education in times of artificial intelligence: Setting the emerging landscapeDigital transformation has become a top priority for Higher Education, driven by technological advances like: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Generative Open AI. It serves as a catalyst for the reshaping of mainstream processes in academic institutions, emphasising teamwork, collaborative projects, and critical thinking in research, learning, and assessment strategies. In this chapter, we contextualise the use of this digital transformation, highlighting its potential to improve learning experiences, business efficiency, and upskill students and faculty. Our holistic approach to Digital Transformation as an enabler of excellence in Higher Education is based on four pillars of excellence and impact: Business Process Reengineering, Learning Excellence & Skills Building, Research Capacity and Innovation, and Partnership & Outlook. Digital transformation needs the development of efficient, resilient, flexible and adaptable strategies and a strong collaboration between all the actors involved in the process, to ensure the coherence, the sustainability, and alignment of the objectives, means, and targets with the real needs of the learners, tutors, labour market, and society as whole. Our bold proposition consists of a model for the strategy design of digital transformation in universities and colleges organised in three dimensions: Understand, Strategize, Deploy & Exploit. Each dimension emphasises different stages of the process: understanding emerging technologies and their impact on higher education, collaboration between stakeholders, strategy and priorities formulation, roadmap of implementation, deployment and exploitation of digital technologies, etc. The ongoing digital transformation in Higher Education will continue to create an extensive shift in educational processes - learning, teaching, research, and management. Institutions around the world are taking bold initiatives to adapt to this rapidly changing environment, emphasizing the importance of readiness for technological changes, system development, inclusive, and sustainable transformation.
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Digital transformation in higher education: PART A. Challenges and best practicesAs the twenty-first century unfolds, the debate on digital transformation is impacting all sectors of society. Higher education, a beacon in the knowledge dissemination and creation, is challenged by the entire digital transformation strategy and ecosystem. At this pivotal moment in time, higher education institutions find themselves facing diverse transformative forces, with artificial intelligence (AI) at the forefront, promising to reshape educational landscapes. The acceleration of digital transformation in higher education brings with it a unique set of challenges. One of the greatest is the task of seamlessly integrating advanced technologies, such as AI, into longstanding pedagogical frameworks while preserving the invaluable human element of teaching. Institutions are tasked with fostering environments that promote active and transformative learning, aiming to bridge digital divides and create inclusive progress. The rapid evolution of technology demands a corresponding evolution in our approaches to teaching and assessment, calling for a paradigm shift in educational philosophy. It seems that in the current evolution and development of higher education, there is a crucial need to re-invent the unique value proposition of procedures and strategies towards enhanced student experience and learning outcomes. The underlying philosophy of the first volume of our edition, centers on the symbiotic relationship between technology and human-centric pedagogy with social foot print. Each chapter explores a distinct facet of this digital transformation journey in higher education, guiding readers through the ways in which higher education can embrace digital transformation while remaining substantial in its commitment to student-centric learning and teaching.
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What's next in higher education: The AI revolution 2030This chapter explores the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on higher education, particularly in the context of accelerating technological and societal changes. As higher education institutions face the need to offer more flexible, adapted, and relevant academic programmes, AI presents significant opportunities and challenges. In the first part of this chapter, we elaborated on the characteristics of the evolution of AI, including the emerging AI landscape. One of our contributions in this concluding chapter is to conceptualise the next areas of deployment of AI in higher education, considering the novel, innovative services that will disrupt the entire market in the next few years. Our strategic proposition for the deployment of AI in higher education highlighted six pillars, namely: large language models and research. AI is content creation. AI, or personalized learning. AI, skills-building assistants. AI is education out of the box. AI. We presented opportunities to harness AI to enhance teaching, learning, and research under each pillar, along with a detailed list of potential application areas and services. Universities are exploring innovative ways to use AI-driven solutions to improve research, teaching, and learning experiences, and we also developed indicative scenarios for the use of AI in higher education based on the six pillars. One of our bold contributions in this chapter is the structured framework for understanding the evolution and use of AI in higher education, utilising a matrix to map the intersection of market penetration and product development. Finally, we discuss future directions and strategies for higher education in 2030 in light of advances in AI technology.
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Digital transformation in higher education: PART B. Cases, examples, and good practicesDigital Transformation in Higher Education examines the various aspects of technology enhanced learning and proposes a roadmap that can be utilized for strategic planning to implement resilient digital transformation strategies within higher education institutions effectively. Chapter authors present a comprehensive examination of the many obstacles and potential advantages associated with the digital transformation process within the context of higher education and provide valuable insights into the necessary training of academics and leaders that will enable them to develop the digital intelligence that is essential for addressing complex challenges and achieving success. Featuring case studies from around the world, chapters explore topics such as the digital transformation of doctoral programs in Romania, e-learning effectiveness in Slovakian universities and how education in Kuwait has been transformed through emerging technologies. The key contribution of this study lies in its provision of practical insights, best practices, and case studies that will enable institutions to traverse the ever-changing process of digital transformation effectively.
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Transformative Leadership and Sustainable Innovation in Education: Interdisciplinary Perspectivest is essential to learn what innovative practices and leadership approaches are adopted in the education sector to solve challenges such as digital transformations, inefficiencies in higher education administration models, and the need for a connection between innovation and sustainability within the curriculum. Transformative Leadership and Sustainable Innovation in Education addresses these topics, discussing several possible transformations at the policy, classroom, and research levels. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, scholars from three main disciplines of education, business, and IT consider both a leadership and management perspective and an educational perspective. This integration of research, academia and industry bridges the gap between theory and practice, tackling how to make schools a sustainable enterprise, how to sustain student learning through leadership practices, and exploring the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence and other technologies on higher education. Transformative Leadership and Sustainable Innovation in Education is a valuable resource to a diverse network of policy makers, school and university leaders, educators, practitioners, curriculum designers, innovators, and investors who want to collaborate to identify and implement innovations that transform education and research.
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Digital transformation for enhanced learning impact and student experience.In this introductory chapter we collaborate on how Digital Transformation supports a value-driven educational approach, emphasizing the need for regular assessments of stakeholder needs, enhancing students' abilities to solve complex problems, applying learned knowledge effectively, nurturing creativity, and boosting employment prospects through skill development. Strategic considerations for implementing DT include creating a shared vision through collaborative strategy development, establishing clear objectives, designing a detailed action plan for DT initiatives, encouraging active participation from all educational community members, and maintaining the DT strategy through continuous evaluation and adaptation. By interweaving Digital Transformation with these strategic educational priorities, higher education institutions can not only improve the learning experience but also equip students to succeed in a rapidly evolving future.
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Transformative learning for future higher education: The AI-enabled learning revolution 2035.This chapter delves into the pivotal role of Digital Transformation (DT) strategies in fostering educational innovation, particularly through the lens of Transformative Learning (TL). By outlining a five-stage TL model, we explore how DT strategies can not only support but significantly enhance educational reforms. Actions and Multipliers, constituting the core elements of this model, interact dynamically to advance TL within academic institutions. Actions, such as strategic initiatives and the development of learning environments, account for the tangible steps towards transformation. Meanwhile, Multipliers amplify these efforts, emphasizing the importance of strategy, commitment, and the sustainable impact of educational transformations. We also highlight the emerging influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in reshaping learning contexts, demonstrating its capacity to personalize learning experiences and foster problem-solving skills. Additionally, we envision the future trajectory of Higher Education (HE) towards 2035, emphasizing the integration of AI and DT in creating a responsive and adaptive educational ecosystem. This chapter argues that DT is not just a tool but a catalyst for active and transformative learning, proposing a holistic approach to integrating technology in education that addresses current challenges and anticipates future needs.
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Advancing Smart Cities: Sustainable Practices, Digital TransformationThis book presents a comprehensive exploration of the transformative journey toward smart cities and the implementation of cutting-edge technologies in urban development. Divided into four distinct parts, it covers a broad range of topics that contribute to sustainable, efficient, and innovative urban living. Encompassing diverse research from IEREK's Future Smart Cities (FSC) conference, it focuses on smart city advancement through sustainable practices, digital transformation, and IoT integration. Covering topics such as smart buildings, urban planning during pandemics, and IoT applications in health care and agriculture, this book shapes the future of urban living. It delves further into opportunities in city regeneration, human-centric smart design, IoT data effectiveness, and more. A valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policymakers, it offers insights into telecommunications, AI, smart manufacturing, and methodologies for urban ecosystem improvement.
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Higher Education Institutions and Covid-19 Toward Resilience and Sustainability Through EmergenciesOffering insights into the adaptational strategies that were employed by higher education institutions worldwide during the Covid-19 pandemic, this volume considers the lasting effects of adaptation and change, as well as the perception of universities’ role in society and desired ways of operating. Nearly overnight, the pandemic forced university leaders and faculty across the world to switch to remote models, not only of teaching and learning but also of managing an entire institution. This book recognizes how the scale of challenges as well as the range of measures specific universities had to undertake was uneven, with some being better equipped than the others. Using a selection of international case studies, it offers an insight into strategies employed by institutions worldwide to navigate the crisis, and highlights the targets and objectives addressed by them during these processes. In so doing, it offers invaluable lessons for the years to come. An indispensable study into strategies that result in resilience and sustainability for universities, this book is essential reading for scholars of education, pedagogy, and organizational change in the higher education sector, as well as educational leaders around the world.
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Research and Innovation Forum 2023. Navigating Shocks and Crises in Uncertain Times—Technology, Business, SocietyThis book features research presented and discussed during the Research & Innovation Forum (Rii Forum) 2023. As such, this book offers a unique insight into emerging topics, issues and developments pertinent to the fields of technology, innovation and education and their social impact. Papers included in this book apply inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches to query such issues as technology-enhanced teaching and learning, smart cities, information systems, cognitive computing and social networking. What brings these threads of the discussion together is the question of how advances in computer science—which are otherwise largely incomprehensible to researchers from other fields—can be effectively translated and capitalized on so as to make them beneficial for society as a whole. In this context, Rii Forum and Rii Forum proceedings offer an essential venue where diverse stakeholders, including academics, the think tank sector and decision-makers, can engage in a meaningful dialogue with a view to improving the applicability of advances in computer science.
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Managing Safety and Security in the Smart City: Covid-19, Emergencies and Smart SurveillanceThe chapter examines the role and potential inherent in surveillance systems in smart cities today. The Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant restrictions to mobility, on the one hand, and the need for strengthened enforcement measures highlighted the already existing weaknesses and contingencies besetting surveillance in smart cities. The chapter makes a case that the adoption of smart city surveillance and infrastructure management systems may contribute to the improvement of safety and security in the smart city as well as to an overall enhancement of the smart city’s resilience. The discussion in this chapter focuses on the complex processes of data acquisition, data sharing, and data utilization to explain in which ways they all add to smart surveillance systems that—while aware of individual freedoms and privacy issues—contribute to the process of making a smart city resilient. To showcase the applicability of these findings, a wireless mesh network (WMN) surveillance system is presented.
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Artificial Intelligence and Its Context: An IntroductionConsidering the scope of novelty that AI brings into politics, economics, and, notably, daily life, it is imperative that it is discussed from as many perspectives as possible. It is imperative that it is discussed in detail, and that the debate on AI is approachable to a variety of stakeholders. This chapter outlines the main themes and issues that have been discussed in chapters that constitute this volume, including those as diverse as the very technical characteristics of AI, AI and politics, ethical questions pertaining to the use of AI in the battlefield, strategic communication (StratCom), military planning, and management and the decision-making process in the domains of business and public administration. The intersection of AI and international trade and national AI strategies from a range of countries around the globe are queried too.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI): Explaining, Querying, DemystifyingArtificial intelligence (AI) is a buzzword today, reminding us of the concept of “globalization” and the relating debate two decades ago. As with globalization then, for the greater part of society, AI remains a concept poorly understood, vague, and approached with fear of the unknown. While AI is hailed as the panacea to all the ills of the prevailing socio-economic model and a source of unimaginable opportunities, it is also seen as a source of substantial risks and threats to safety, security, and the operation of the markets. The objective of this chapter is to explain, query and demystify AI and by so doing to highlight the areas and domains that are crucial for AI to develop and serve society at large. To this end, the “dry”, i.e., quite technical, facets of AI are discussed, and a case for an AI ecosystem is made. Technology-related limitations of AI, as well as possibilities, are outlined briefly. An overview of AI’s implications for the (global) economy and selected policies follows. The ethical concerns are discussed in the concluding section.
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Effective Management of the Smart City: An Outline of a ConversationAdvances in information and communication technology (ICT) are central for the transformation of cities into smart cities. Yet, it is the ability to apply ICT efficiently that defines whether a smart city will be resilient and sustainable. The art of management stands at the heart of the process and this book explores it. In this chapter an outline of the key research topics that emerge at the intersection of smart cities research and management science is presented. These include among others management and decision-making for urban design and the built environment development, the relationship between the smart city services and business growth dynamics, new forms of asset acquisition, and entrepreneurship development. Finally, the research topics include questions of the social accountability of local governments vis-à-vis smart city development; inclusion and participation in the decision-making process in the smart city; and for instance, access to and management of cultural goods and heritage.
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Artificial Intelligence and Its Contexts. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security ApplicationsThis book offers a comprehensive approach to the question of how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts politics, economy, and the society today. In this view, it is quintessential for understanding the complex nature of AI and its role in today’s world. The book has been divided into three parts. Part one is devoted to the question of how AI will be used for security and defense purposes, including combat in war zones. Part two looks at the value added of AI and machine learning for decision-making in the fields of politics and business. Part three consists of case studies—covering the EU, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, and Poland—that discuss how AI is being used in the realms of politics, security and defense. The discussion in the book opens with the question of the nature of AI, as well as of ethics and the use of AI in combat. Subsequently, the argument covers issues as diverse as the militarization of AI, the use of AI in strategic studies and military strategy design. These topics are followed by an insight into AI and strategic communication (StratCom), including disinformation, as well as into AI and finance. The case-studies included in part 3 of the book offer a captivating overview of how AI is being employed to stimulate growth and development, to promote data- and evidence-driven policy-making, to enable efficient and inclusive digital transformation and other related issues. Written by academics and practitioners in an academically sound, yet approachable manner, this volume queries issues and topics that form the thrust of processes that transform world politics, economics and society. As such, this volume will serve as the primer for students, researchers, lectures and other professionals who seek to understand and engage with the variety of issues AI implicates.
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Managing Smart Cities: Sustainability and Resilience Through Effective ManagementThis book adopts the managerial perspective to the study of smart cities. As such, this book is a necessary addition to the existing body of literature on smart cities. The chapters included in this book prove the case that transformation of cities to smart cities is a function of effective and efficient management practices implemented at diverse levels of smart cities. While advances in information and communication technology (ICT) are crucial, it is the ability to apply ICT consciously and efficiently that drives the transformation of cities to smart cities in a manner conducive to cities’ sustainability and resilience. The book covers three sets of interconnected topics: Management and decision-making for urban design and infrastructure development Management and decision-making in context of smart cities development Ways of promoting and ensuring participation, representation and co-creation in smart cities These three groups of topics offer a great opportunity to acquire a clear, direct, and practice-driven knowledge and understanding of how effective management allows ICT-enhanced tools and applications to change smart cities, possibly making them smarter.
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Big Data and Decision-Making: Applications and Uses in the Public and Private SectorBig Data and Decision-Making: Applications and Uses in the Public and Private Sector breaks down the concept of big data to reveal how it has become integrated into the fabric of both public and private domains, as well as how its value can ultimately be exploited.
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Technology-Enhanced Healthcare Education: Transformative Learning for Patient-Centric HealthThe new challenges in healthcare education require new methodological approaches and transparent integration of technology enhanced learning approaches. Technology-Enhanced Healthcare Education promotes the best practices and lessons learnt from COVID-19 and highlights the importance and impact of using information systems to increase levels of health literacy. The chapter authors cover processes such as augmented or virtual reality to allow for distraction and decreased anxiety of the patient and services such as telemedicine and tele-consultation in the follow-up of non-acute patients. These are just a few ways in which health professionals can utilise information systems and transformative technology to increase the quality of health care, levels of health literacy and, thus, increase the health outcomes of their patients. Technology-Enhanced Healthcare Education is an innovative volume for health specialists, educators, higher education medical experts, medical school students and health management professionals. It is key reading for those looking to learn more about the latest developments on active and transformative learning within health education and medical technology (MedTech).
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Active and Transformative Learning in Steam Disciplines: From Curriculum Design to Social Impact (Emerald Studies in Active and Transformative Learning in Higher Education)Active and Transformative Learning in STEAM Disciplines is a unique reference volume for the new student-centric and objectives-oriented learning environment where individual and team learning paths enhance problem solving capabilities. These practices may range from simple teaching methods such as class discussion and role playing, to peer teaching and flipped learning. Focusing on STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics), scholars from the three disciplines of education, business, and Information Technology highlight the importance of the class as a place for collaborative knowledge sharing, involving active engagement of both students and instructors, and explore the connection between innovation and sustainability at the curriculum and research levels. Chapter authors discuss the timely issues of digital transformation in higher education, the required active learning strategies, the novel methodological approaches to instructional design and the new student-centric paradigm for active and collaborative exploration of learning content. Filling a significant gap in the body of knowledge related to the emerging agenda of active and transformative learning strategies for STEAM disciplines, this volume is a helpful tool to faculty, higher education administrators, policymakers, curriculum designers and school leaders aiming to develop value-based strategies for promoting quality education with an emphasis on active and transformative learning.
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Smart Cities and Digital Transformation: Empowering Communities, Limitless Innovation, Sustainable Development and the Next GenerationSmart Cities and Digital Transformation: Empowering Communities, Limitless Innovation and Sustainable Development is a Smart Cities Handbook putting together on a single volume a three-tier approach to smart cities: Limitless Innovation, Sustainable Development and Empowering Communities. The active learning approach that is adopted helps the reader to exploit comprehensive social sciences and computer science knowledge into real-world problems, building critical thinking skills and competencies. The exploratory journey to the Smart Cities and Digital Transformation research domain compensates the reader with a significant enhancement of intellectual skills and problem-solving capability. The book is about putting together the diverse communities of researchers, academics, practitioners, industrial managers, and policy-makers to promote progressive applied research, best practices and lessons learnt related to the phenomenon of smart cities, digital transformation and sustainable development.
