Sustainable Management of Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Global Research Trends

The nexus between circular economy innovation, market competitiveness, and triple bottom lines efficiencies among SMEs: evidence from emerging economies

Recently, the trend of circular economy innovation (CEI) drive SMEs to initiate more sustainable practices to attain market competitiveness but rare attention has been paid in emerging economies. Hence, this study plans to explore the impacts of CEI on the triple bottom lines (TBL) efficiencies in the light of market competitiveness among the production SMEs in emerging economies. The study complied data by using a survey-based technique in Pakistan, Malaysia, and China. With a sample of 306 for each segment, data were evaluated with PLS-SEM to clarify results. The findings reveal that CEI has positive significant effects on the market competitiveness and TBL efficiencies among the production SMEs in emerging economies. The findings also clarify that market competitiveness mediates the relationship between CEI and the TBL efficiencies. The findings elaborate the theoretical foundations for environmental-based production SMEs to formulate more sustainable strategies in the light of CEI to gain market competitiveness. It also clarifies the understandings of policy makers and environmental regulators by providing a novel precursor to frame the environment-based TBL guidelines for SMEs. It adds to the UN sustainability agenda by elevating the role of CEI as a novel domain among emerging economies grounded on the resource-based view theory.

Barriers to Conducting and Publishing Scientific Research Among Nursing Faculty Members in Saudi Arabia

Objective

Publication in highly indexed journals is a complicated process that requires research skills, including writing, conceptualizing, and communication skills, to appropriately verbalize the findings. The current study assessed the barriers faced by nursing faculty at Saudi universities in conducting scientific research and publishing in highly indexed journals.

Methods

This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Data were collected through convenience sampling by sending an online questionnaire to faculty members at Saudi universities. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: the first part for the demographic characteristics of staff and another part for the barriers associated with conducting scientific research and the publication process in highly indexed journals. The data was analyzed by SPSS using descriptive statistics as frequencies and percentages and inferential statistics using Chi Square test.

Results

The study included 152 participants, mainly female (70.4%) aged 30-40 years (73.7%). Most were non-Saudi (90.1%), attended government universities (82.9%), and specialized in Medical & Surgical Nursing (29.6%). Only 3.9% received publishing training, whereas 55.9% had been published in indexed journals. Barriers included difficulties following guidelines, lack of research-writing knowledge, language challenges, and financial constraints. Gender, age, university, qualifications, and training courses influenced these barriers.

Conclusion

The identified barriers included lack of training, language-related challenges, and work pressures. This study emphasizes the importance of providing support, resources, and training opportunities to overcome these barriers and enhance research productivity in the nursing field.

Work from home practices as corporate strategy- an integrative review

The Covid 19 pandemic led to major changes at the individual, organisational and institutional levels of policy, productive functions, and organising. During Covid 19 morbidity, public institutions enforced social isolation, mandatory self-isolation, quarantines, and administrative regulatory lockdowns, which led to a movement away from the physical, material world and into an all-consuming digital universe. With growing interest in work-from-home (WFH) opportunities, this article provides an integrative review of 107 papers. It comprises the bibliometric analysis and manual review of the articles, on the basis of which we present an elaborative discussion and agenda for future research. According to the analysis, WFH looks a tad of a double-edged sword in that it may have major but unintended repercussions for institutions, and organizations as well as hidden, positive as well as negative consequences for individuals/employees. One of the significant insight from our analysis was the absence of HR function's strategic or operational input or oversight during corporate WFH strategies. We suggest several theoretical frameworks for further developing, theorizing, and empirically testing various aspects of WFH. Further, we recognise that WFH is becoming increasingly visible as a result of the pandemic scenario and significant technical advancements, which must be reflected in the research. Finally, because WFH represents a significant disruption in how organizations produce work and manage it, we propose employee and managerial consequences as future research agendas.

Digital transformation in higher education: A qualitative evaluative study of a hybrid virtual format using a smart classroom system

This study presents the salient perceptions of students and instructors in a master's program taught in a hybrid virtual format using the pocket Bipolar Laddering tool, a written open-ended electronic data collection system. Perceptions about the hybrid virtual format were tested on the participants of a master's program taught in the 2021-2022 academic year through a hybrid virtual format based on a Smart Classroom system developed as part of the digital innovations implemented to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. This work aims to shed light on the users' salient perceptions of the format, detect the positive elements mentioned by the surveyed participants and identify the negative items in a bid to minimize, or even revert, their effects for future editions of the master. As expected, the findings suggest that one of the main advantages of this format is that it allows students who have difficulty attending classes on campus to enroll on courses. However, the participants detected diverse elements that could be improved such as interaction, the degree of socialization, or the technical problems that arose during teaching sessions. It is hoped that these findings will be of use when adjusting new editions of the program and will help to determine the design and implementation of other hybrid virtual programs in the Institution.

Digital transformation towards sustainability in higher education: state-of-the-art and future research insights

The technological revolution has contributed to environmental and social issues around the world. However, in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs) - key stakeholders for sustainable development - there is a theoretical gap regarding systematic reviews on the topic. In order to address this need, this study explores how digital transformation (DT) can contribute to sustainability in HEIs by identifying the general state of the art, the theoretical perspectives in the field, and future research insights. A multi-methods approach was adopted, which consisted of a quantitative bibliometric review and a qualitative content analysis. Consistent with this approach, the Scopus database was used for the bibliometric analysis of 672 publications, which was conducted with the support of VOSviewer software. Subsequently, a content analysis of 72 publications was carried out using the software ATLAS.ti and Zotero. The findings suggest three areas of current research: ensuring sustainability competencies through DT, smart and sustainable campus approaches, and theorisation of sustainability in higher education through DT. The theoretical perspectives of the field were divided and discussed into seven main clusters. Lastly, five research lines for further studies on DT towards sustainability were identified. This study has both theoretical and practical implications since it may be the first literature review on this subject, providing theoretical insights to the academic community, guiding sustainability and digital practices in HEIs - through the identification of tools, approaches, and strategies - and then supporting the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Learning and teaching sustainable business in the digital era: a connectivism theory approach

Higher education institutions may adopt various approaches to the pedagogic principles and methods used in teaching sustainable development in business and marketing courses. These methods can include the utilisation of digital technologies and online communication to facilitate distance learning and fast access to relevant information. Changes towards the digitalisation of the learning environment especially gained popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the post-pandemic period, digitalisation continues to facilitate the learning and teaching processes. However, the implementation of digital technologies, besides technological expertise, requires appropriate theoretical frameworks for understanding how learning is developed. This study explores connectivism theory applied to the pedagogic practices of knowledge dissemination concerning sustainable development in the fields of business and marketing. Connectivism embraces knowledge as a network where the learner, with the help of digital technologies, develops mental connections between pieces of information during interaction with various information sources. This qualitative research empirically explores the principles of connectivism embedded in the learning and teaching of a university course conducted online. The research findings indicate that connectivism may be a suitable conceptual framework that motivates learners to develop knowledge through digital enablers, discussions and social networking and to make connections to sustainability concepts. The principles of connectivism may help instructors to develop a learning environment where learners add understandings to their previous knowledge on sustainability through online interactions and by accessing digital knowledge sources. This study makes several interdisciplinary contributions by deepening the insights into digital pedagogic methods and approaches for the facilitation of learning, which may be of interest to academic and other pedagogic practitioners.

Emergent Strategy in Higher Education: Postmodern Digital and the Future?

Mintzberg’s version of emergent strategy is based on the idea that strategies are contingent on circumstances that change from time to time often very rapidly and therefore papers focused on strategy and detailed planning are limited in their practical application. The word strategy as far as Mintzberg is concerned is anathema, therefore, introducing a concept that has a misconception embedded in it. This paper claims that education for sustainable development and higher education institutions’ survival depends on adopting postmodern thinking, in other words, digital transformation. This conceptual paper proposes a blueprint of a process for developing a series of agile potentially short-term conceptual solutions thereby embracing the expectation that the rate of change in societies is accelerating. This paper scrutinizes (a) the applicability of emergent strategy/strategic approach to higher education institutions, (b) how postmodernism influences higher education institutions to become digital hubs of commoditization of knowledge and (c) how the integrated capabilities of digital transformation build sustainability in education delivery. Structural Equation Methodology is proposed to examine the impact of postmodernism on the sustainable delivery of education in higher education institutions, and the need to foster relevant emergent strategies is also justified. The paper also develops new research propositions and managerial implications for driving optimistic digital education. Ultimately, it offers a framework for spear-leading effective and leading post-modernistic digital transformation. Emerging education technology, sustainable digital transformation and advanced use of robotic-human cognitive collaboration are experiencing a significant transformation. Universities play a vital role in enhancing engagement within higher education. One of the managerial implications of the results and discussion is the need for higher education institutions to provide taught leadership and planning in emergent strategy formulation and implementation. The findings confirm the significant importance of linking the Structural Equation Method and the postmodern strategic context in which we argue that higher education institutions require emerging rethinking.

Experience of Online Learning from COVID-19: Preparing for the Future of Digital Transformation in Education

COVID-19 has affected traditional instructional activities. Home-based isolation and restrictive movement measures have forced most learning activities to move from an offline to an online environment. Multiple studies have also demonstrated that teaching with virtual tools during the COVID-19 pandemic is always ineffective. This study examines the different characteristics and challenges that virtual tools brought to online education in the pre-pandemic and pandemic era, with the aim of providing experience of how virtual tools supported purely online learning during a health crisis. By searching keywords in public databases and review publications, this study tries to summarize the major topics related to the research theme. These topics are the characteristics of learning supported by technologies in pre-pandemic and pandemic era, the challenges that education systems have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also compares the functions, advantages and limitations of typical virtual tools, which has rarely been done in previous studies. This study tries to present the features of virtual tools that support online learning and the challenges regarding real-life risk scenarios, and tries to provide educational institutions with a distinct perspective for efficient teaching and learning in future potential health crises.

Critical success factors and challenges for individual digital study assistants in higher education: A mixed methods analysis

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of online higher education programs and tools has grown rapidly. One example is an individual digital study assistant (IDSA) for students, which provides functionalities to train self-regulation skills, to engage with own educational goals and to offer automated, first-level support to higher education institution (HEI) units and employees. An IDSA further can guide students through HEI and their administration. But, what are the critical success factors (CSF) and challenges for an IDSA? We deduce these using a mixed methods approach with one quantitative student survey, two rounds of interviews with various HEI experts, and a literature review. We classified our results according to the information system (IS) success model of DeLone & McLean (2016). Our results and findings show, e.g., that skilled and reliable HEI personnel, well-organized and useful content, cross-platform usability, ease of use, and students' social factors are essential. Attractive IDSA functionalities are a major challenge because students use many apps, daily. Based on our CSF and challenges, we deduce theoretical and practical recommendations and develop a further research agenda.

New dynamic error spectrum for performance evaluation

In performance evaluation, the widely used root-mean-square error is easily affected by large error terms and is also an incomprehensive measure. Therefore, the error spectrum as a comprehensive measure was proposed for parameter estimation. However, error spectrum (ES) is a three-dimension plot (among ES, r axis and time t axis) in the whole time horizon in dynamic evaluation system, which is not intuitive and easy to be analyzed. To smooth this, a new dynamic error spectrum (NDES) is proposed in dynamic evaluation system in this paper. Firstly, the NDES is defined for EPE in dynamic systems. Secondly, the computation method is proposed to calculate the NDES. Thirdly, several nice properties of NDES are presented for dynamic system performance evaluation. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed new dynamic error spectrum is verified by a numerical example.

Understanding Motivation, Career Planning, and Socio-Cultural Adaptation Difficulties as Determinants of Higher Education Institution Choice Decision by International Students in the Post-pandemic Era

The world is facing an unprecedented health crisis with the spread of COVID-19 across different corners of the globe. This pandemic has raised more significant concerns about international students’ learning environment, personality development, and career planning, particularly in high-ranked institutes in China. Now the question concerning this dilemma is, would the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affect students’ education and the country culture where they are bound to seek information and the subject education? Therefore, this study examines the impact of innovative learning environment, career planning, and socio-cultural adaptation-related difficulties faced by international students as determinants of higher education institution choice decisions made by international students in the post-pandemic era. This quantitative study examined international students in high-ranked universities across China. The data from 260 students were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using the AMOS technique. Moreover, it has been observed that the current global health crisis has intensified social inequalities across different international higher education systems. Countries fail to maintain the scale of the innovative international learning environment. The results further indicated that international students are more considerate of innovative learning environments, cultural adoption, career planning, and personality development, specifically after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has drastically affected the global higher education system. Unusually, more than half of the participants wanted to maintain the option of overall distance education after the pandemic. However, apart from this argument, it is appropriate to demand significant changes in post-pandemic education adapted to the post-digital era and to satisfy the concerns and expectations of the students.

Students’ perspective on online learning during pandemic in higher education

This research provides an insight into the students’ perspective on online learning during the pandemic. We conducted this research in one of the universities of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). A quantitative research design was employed, and cross-sectional research method was used. An online survey form was administered by using Google survey forms on Likert scale (N = 405). The online survey and use of social media tools were adopted owing to the pandemic. The Google survey form was disseminated among the students by means of teachers through social media tools using convenient sampling technique. Chi-square results showed highly significant association among the variables. Regression analysis found that lack of technology, learning skills, and disconnectedness of internet, marking and grading issues, and mental growth are the predictors of the bad educational performance of the students. It is, thus, concluded that the students’ educational performance is badly affected due to the online learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in AJK. It is suggested to the higher educational institutions to take the radical measures of preparedness during any such crisis to ensure the smooth online educational and learning environment to the students.

COVID-19 and the Key Digital Transformation Lessons for Higher Education Institutions in South Africa

COVID-19 has left an unmistakable impression on the world stage. It has altered the global socio-economic landscape, forcing individuals to adapt and embrace new ways of doing business, as well as new ways of life. One of the most significant effects of the pandemic was to hasten the adoption of digital technologies by many areas of the global economy. Campus closures were observed in the higher education sector, putting an end to long-standing face-to-face teaching and learning. This necessitated the most rapid paradigm shift ever seen in this industry to continue educating and learning. An abrupt change to online learning, which is primarily reliant on digital technologies, occurred. As a result, the purpose of this article is to investigate and identify ten critical digital transformation lessons from COVID-19 for South African higher education institutions. Secondary data gathered from the literature research were used to meet the study’s goal. The study concluded by laying out the most important digital transformation lessons for South Africa, including the notion that the country should strive to build digital capabilities because digital technology gaps remain wide, among other things.

Language-in-Education Policy of Kazakhstan: Post-Pandemic Technology Enhances Language Learning

In the current times of rapid technological progress, the development of quality education and encouragement of educated youth are extremely important. For this reason, a number of state projects and programs were developed in the education system of modern Kazakhstan. This paper is devoted to the problems of multilingual education and emergency remote learning in this country. The primary objectives were to examine the language competence and preferences of undergraduates and to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on remote language learning. Here, we present the survey and interview results of non-linguistic specialty students regarding their language preferences in various spheres, as well as the difficulties encountered during distance learning.

A sustainable University: Digital Transformation and Beyond

Universities focus on digital transformation strategy to stay competitive in global education, staying competitive is taking on quite a different meaning in the 21st century - it includes the long-term implications of Covid-19 - the interaction of politics and economics, the emergence of China as a superpower, the end of neoliberalism, the emergence of distributed autonomous organisations particularly in the area of research and education. The impact of sustainable digital transformation in universities could be perceived as system and systematic. When the intangible but impactful influence is identified/recognized as a system, an applicable conceptual model could become designable and implementable. Conceptual models of digital transformation are vital to universities and business schools to gain sustainability amid rapid technological changes. However, there is paucity of practical, implementable and simple digital transformational models combining technologies, system and educational phenomena. This theoretical gap is sizeable, impactful and non-ignorable. To fulfil this gap, this paper critically examines the need and the association between sustainable digital transformation and its impact in the universities, using an innovative qualitative grounded theory approach which uses three distinct coding procedures namely open, axial and selective followed by transcribing qualitative data. The researchers have proposed a conceptual model for sustainable digital transformation, new propositions by critically reviewing the latest but multiple cases on (a) sustainability (b) digital transformation (c) green technologies and (d) implementable approaches in the education industry/universities. How fast universities could develop dependable business models to cater for the rapid changes amid globalization of education has become an important issue. If the universities can explore a scientific approach to the design-developing conceptual model, then it becomes straightforward for the academic leaders to implement digital transformation process effectively without resource burnouts. The adoption sustainability in digital transformation/information technology is remaining an underdeveloped area. There is a need to develop an innovative architectural design (blueprint) to stimulate sustainable practice, reporting mechanism and its leadership implication. Once universities recognize the digital transformational capabilities, then they could transform into operational effectiveness, which is vital to their business sustainability. This research study points to the effectiveness of using a sustainable blueprint while designing, developing and implementing digital transformation projects in universities. Also, this paper developed numerous value propositions for green implementation of digital transformation as new research studies/potential studies.

Sustainable Management and Policies: The Roles of Stakeholders in the Practice of Inclusive Education in Digital Transformation

Children are a country’s most valuable asset. Educating them and bringing them into society is one of the most fundamental tasks of a nation. The disadvantageous position that individuals with a disability are exposed to shows the importance of the need for inclusive education for the quality of life. It is important to use the merits of digital transformation to provide services and education for all to support sustainability. This research aims to shine a light on the problems related to inclusive education faced in the special education schools and rehabilitation centers and put forward suggestions for digital transformation. As inclusive means inclusion, social interaction, access, and equality for education, the role of digital transformation is examined for the quality of inclusive education. Self-reflection is a qualitative form which was employed in the research involving school managers and teachers who were selected randomly from the Special Education Schools and Rehabilitation Centers that participated in the research. It is revealed that most of the studies focus on inclusive education, the digital divide, social inclusion, online learning, and the implication of inclusive education in digital transformation. Although studies expose inclusive education in digital transformation, most of these have 0.20 quality criteria, showing an intensified need to extend the existing body of knowledge. It is shown that the vast majority of inclusive education aligns with the institution’s inclusive education vision and purpose. Concerning financing, it is difficult to find sponsors among non-governmental organizations to support the institution’s inclusive education-related material, equipment, and security needs, and Ministry of National Education funding is essential. There is a need to improve the inclusive education competencies of administrators and teachers, and in-service training should be provided. Self-improvement opportunities of administrators and teachers of the institution are significantly inadequate and should be improved.

Towards an Engaging and Gamified Online Learning Environment—A Real CaseStudy

Currently, remote work is common, and this trend has come to several areas and processes, such as education and teaching. Regarding higher education, universities have several challenges to overcome, the most challenging being transforming teaching to be more digital and engaging. Therefore, TechTeach has arisen as a new teaching paradigm that creates a unique learning environment and satisfies students’ and professors’ expectations. After the success of the b-learning approach, professors created new experiences utilizing an entirely online learning environment following this paradigm. This article shows the work performed through a real case study, explains the strategy used to implement this paradigm, provides students’ opinions, and analyses the results achieved. The results demonstrated that, while the effort was tremendous, the result was beneficial to all. After 208 online hours of classes, 11,173 downloads, 15,224 messages, 200,000 sessions, 3 rescues requests, and 28t cards, 98.15% of the active participants gave it their approval, 96.53% considered this subject equal to or better than the others, and 85% of accepted the gamification system. These results show that a class can be an engaging environment where students can learn and enjoy it regardless of whether it is physical or not.

The Potential of Blockchain Technology in Higher Education as Perceived by Students in Serbia, Romania, and Portugal

Lifelong learning approaches that include digital, transversal, and practical skills (i.e., critical thinking, communication, collaboration, information literacy, analytical, metacognitive, reflection, and other research skills) are required in order to be equitable and inclusive and stimulate personal development. Realtime interaction between teachers and students and the ability for students to choose courses from curricula are guaranteed by decentralized online learning. Moreover, through blockchain, it is possible to acquire skills regarding the structure and content while also implementing learning tools. Additionally, documentation validation should be equally crucial to speeding up the process and reducing costs and paperwork. Finally, blockchains are open and inclusive processes that include people and cultures from all walks of life. Learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) is facilitated by new technologies, connecting blockchain to sustainability, which helps understand the relationship between technologies and sustainability. Besides serving as a secure transaction system, blockchain technology can help decentralize, provide security and integrity, and offer anonymity and encryption, therefore, promoting a transaction rate increase. This study investigates an alternative in which HEI include a blockchain network to provide the best sustainable education system. Students’ opinions were analyzed, and they considered that blockchain technology had a very positive influence on learning performance.

Higher education strategy in digital transformation

Digital transformation in the global higher education industry determines the future roadmap to a sustainable education management strategy. This research paper aims to develop a qualitative model that advocates how digital transformation as a propelling force could be used to build competitive advantages for universities. Building competitive advantage is a relative, evolving, and important concept in strategy formulation. In recent years, specifically in the education industry, the notion of building competitive advantage is challenged by global phenomena such as digital transformation globalization, information exchange, digitization and social media in most of the global industries. These phenomena have collectively made the process of building competitive advantage rapidly changing, short-term and contextual. These findings aid the evolution of strategic management practices in universities by providing empirical insights in determining the impactful changes and their connection to evolutionary learning. It also stresses the importance of using the developed model as a decision support system to generate, regulate and retain student experience and expectations. This research paper provides first-hand insight into the impactful changes affecting universities' vision and how they can turn these changes to their advantages and set a road map to design-develop models to integrate and regulate these essential changes in their strategies using evolution learning mechanism and digital transformation strategy.

The Futures of Europe: Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0 as Driving Forces of Future Universities

The concept of Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0 is not a simple chronological continuation or alternative to Industry 4.0 paradigm. Society 5.0 aims to place human beings at the midpoint of innovation, exploiting the impact of technology and Industry 4.0 results with the technological integration to improve quality of life, social responsibility and sustainability. This ground-breaking perspective has common points with the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It also has major implication for universities transformations. Universities are called upon producing knowledge for new technologies and social innovation. In our paper, we argue that digitalisation opens new perspectives for universities and can become one of the main drivers of their change. Incorporating the assumptions of Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0 into the universities practices and policies will allow both universities and societies to fully benefit from digital transformation. Making the human-oriented innovation as the universities trademark and developing new cooperative models will also help to achieve sustainable priorities. The use of the Quintuple Helix Model (QHM) might foster the process of necessary transformations capacities as it integrates different perspectives and sets the stage for sustainability priorities and considerations. As far as the practical goal is concerned, the paper proposes a set of recommendations for universities aiming at developing new forms and channels of distribution of education, research and innovation within in the context of QHM and Society 5.0. We call them socially and digitally engaged model.

Blockchain Technology Enhances Sustainable Higher Education

This research investigates blockchain technology, focusing on the influence of motivation on collaborative work, which positively influences learning performance in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). In addition, blockchain technology is correlated with decentralisation, security and integrity, and anonymity and encryption. It can also be perceived as a consensus mechanism, rewarding students, professors, and universities as a smart contract. Therefore, this technology has been used to improve higher education. It also allows less informed people to interact with better-informed peers and mentors. Finally, this study aims to enhance the current state of blockchain applications comprehension. The methodology used for this research includes document analysis, literature review, content analysis (blockchain platforms), the case study method, and the survey method. In statistical considerations, aiming to evaluate indicators, this research presents the Composite Reliability Analysis, Cronbach Alpha Coefficients, and the Bootstrapping method (Variance Inflation Factor). All these analyses aimed to present a designed research model. This exploratory research gathered data from 150 students at 3 universities in Serbia, Romania, and Portugal. As demonstrated, using student motivation has a significant and positive impact on the quality of student collaborative work. Student collaborative work also correlates with students’ higher level of engagement in the educational process, and the more engaged students are, the better their learning outcomes will be. As a result, in higher education, student involvement boosted learning outcomes. Researchers found that motivation, teamwork, and student involvement were important factors in improving student learning outcomes, as were blockchain-based tools. The results from the quantitative analysis indicate that Collaborative work, Motivation, Engagement, MOOCs, AR, VR, Gamification, and Online class were associated with learning performance.

Resource Allocation Schemes for 5G Network: A Systematic Review

Fifth-generation (5G) communication technology is intended to offer higher data rates, outstanding user exposure, lower power consumption, and extremely short latency. Such cellular networks will implement a diverse multi-layer model comprising device-to-device networks, macro-cells, and different categories of small cells to assist customers with desired quality-of-service (QoS). This multi-layer model affects several studies that confront utilizing interference management and resource allocation in 5G networks. With the growing need for cellular service and the limited resources to provide it, capably handling network traffic and operation has become a problem of resource distribution. One of the utmost serious problems is to alleviate the jamming in the network in support of having a better QoS. However, although a limited number of review papers have been written on resource distribution, no review papers have been written specifically on 5G resource allocation. Hence, this article analyzes the issue of resource allocation by classifying the various resource allocation schemes in 5G that have been reported in the literature and assessing their ability to enhance service quality. This survey bases its discussion on the metrics that are used to evaluate network performance. After consideration of the current evidence on resource allocation methods in 5G, the review hopes to empower scholars by suggesting future research areas on which to focus.

Digitainability—Digital Competences Post-COVID-19 for a Sustainable Society

The digitalization of societies, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is an unstoppable process. This paper seeks to answer the question: what post-COVID-19 digital competences are needed for a sustainable society? It also aims to analyze the digitalization processes in education for shaping a sustainable digital society. A bibliographic search was performed on some of the most relevant international databases of scientific literature and the selected documents were analyzed through a content analysis. It is concluded that digital education has experienced a strong increase, reinforced by COVID-19, shaping the digital presence in all dimensions of life. However, it is not sufficient to assume that the new generations are naturally engaged in and can master digital social sustainability. The results demonstrate the importance of literacy and the unavoidable promotion of sustainability in a digital society. However, this digitalization of the educational process poses several challenges: it requires both software and hardware conditions, as well as digital literacy as a result of a complex of literacies. It also implies that teachers and students change their standpoints and practices with the attainment of new teaching and learning competences in order to fight the digital divide and to foster the widest possible social inclusion for the promotion of sustainable society—digitainability.

The Human Digitalisation Journey: Technology First at the Expense of Humans?

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced the impact of digitalisation as a driver of transformation and advancements across almost every aspect of human life. With the majority actively embracing smart technologies and their benefits, the journey of human digitalisation has begun. Will human beings continue to remain solitary unaffected beings in the middle of the whirlpool—a gateway to the completely digitalised future? This journey of human digitalisation probably started much earlier, before we even realised. This paper, in the format of an objective review and discussion, aims to investigate the journey of human digitalisation, explore the reality of domination between technology and humans, provide a better understanding of the human value and human vulnerability in this fast transforming digital era, so as to achieve valuable and insightful suggestion on the future direction of the human digitalisation journey.

Towards Sustainability in Higher-Education Institutions: Analysis of Contributing Factors and Appropriate Strategies

To depict detailed sustainability efforts that have been implemented in campus environments, research was conducted at the Universitas Diponegoro (UNDIP), a leading green campus in Indonesia. The aim of the current study was to explore how sustainable development has been conducted by UNDIP and to identify factors that may indicate the existence of sustainability activity in higher-education institutions (HEIs). Factors affecting sustainability implementation in HEIs were derived using bibliometric analysis. Information on the implemented strategies to maintain the sustainability of HEIs was obtained via a closed questionnaire to 40 relevant experts, and analyzed using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, and quantitative strategic-planning matrix (QSPM) analysis. Institutional commitment to sustainability and guidance to implement sustainability in HEIs were found to have the highest scores with regard to internal and external factors. The respondents selected more aggressive strategies for the enhancement of sustainability implementation at UNDIP. Fostering external collaboration should be a priority for UNDIP since this can provide mutual benefits and significant improvement towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The current study provides a robust self-assessment method for selecting appropriate strategies to maintain HEI sustainability.

Preclinical Western Blot in the Era of Digital Transformation and Reproducible Research, an Eastern Perspective

The current research is an interdisciplinary endeavor to develop a necessary tool in preclinical protein studies of diseases or disorders through western blotting. In the era of digital transformation and open access principles, an interactive cloud-based database called East-West Blot ( https://rancs-lab.shinyapps.io/WesternBlots ) is designed and developed. The online interactive subject-specific database built on the R shiny platform facilitates a systematic literature search on the specific subject matter, here set to western blot studies of protein regulation in the preclinical model of TBI. The tool summarizes the existing publicly available knowledge through a data visualization technique and easy access to the critical data elements and links to the study itself. The application compiled a relational database of PubMed-indexed western blot studies labeled under HHS public access, reporting downstream protein regulations presented by fluid percussion injury model of traumatic brain injury. The promises of the developed tool include progressing toward implementing the principles of 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement) for humane experiments, cultivating the prerequisites of reproducible research in terms of reporting characteristics, paving the ways for a more collaborative experimental design in basic science, and rendering an up-to-date and summarized perspective of current publicly available knowledge.

Identifying Key Variables on the Way to Wellbeing in the Transition from Face-to-Face to Online Higher Education due to COVID-19: Evidence from the Q-Sort Technique

This paper reports perceptions of higher education lecturers who switched from classical face-to-face teaching to online teaching due to the unexpected circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a validated theoretical model about the roles of instructors in online settings, the authors document the perceptions of experienced face-to-face lecturers regarding their performance in online roles and the perceived importance of the formal and informal support they received during the process of adapting to a sudden online context. The study was based on the Q-sort methodology. Among other conclusions, our research reveals that the best performance we elicited pertained to the technical role, followed by the managerial role and the support received through informal channels. Worryingly, the worst performance pertained to promoting life skills. This finding is especially alarming considering both the UNESCO humanistic vision of universities as promoters of university community development and wellbeing and SDG 4.7 of Agenda 2030, which states that education should ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development through education on sustainable development and lifestyles. This article is meant to provide guidelines to traditional universities to help them overcome weaknesses and enhance strengths when switching to online learning.

Hybrid LSTM Self-Attention Mechanism Model for Forecasting the Reform of Scientific Research in Morocco

Education is the cultivation of people to promote and guarantee the development of society. Education reforms can play a vital role in the development of a country. However, it is crucial to continually monitor the educational model's performance by forecasting the outcome's progress. Machine learning-based models are currently a hot topic in improving the forecasting research area. Forecasting models can help to analyse the impact of future outcomes by showing yearly trends. For this study, we developed a hybrid, forecasting time-series model by long short-term memory (LSTM) network and self-attention mechanism (SAM) to monitor Morocco's educational reform. We analysed six universities' performance and provided a prediction model to evaluate the best-performing university's performance after implementing the latest reform, i.e., from 2015–2030. We forecasted the six universities' research outcomes and tested our proposed methodology's accuracy against other time-series models. Results show that our model performs better for predicting research outcomes. The percentage increase in university performance after nine years is discussed to help predict the best-performing university. Our proposed algorithm accuracy and performance are better than other algorithms like LSTM and RNN.

Key Factors in the Implementation of the Internet of Things in the Hotel Sector

Many factors can influence decision-making, and if you wish to know which are the most influential factors in a decision, they must be classified by their degrees of influence. This study seeks to determine the most influential factors in the decision of hotels to accept and implement the Internet of Things in their services through a literary review and a causal study carried out on experts in technology and hotels. The methodology involves the use of fuzzy cognitive maps and the FCMappers tool. The results obtained show that the following factors are among the most influential (in order of relevance): the perceived reliability of the technology, the relative advantage it gives, the level of top management support, compatibility, customer pressure, information systems provider support, security, business partner pressure, characteristics of the leader or manager, government pressure or incentives, pressure from competitors, technological organizational readiness, complexity, size of the company, and the perceived cost.

Public Administration and Values Oriented to Sustainability: A Systematic Approach to the Literature

Values guide actions and judgements, form the basis of attitudinal and behavioral processes, and have an impact on leaders’ decision-making, contributing to more sustainable performance. Through a bibliometric study and content analysis, 2038 articles were selected from Scopus, from the period 1994–2021, presenting global research tendencies on the subject of values, public administration, and sustainability. The results indicate that Sustainability is the most productive journal, the main research category is in social sciences, the most productive institution is the University of Queensland, the location with the most publications and research collaborations is the USA, and the authors with the greatest number of articles are Chung, from Chung-Ang University; García-Sánchez, from the University of Salamanca; and Pérez, from the University of Cantabria. Analysis of keywords shows that the most relevant are “sustainability”, “CSR”, “sustainable development”, “innovation”, and “leadership”. Time analysis of keywords reveals a tendency for lines of research in the social and work area. The results also provide data about the framing of studies in sustainability pillars and the types of values referred to and indicate the main areas of public administration studied. Finally, a future research agenda is proposed.

Impact on the Virtual Learning Environment Due to COVID-19

As a result of the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, universities have carried out teaching in a digital way, accelerating the inclusion and use of technologies in methodological adaptation. The research aims to ascertain the perception that students at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the University of Granada have regarding the pedagogical model adopted in the virtual learning environment during confinement through the second semester of the 2019–2020 academic year. The information collection method was an online questionnaire, using simple random sampling with proportional affixing 0.5, 95% confidence level and maximum permissible error of 4.7%. The results demonstrate a generalised dissatisfaction of the students, being fundamental to carry out the transition of the educational processes and training of the teaching staff. The implementation of active methodologies increases due to the virtual condition, specifically the flipped classroom methodology, but students manifest generalised dissatisfaction regarding the adequate methodological development and the involvement of professors. There is an outstanding use of e-mail and the virtual learning platform (PRADO), although they consider that they do not have the appropriate knowledge about image editors, video, computer graphics, synchronous response systems and anti-plagiarism tools. The students surveyed express that the tutoring functions, tasks and beliefs of the teaching staff in e-learning are not satisfactory.

The Efficacy of MOOC to Support Students in Pedagogical Research

The article deals with methods and methodology of pedagogical research in the didactics of informatics in the environment of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) based on the principles of connectivism, which offers open, non-formal, and community education. The MOOC was created as a support for the implementation of pedagogical research (primarily for final theses), specifically for solving a causal research problem, which is the most challenging research issue in pedagogical research. We found that the created MOOC is didactically effective for all study degrees. We also identified the parts of the course (which correspond to the stages of processing the experiment) causing the participants the biggest problems. The surprising finding was that the data understanding (data exploration phase) causes the problem the most. Its importance was underestimated when designing the MOOC. Although this phase is the least computationally demanding, it is very important since it is subsequently related to the correct determination of the null statistical hypotheses.

Digital Innovation in Times of Emergency: Reactions from a School of Management in Italy

The study explores how the COVID-19 outbreak prompted digital innovation in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) by providing evidence on the dimensions leveraged, the initiatives organised and the organisational results achieved. By means of an exploratory single case study based on a School of Management located in Northern Italy, the study proposes a process model to highlight how digital innovation has been fostered during the emergency. Results highlight the relevance of both technological and cultural aspects that supported the digital transformation during the crisis. The dimensions of digital readiness and cultural openness, together with a defined strategic orientation, represented relevant facilitators of the digital innovation process. In turn, digital innovation had important implications for sustainability, which was fostered by increasing the accessibility to quality education and addressed as a topic of many of the digital contents delivered. Thus, the study contributes to the stream of research that investigates how digital innovation in HEIs and other public administrations happens and how such an innovation can support sustainability. Finally, the paper provides practical implications on both technological and cultural aspects of innovation.

Sociodemographic and psychological study on performance of students for the COVID-19 aftermath dataset

This paper presents the dataset of undergraduates learning habits during and before the occurrence of pandemic COVID-19 under the scope of sociodemographic and psychological aspects. This dataset consists of four (4) main sections which are students' demographic, psychological disruption, students' learning habits and integration of online sessions with sustainability topics. A total of 37 variables were distributed via an online survey platform. The link of the online survey was circulated to the students using few social media platforms such as WhatsApp groups, Telegram, and faculties' Facebook starting from June 1 until June 31, 2020. There was a total of 668 respondents accompanied by consent were agreed to join the survey. This dataset can have an important role for research and education in identifying the impact on learning performance among the undergraduate students during COVID-19 pandemic based on different sociodemographic and psychological aspects.

The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound consequences on the social, economic and cultural life at the global level. The educational dimension has also been affected in the schools’ regular functioning, with the temporary closure of educational institutions, as well as the impediment of face-to-face classes. This perspective paper aims to add to the knowledge already produced on this topic, by arguing that these challenging conditions can be a pivotal moment of opportunity for reshaping higher education, with the implementation, development and diffusion, among academics and students, of digital technologies. The paper also discusses the role of leadership in the transformation of organizational culture in higher education. The methodology used to carry out this study is qualitative, and the technique employed to analyze the data collected was content analysis. Research studies, in diverse formats, already published on the COVID-19 topic and its impacts were the elected data sources. The results of this document analysis allow us to conclude that there is the need to improve the digital sustainable development in teaching in higher education, which entails profound challenges that higher education institutions need to face and overcome if they want to be at the forefront of success in the international education market. This is where the authors seek to contribute, by offering insights on the challenges—but also the opportunities—that COVID-19 poses to higher education at a time when it needs to redefine its teaching methods, leadership models, and interaction channels, by going digital towards the improvement of the sustainable development of its teaching.

Managing ICT for Sustainable Education: Research Analysis in the Context of Higher Education

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the benefit of the environment favors the development of a sustainable education, which will help to train more responsible and aware students. The management of educational technology in the context of a sustainable higher education must achieve the internalization of ethics and the sustainable development of humanity. The main objective of this study is to, at a global level, examine the research during the period 2000–2019 on the management of ICTs for sustainable education in the context of higher education. Global research trends on this topic during the period 2000–2019 have been analyzed. Consequently, bibliometric techniques have been applied to a sample of 1814 articles selected from the Scopus database. The results provided data on the scientific productivity of the journal, authors, research institutions, and countries that contribute to the development of this topic. The evidence reveals an exponential trend, mainly in the last five years. In addition, current and future lines of research have been identified. Research at an international level presents a growing trend of publication that allows determination of the relevance of research on ICT management to achieve sustainable education in the context of higher education. This study makes it possible to establish the relationship between science, sustainability, and technology in higher education institutions, and to base the decision-making process for the driving agents of this area of knowledge.

Engineering Students’ Human Values as Rhizomatic Lines of Sustainability

The study reports on research carried out at the five major technical higher institutions in Romania. It views the human values students bring with them to the educational setting as rhizomatic lines, in the Deleuzian sense, and aims at identifying the intensity of each value, respectively, at grasping the correlations between the students’ values and their projection concerning postgraduation life, including nomadic (i.e., migration) intentions. Such an approach is novel in educational research. The 1782 valid responses collected after applying an online questionnaire were subjected to multivariate statistical analyses. The results unfold the research stages, from intensity-identification concerning the 18 values included in the questionnaire to the factor extraction and correlation findings that highlight strata beneath the upper layer of responses. The values boil down to three nodes of the rhizome, anchoring the Romanian engineers-to-be in the present setting and allowing them to grow in a sustainable manner, i.e., to become professionals, socially accepted, and belonging to a group. The findings are useful to professors, who need to constantly check their assumptions about the profile of the young generation, to better ground their partnership relation with students in moral realities that are relevant and help learners face disruption, crisis, incertitude.

Remote Sensing Applied in Forest Management to Optimize Ecosystem Services: Advances in Research

Research Highlights: the wide variety of multispectral sensors that currently exist make it possible to improve the study of forest systems and ecosystem services. Background and Objectives: this study aims to analyze the current usefulness of remote sensing in forest management and ecosystem services sciences, and to identify future lines of research on these issues worldwide during the period 1976–2019. Materials and Methods: a bibliometric technique is applied to 2066 articles published between 1976 and 2019 on these topics to find findings on scientific production and key subject areas. Results: scientific production has increased annually, so that in the last five years, 50.34% of all articles have been published. The thematic areas in which more articles were linked were environmental science, agricultural, and biological sciences, and earth and planetary sciences. Seven lines of research have been identified that generate contributions on this topic. In addition, the analysis of the relevance of the keywords has detected the ten main future directions of research. The growing worldwide trend of scientific production shows interest in developing aspects of this field of study. Conclusions: this study contributes to the academic, scientific, and institutional discussion to improve decision-making, and proposes new scenarios and uses of this technology to improve the administration and management of forest resources.

Implications of Virtual Reality in Arts Education: Research Analysis in the Context of Higher Education

Technological advances have posed a challenge in university learning ecosystems in terms of the application of immersive technologies that offer an educational and innovative framework to the student. The evolution of global research on this topic during the period 1980 to 2019 was studied. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis of 1296 articles was applied, obtaining results of the scientific productivity of the journals, authors, institutions, and countries that contribute to this research. The evidence shows a growing interest, especially in the last three years, in the study of the application of virtual reality in higher education. The main subject area is Social Science. The most productive research institution is the Complutense University of Madrid. The United States is the country with the most publications and citations. In addition, The United States, Spain and the United Kingdom are the countries with the most international collaborations in their publications. The study detected five new directions for future research. The growing worldwide trend of scientific production demonstrates the interest in developing aspects of the use of virtual reality in arts education in the context of higher education. This study contributes to the academic, scientific and institutional discussion around the improvement of decision making based on the available information.

IoT Technology Applications-Based Smart Cities: Research Analysis

The development of technologies enables the application of the Internet of Things (IoT) in urban environments, creating smart cities. Hence, the optimal management of data generated in the interconnection of electronic sensors in real time improves the quality of life. The objective of this study is to analyze global research on smart cities based on IoT technology applications. For this, bibliometric techniques were applied to 1232 documents on this topic, corresponding to the period 2011–2019, to obtain findings on scientific activity and the main thematic areas. Scientific production has increased annually, so that the last triennium has accumulated 83.23% of the publications. The most outstanding thematic areas were Computer Science and Engineering. Seven lines have been identified in the development of research on smart cities based on IoT applications. In addition, the study has detected seven new future research directions. The growing trend at the global level of scientific production shows the interest in developing aspects of smart cities based on IoT applications. This study contributes to the academic, scientific, and institutional discussion to improve decision making based on the available information.

Socioeconomic Effects in Cyberbullying: Global Research Trends in the Educational Context

Nowadays, cyberbullying has become a problem of social harassment in numerous educational centres worldwide. New communication technologies have provided the perfect support for the development of this type of harassment in peer relationships, in addition to being linked to broad social and economic circumstances. In this study, the global trends of the socioeconomic implications of cyberbullying in the educational context have been analysed, from 2004 to 2019. Thus, a bibliometric analysis has been applied to 1128 articles, obtaining results of the evolution of scientific activity in this period. The articles are mainly associated with the thematic areas of Social Sciences, Psychology, Medicine and Computer Science. Seven main thematic axes have been detected, highlighting those related to the psychological aspect, adolescence, and the school environment. Likewise, the link of the main authors, institutions, and countries to these lines of research has been detected. The evidence has shown the interest and relevance of this topic at the international level. Future research lines propose different analyses about how certain socioeconomic factors influence this psychological harassment inside and outside the classroom.

Industrial Processes Management for a Sustainable Society: Global Research Analysis

Few decades ago, the development of the industrial sector was disconnected from society’s protection. Negative effects awareness emerges from the current industrial processes through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), considering the causal implications to build up a more sustainable society. The aim of this study is to analyze the state of the art in industrial processes management to obtain positive and sustainable effects on society. Thus, a bibliometric analysis of 1911 articles was set up during the 1988–2019 period, bringing up the authors’ productivity indicators in the scientific field, that is, journals, authors, research institutions, and countries. We have identified environmental management; the impact assessments of industrial processes on the environment and its relation with a more sustainable society; as well as the study of the sustainable management of water resources as the related axes in the study of environmental protection with political, economic, and educational approaches. The growing trend of world scientific publications let us observe the relevance of industrial processes management in the implementation of efficient models to achieve sustainable societies. This research contributes to the academic, scientific, and social debate on decision-making both in public and private institutions, and in multidisciplinary groups.

Toward Sustainable Learning during School Suspension: Socioeconomic, Occupational Aspirations, and Learning Behavior of Vietnamese Students during COVID-19

The overspread of the novel coronavirus—SARS-CoV-2—over the globe has caused significant damage to manufacturing and service businesses, regardless of whether they are commercial, public, or not-for-profit sectors. While both the short-term and long-term impacts of most companies can be approximately measured or estimated, it is challenging to address the enduring effects of COVID-19 on teaching and learning activities. The target of this research is to investigate students’ manners of studying at home during the school suspension time as a result of COVID-19. Through analyzing original survey data from 420 K6–12 students in Hanoi, Vietnam, this work demonstrates the different learning habits of students with different socioeconomic statuses and occupational aspirations during the disease’s outbreak. In particular, we featured the differences in students’ learning behaviors between private schools and public schools, as well as between students who plan to follow STEM-related careers and those who intend to engage in social science-related careers. The empirical evidence of this study can be used for the consideration of the local government to increase the sustainability of coming policies and regulations to boost students’ self-efficacy, as it will affect 1.4 million students in Hanoi, as well as the larger population of nearly 10 million Vietnamese students. These results can also be the foundation for future investigations on how to elevate students’ learning habits toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4)—Quality Education—especially in fanciful situations in which the regular school operation has been disrupted, counting with limited observation and support from teachers and parents.

Sustainability of Educational Technologies: An Approach to Augmented Reality Research

Technological advancements have posed a challenge to educational institutions in the sustainability of management, research and teaching activities. Virtual technologies have allowed digital transformation to be incorporated into university education—among them, augmented reality (AR). The study examined the evolution of global research on this topic in the period 2005–2019. A bibliometric analysis of 1977 articles was performed, obtaining results of scientific productivity. The evidence showed a growing interest in studying the sustainability of AR in higher education. According to the results, the main category was computer science; the most productive journal was Computer and Education; the authors with the largest number of publications were Nee and Ong, while Wang was the most frequently cited author; the most productive institution was the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology; the United States was the country with the largest number of publications and citations; and, finally, the United States and Spain were the countries with the largest number of international collaborations in their articles. Five lines of research were identified, among which those oriented to the topics of technological resources, computer, simulation, education and learning stand out. It was verified that this research topic has a growing and dynamic interest in scientific activity, and its sustainable approach is confirmed by being linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Global Research Trends in Financial Transactions

Traditionally, financial mathematics has been used to solve financial problems. With globalization, financial transactions require new analysis based on tools of probability, statistics, and economic theory. Global research trends in this topic during the period 1935–2019 have been analyzed. With this objective, a bibliometric methodology of 1486 articles from the Scopus database was applied. The obtained results offer data on the scientific activity of countries, institutions, authors, and institutions that promote this research topic. The results reveal an increasing trend, mainly in the last decade. The main subjects of knowledge are social sciences and economics, econometrics, and finance. The author with the most articles is Khare from the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak. The most prolific affiliation is the British University of Oxford. The country with the most academic publications and international collaborations is the United States. In addition, the most used keywords in articles are “financial management”, “financial transaction tax”, “banking”, “financial service”, “blockchain”, “decision making”, and “financial market”. The increase in publications in recent years at the international level confirms the growing trend in research on financial transactions.