New way to shaping India's academic environment: An assessment of the mechanism of integration of education 4.0 to industry-centric learning

Abstract

The world around us is evolving due to Industrial Revolution 4.0. This revolution is driving the present-day education, that is, Education 3.0–creative education towards Education 4.0, that is, industry-centric education. The present academic environment in India is in the process of developing an educational ecosystem, which will incorporate equal access to education for all stakeholders and promote critical thinking, digital literacy, global awareness and scientific reasoning to name a few. Accordingly, it has become prudent to develop and validate a mechanism for assessing the various steps being taken to realign students to Education 4.0. This study involved 300 undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD students from eight different schools across diverse program and course outcomes, who were asked to respond to a questionnaire on their own accord. The Pearson product-moment correlation test was used to statistically analyse the obtained responses. The test results showed that the questions were logical and valid, with a significance level of 0.0115. Furthermore, the reliability of the mechanism was also assessed using Cronbach's α score. This study indicated that three aspects—learning preferences, contribution of learning to knowledge, skills, and personal development, and time spent on learning and nonacademic activities—exhibited high reliability However, two aspects—the emphasis on mental functions and reading and writing—indicated to be of moderate reliability. Thus, it could be said that the questionnaire developed in this study was both reliable and valid for assessing the mechanism being undertaken to realign students to Education 4.0.