Abstract:

The advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) means that professionals in the Information Technology (IT) field are required to be knowledgeable in their workplace about concepts that were not necessarily covered in their undergraduate curricula, such as the meaning and implications of disruptive technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT).

It was previously found that students at any level can greatly benefit from hand-on exposure to 4IR technologies, as opposed to only being taught about these new technologies. Therefore, in IT management courses where the authors were involved as lecturers, students were requested to not only do desktop research of 4IR concepts and innovations, but also build tangible prototypes that they could demonstrate. The ability to build an artefact themselves was believed to enhance not only their knowledge but also their confidence.

With the advent of Covid-19, it was not possible to continue with face-to-face teaching of the IT management programmes at the authors’ university. With teaching and assessment moving fully online, it was also not possible for students to physically meet for group assignments, to source material for 4IR practical assignments or to build and demonstrate their prototypes in class.

The lecturers were keen for students to still have a 4IR teaching and learning experience that was as hands-on as possible. Therefore, the 4IR assignments were re-scoped to include software simulations of hardware components such as microcontrollers and other peripherals. Further, students were required to virtually meet and upload videos of their prototypes with software simulations or proofs-of-concept.

During the online mode, it was found that some students were more hesitant to experiment with prototyping, even in simulated mode, possibly confusing ‘online’ with ‘fully conceptual’. In future, we plan to keep some aspects of teaching 4IR technologies online, such as the use of microcontroller simulators. However, it is clear that students who are hesitant to play with electronics and hardware need to be forced out of their comfort zones in order to fully experience the benefits and gain confidence in engaging with 4IR technology.

Keywords:

Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, Internet of Things, IoT, IT Management.