Perceptions of students: Blended learning for IR4.0

Abstract

Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) is the current key term today that affects various facets of humans’ life. As society struggles to grasp its impact, academics are responsible to prepare the future workers, who must be able to cope with IR4.0 and beyond. This paper attempts to gauge students’ perceptions of blended learning. At the same time, the author wants to investigate whether they perceive blended learning as a platform to help them face IR4.0 after graduation. A class taught by the author was observed for two semesters, and at the end of the second semester, all students in the class were asked five main questions on blended learning and their readiness to face IR4.0. Preliminary findings suggest that, firstly, students were not exactly comfortable learning in a blended learning environment and with flipped classroom as one of its strategies. Secondly, the majority of the respondents were unsure of what IR4.0 is, and yet they were confident that they would be able to face IR4.0. The author argues that much is still needed to be done in order to embrace IR4.0, despite the abundance of preparation to face it at various levels.