Building Virtual Learning Platform for Environmentally-Friendly Digital Transformation Management

"The modernization of higher education has been an important element of the ""European cooperation"" process however is known that, most of the higher education institutions have not reached the desired level of ""digital readiness"" yet. With Covid-19 many educators and students have been negatively affected by this process. Institutions which did not have enough digital education infrastructure have faced difficulties because of the sudden abandonment of classical learning styles. a study conducted in the EU indicated that due to the fact that 66% of the educators are offering online education for the first time, both educators and students faced negative effects through this learning processes. In addition, with the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for digitalization in education has increased more. Despite the increasing need for digital skills, 44% of European citizens today do not have basic digital skills. Additionally, 37% of the current workforce employed in different sectors do not have sufficient digital skills despite the growing interest and needs in the labor markets. Indeed, the European Commission has addressed the seriousness of the issue by emphasizing “For Europe’s organizations to be competitive, the workforce must also have the digital skills necessary to exploit the use of latest and emerging technology” (Digital Transition Action Plan, 2018: 8). This situation draws attention to the increasing need for a workforce with digital skills in labor markets. In the EU, the Digital Europe Program aims to build long-term practices and courses for students and the workforce in 2021-2027. The Digital Europe Programme has proposed to develop Europe's competitiveness in terms of ‘global digital economy’ and get success in ‘technological sovereignty’. The Coalition also set other goals as supporting SMEs in the skills acquisition of the workforce and modernizing education and training for digital skills.Accordingly, this project proposal has been prepared in accordance with the goals of EU about digitalization in education. It has been understood that there is a need for a ""new training planning"" for the workforce that will work in SMEs in the field of ""digital transformation management"" for the EU in general and other project partners including Turkey, Germany and UK. Accordingly, the need for personnel with skills for the use and management of technologies such as 3d printer, IoT, Rfid must be provided. This is especially important for the process of ""digital transformation"" accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis. This project study has been based on the axis of ""project-based and work based learning"" by focusing on the needs of labour force and labour markets with the cooperation between the university and the business world. Overall, this Project intends to develop a curriculum at MSc level in order to train individuals which are demanded by the labour market with high-level digital skills. Furthermore, the preparation of this project with the focus of SDGS climate action indicates the added value of this study.In addition, in the report prepared by UNIDO, it was stated that Covid-19 ""caused a delay in taking new measures"" on the targets included in the climate action, and this situation could have worrying consequences. For this reason, it was stated in the SDGS 2020 report that the transition to ""green and cleaner production in industry"" should be targeted unceasingly. In details, this project plans to prepare a digital transformation management curriculum and learning materials with the focus of ""environmental sustainability"" standards. Thus, individuals who are trained within the scope of the curriculum will be able to take place in the labor market as ""green growth ambassadors"" for the industry. So that, the project draft has been prepared at the intersection of different EU objectives such as digitalization in education, digital skills in the labor market and environmental targets.Accordingly, the intellectual outputs of the project are;-Developing a digital transformation management curriculum module at MSc level and accrediting this module among partner universities-To design an e-learning platform and define module content, training materials and learning outcomes,-Identifying good practices in the field of green digital transformation for the industry,-Developing virtual and augmented reality applications for experiencing digital tools (3d printer, IoT, Rfid etc.), and integrating these tools into the training module.-To ensure continuous improvement in the project process with ""webinar trainings"" in the field of digital transformation management.These activities will greatly improve the ""readiness for digital education"" status of the partner universities, which has deepened due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The project also supports ""green growth"" in the field of digital transformation management."