Sustainability in Higher Teaching: Digital Transformation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on Open Knowledge

ABSTRACT Changes in higher education began to emerge with the new development of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) that featured such buzzwords as robots, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain. These paradigm shifts provide new opportunities for sustainability and transparent sharing of knowledge and create new challenges. Therefore, the research investigates the topics of open educational resources, sustainability practices and digital change in higher education. To investigate surveys on research in Germany, Canada and Australia regarding transformations caused by 4IR technologies in sustaining sustainability and availability of knowledge, a comprehensive literature review and bibliometric analysis were established. The 4IR technologies have been found to promote comprehensive and inclusive, sustainable and cheap educational models. Nevertheless, unaddressed concerns regarding infrastructural impediments to implementation, absence of digital care and fragmented policy regimes still hamper the achievement of those benefits. The authors request the complete implementation of sustainability in digital education, and strategic application of OER to knowledge universal access. Institutions that have undertaken the 4IR technologies are recommended to maintain resilience in and of the higher education systems.