Designing Industry-Aligned Advanced Digital Skills Curricula: Evidence from Digital4Business, a Pan-European Online Master’s Programme

González-Vélez, Horacio (2026) Designing Industry-Aligned Advanced Digital Skills Curricula: Evidence from Digital4Business, a Pan-European Online Master’s Programme. In: Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems. CISIS 2026. Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies (304). Springer, Cham, pp. 1-15. ISBN 978-3-032-29429-6

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Abstract

Advanced digital skills shortages continue to challenge European industry despite sustained expansion of postgraduate computing education. Previous research has identified misalignment between academic provision and industry needs, but scant work has examined how curricula can be systematically designed, aligned, and accredited across institutions and national contexts. This paper presents a fully online pan-European Master’s programme developed using a design-based research approach under the Digital4Business project. Based on empirical needs analysis and co-designed with industry partners, the programme integrates modular curricula, challenge-based learning, and embedded professional certifications across multiple institutions. We report verifiable evidence drawn from the structure of the programme, module availability, enrolment data, delivery capacity, accreditation artefacts, and initial cohort characteristics, including demographic distributions and student participation patterns. We demonstrate how scale, curricular flexibility, and cross-institutional delivery provide early evidence of sustained student participation and industry alignment. The paper contributes practical insights for computing education practitioners designing transnational, modular, and professionally aligned postgraduate programmes.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	©2026-27 Springer. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of a book chapter published in Springer Verlag’s Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies, volume 304. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-29430-2_1.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Computing education research; Design-based research; Postgraduate education; Industry alignment; Advanced digital skills
Subjects:	L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education L Education > LF Individual institutions (Europe) Q Science > QA Mathematics > Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Electronic computers. Computer science H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Issues of Labour and Work > Classes of Labour > Graduate Employment
Divisions:	School of Computing > Staff Research and Publications
Depositing User:	Tamara Malone
Date Deposited:	09 Sep 2026 09:35
Last Modified:	09 Sep 2026 09:35
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/9912

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