Language is fundamental to human communication, allowing individuals to express and exchange ideas, thoughts, and emotions. In early childhood, some children experience communication disorders that impede their ability to articulate words correctly, posing significant challenges to their learning and development. This issue is exacerbated in developing countries, where limited resources and a lack of technological tools hinder access to effective speech therapy. Traditional speech therapy remains vital, but the latest technological advancements have introduced robotic assistants to enhance therapy for communication disorders. Despite their potential, these technologies are often inaccessible in developing regions due to high production costs and a lack of sustainable manufacturing models. For these reasons, this paper presents “FONA,” a robotic assistant that employs rule-based expert systems to provide tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli. FONA supports children aged 3 to 6 in speech therapy by delivering exercises such as syllable production, word formation, and pictographic storytelling of various phonemes. Notably, FONA was successfully tested on children with cochlear implants, reducing the number of sessions required to produce isolated phonemes. The paper also introduces an innovative analysis of the Make To Order (MTO) manufacturing system for producing FONA in developing countries. This analysis explores two key perspectives: collaborative networks and entrepreneurship, offering a sustainable production model. In a pilot experiment, FONA significantly improved children’s attention spans, increasing the period by 17 min. Furthermore, the economic analysis demonstrates that producing FONA through collaborative networks can significantly reduce costs, making it more accessible to institutions in developing countries. The findings suggest that the project is viable for a five-year period, providing a sustainable and effective solution for addressing communication disorders in children.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the need to move educational processes to virtual environments and increase the use of digital tools for different teaching uses. This led to a change in the habits of using information and communication technologies (ICT), especially in higher education. This work analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the frequency of use of different ICT tools in a sample of 950 Latin American university professors while focusing on the area of knowledge of the participating professors. To this end, a validated questionnaire has been used, the responses of which have been statistically analyzed. As a result, it has been proven that participants give high ratings to ICT but show insufficient digital competences for its use. The use of ICT tools has increased in all areas after the pandemic but in a diverse way. Differences have been identified in the areas of knowledge regarding the use of ICT for different uses before the pandemic. In this sense, the results suggest that Humanities professors are the ones who least use ICT for didactic purposes. On the other hand, after the pandemic, the use of ICT for communication purposes has been homogenized among the different knowledge areas.

Macao’s Continuing Education Development and Improvement Program aims to create lifelong learning conditions for Macao residents who have reached the age of 15 and encourage them to pursue continuing education or obtain certification to improve their personal qualities. This paper analyzes the entire implementation process of the Continuing Education Development and Improvement Program in Macao, using the traditional means of policy analysis from three perspectives. For the government, successful implementation ensures the quality of continuing education and promotes the building of a learning society in Macao. For educational institutions, this program provides residents with multiple learning pathways to meet diversified needs. For residents, it alleviates the cost pressure caused by education and promotes individual development in various aspects. However, there are still some problems in the subsequent implementation process that need to be improved, such as unclear positioning, inadequate administrative supervision mechanisms, and a weak guarantee of curriculum quality.

This article explores the landscape of entrepreneurship education in Indonesia amid the wave of digital transformation. The research method uses Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to review research results sourced from journals indexed in Sinta or nationally accredited journals in Indonesia which can be accessed on Google Scholar. The conclusion, (i) Digital transformation-based entrepreneurship education creates a new learning model in colleges with the aim of developing entrepreneurial attitudes and values among young people, especially students, so as to produce entrepreneurial intentions. (ii) Higher education as an entrepreneur education provider must follow the progress of digital transformation in the teaching process of entrepreneurship education so that digital literacy among lecturers and students is getting better. (iii) The participation of stakeholders, the Government, college and the business world, is expected to provide support in policy making, especially curriculum changes in accordance with current circumstances in creating new business actors or entrepreneurial intentions.

This study investigates the interaction between audit firms and key audit matters (KAMs) to measure their impact on financial reporting quality in Palestine, thereby enriching the discourse on financial reporting. A descriptive statistical method was used to analyze the audit reports of listed Palestinian firms from 2018 to 2022. A methodology that scrutinizes the clarity and informativeness of KAMs across different audit firms and KAM types, the research investigates how audit procedures and risk assessments contribute to the comprehensibility of KAM disclosures. The findings highlight a significant disparity in the readability of KAMs attributable to audit firm selection, with the non-Big Four firms exhibiting distinct approaches. This understanding, gathered through multivariate analysis, offers valuable contributions to the ongoing discourse on financial reporting quality, emphasizing the essential role of audit firms in shaping the effectiveness of audit reports and KAM disclosures.

 Purpose: This research paper aims to assess the proficiency of tertiary education providers in engaging with online learning environments, especially in the context of the post-COVID-19 transition. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of online learning platforms, it is essential to understand how educational institutions have adapted and evolved in their approach to virtual education. The central research question explores how Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Technological Infrastructure (TI), and Support Systems (SS) collectively influence educators’ proficiency in online teaching (POT). Study design/methodology/approach: A comparative study was performed, comparing data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic with post-pandemic data from higher education institutions in Uzbekistan. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 education facilitators representing both public and international educational institutions. This purposive sampling approach allows for a holistic exploration of the experiences, challenges, strategies, and preparedness of these facilitators during the transition to online learning. Manual qualitative data classification and content analysis were employed to understand themes in respondent experiences and identified actions. Findings: The study reveals the significant role of CPD, robust TI, and effective SS in enhancing the Proficiency of tertiary education providers in engaging with Online Teaching. These elements were found to be significant determinants of how well institutions and educators adapted to the shift to virtual education. The research offers valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and students, aiding in decision-making processes within academia and guiding the development and implementation of effective online teaching strategies. Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing literature by providing an in-depth understanding of the adjustments education facilitators make in response to the pandemic. It emphasizes the importance of ongoing preparation for online learning and highlights the role of digital workplace capabilities in ensuring successful interaction in virtual educational environments.