Digital transformation in the global environment reflects its impacts on various sectors of human life. One of the huge changes is observed in the business world. Digitalization becomes a bridge between technology and management [18] this study is going to be looked at what benefits and difficulties it brings for the managers to create a successful business in a highly competitive market. The benefits of prompt feedback, enlarged customer groups, and unlimited available data will be discussed for the businesses. Difficulties such as high cost, rapid change, and imitability will be side effects that are discussed in the article. The balance of these pros and cons is managed in the businesses by applying different strategies to achieve their goals and sustained success.

The twenty-first century creates a complex environment to achieve sustainable survival for businesses due to the impact of high tech in the market [1]. Managers follow strict strategies to be able to catch the technological changes and adapt for the future success of their business. Digitalization and technological change allow the managers to receive effective prompt feedback from the market by the application of the changes. Fast results clear the vision of the manager in the decision-making process. In the market where technology-based changes are applied make the managers enhance assessment and feedback processes [2]. Quick consumption characteristics of the human being speed up this process and lead the manager to necessary changes.

The second beneficiary side of technology used for businesses is borderless access to customer groups. The digitalization era creates a chance for businesses to reach target groups within seconds. It no longer takes huge effort and time but only one click to spread among different groups. As a result, like a domino effect, word of mouth does its job and enlarges the existing customer group or amount of consumers. With the help of technology, the managers communicate with customers without meeting them physically. The managers advertise more effectively by analysing the website visitors' search tastes, preferences and sending them emails accordingly [3].

The third factor of benefits of using technology is looked through in this study is access to unlimited available data. It connects with the second factor at some point. The usage of the web helps the managers to collect data about their customers, rivals, previous strategies that are applied in the market, and even foresight tactics for future success.

Besides the benefits, there are cons of technology usage in the business. Managing and applying the technology in the business requires high costs. Both machinery and software parts have huge prices to buy and adapt. Because only possessing the technology is not enough to use it efficiently and to gain sustained competitiveness. Training employees is a respectable part of this strategy. In one study the findings prove that there is a complementarity between technological goods and their implementation for the desired results [4].

The second barrier the manager’s face during adapting the technology is rapid changes of the high-tech-based goods or services. The updates of existing programs and machinery or the introduction/invention of completely new items in the tech environment happen in a very short period. The outcomes of such changes occur as hard competition because the rivals have the latest technology that is not easy for each company to respond immediately, or privacy and security issues in adapt of advanced technology [5].

The third negative side is going to be looked at in this study is the imitability of the ideas becomes easy by the usage of technology. All information and details are available on the web network. VRIO framework tells people to gain a sustainable competitive advantage the firms' goods and services should be hard to imitate [6]. The usage of technology makes it hard to create goods or services that are hard to duplicate since all data is accessible unlimitedly by the web.

Looking through the literature, it is observed as beneficial and negative factors that play an important role in implementing the technology for the businesses to gain a competitive advantage. It is focused on three factors of each side in this study. As the beneficiary factors bring positive outcomes for the business, managers prefer to apply them even in some cases it is hard to adapt. Receiving prompt feedback motivates the managers to make the necessary changes on time. These updates help the business to become more competitive as it serves the customer’s or market’s demand. Using technology increases the number of consumers and amount of targeted customer groups because reaching those groups happen with one click on the behind of the computer even without meeting face-to-face. The last positive factor examined is the availability of unlimited data. The managers could reach information easily to analyse the market and demand and make a strategy to respond accordingly.

The problems that occur with the usage of high-tech in the business environment come with the development of technology. The implementation of the technology has a high cost to use it efficiently. The cost covers the price of the tech goods and services and the labor that applies it in the market. The second pitfall is related to the rapid change of technology. The managers may face the condition of without receiving the results of implemented technology; a new upgraded version may occur and change the direction of the advantage. The last factor in this study is imitability which is an obstacle to the originality of the idea. The accessibility of the data in a wide range prevents the difficulties of duplicating. 

Based on long or short-term projects, the managers should decide the environmental conditions to apply the rightest strategy to implement the technology. It includes organizing a professional team in the IT sector, a labour group that can apply those technological changes effectively and efficiently, good market research that covers customer preference analysis and rival strategy analysis.

Training of the employees while applying new technology will be helpful for the firm. As the employees are aware of how and why they use the specific technology the results become more efficient. Also for the managers to have an advisory team or a professional group in IT that knows which technology should be applied is the first step to prepare the right strategy for the competitive advantages. Another solution is a good analysis of the market that is key for the manager to make decisions. As the manager knows what the customer wants, and what is supplied by the competitors in the market, it becomes easy to fill the gaps and gain an advantage either as a first-mover or the true supply.

Implementing the latest technological changes is not always the best strategy for the firm to gain a competitive advantage. Market conditions, the power of the firm should be taken as the main factors for the strategic decisions. The latest technology with ineffective use creates only losses for the firm. The labour power is demotivated and the high cost to own that technology is lost directly affects the competitive advantages of the organization.

Adaptive Blended Learning System

“Technology will not replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational” by George Couros

Adaptive Learning uses computer artificial intelligence algorithms that adjust/maintain the educational content according to the student’s learning style. Algorithms find patterns and respond in real-time with prompts, revisions, and interventions based upon the student’s self-requirements and abilities. Using Adaptive Learning platforms with predictive analytics and other education technologies and applications helps to transform the learning experience for both the learner and the educator.

Adaptive learning (intelligent tutoring) had its origins in the artificial-intelligence movement and gained popularity in the 1970s. The basic idea in an adaptive learning system is that the system has the power to adjust to the student’s learning method. This approach results in a better and more effective learning experience for the students. In the 1970s, the cost, size of the computers, and user interfaces were restricting widespread application. The initiator of adaptive and intelligent learning systems is usually traced back to the SCHOLAR system. This system has offered adaptive learning for the topic of the geography of South America [7]. Several other innovative systems followed up for the next coming five years.

Throughout history, students have, on average, understood better under one-on-one tutoring compared to standardized group instruction [8]. It is known that Bloom [8] has pointed out the effect of personalized instruction as the two sigma problem. Until recent times, the educators had difficult times while providing personalized learning and adaptability to each student [9]. Adding technology to the classroom encourages student success [8]. Using only computers and other technology in the classroom with pedagogical arbitrariness, on the other hand, has proven to make a little impact [9]. Tomlinson [10] has explained that relatively low-cost, personalized, adaptive learning technologies with correlated pedagogies are required to introduce a learning environment that initiates a one-on-one tutoring experience.

Adaptive learning systems have traditionally been divided into 4 separate models [11]:

• Expert model -This model is with the information which is to be taught.
• The expert model contains information about the course material which is being taught such as the solutions for the question set, tutorials, or expert methodologies.
• Student Model -The model that follows up and learns about the student.
• The simplest method to determine a student's skill level is to use computerized adaptive testing (CAT). In CAT, the questions are selected according to their level of difficulty about the expected skill level of the subject. As the test proceeds, the computer adjusts scores of the subjects according to their answers, and then it selects questions from a narrower range of difficulty. Implementation of a CAT-style assessment can be done through a pool of questions rated based on their difficulty level, experimentation, or expert analysis. Then, the computer arranges the questions in such a way that they provide the maximum and minimum possible skills of the given subjects. These levels are adjusted according to the level of the difficulty of the question. The computer assigns the minimum if the subject is answered correctly and the maximum if the subject is answered incorrectly.
• Instructional Model-The model which transfers the information.
• The instructional model considers incorporating the best educational tools that technology offers with expert educator advice for presentation methods. The instructional model will simply rank lessons with the ranks for the question pool whenever the CAT-style student model is considered. The instructional model can be designed to analyze the weaknesses and suggest a course plan according to the findings.
• Instructional Environment-The user interface which interacts with the system.

Learning management system

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the tracking, documentation, reporting, and delivery of educational courses or learning and development of programs. Many LMS have different adaptive learning aspects. Wambsganss T, Niklaus C, Cetto M, Sollner M, Handschuh S, Leimeister JM [12] have shown that adaptive learning systems have previously been used to help students develop their argumentative writing performance.

Distance Learning

In distance learning and group collaboration, adaptive learning systems can be implemented on the Internet (elearningindustry.com/) to generate intelligent dynamic learning environments. The latest generation of distance learning systems considers the answers of the students to adapt themselves to the student's cognitive abilities (cognitive scaffolding) [13].

There are different virtual learning environments such as Aleks, McGraw Hill, Smartbook,  Knewton, Wiley, Smart Sparrow, etc. Adaptive learning can be used to facilitate group collaboration within distance learning environments.

In the past years, educational institutions focused on seeing whether Adaptive Learning Technology (ATL) tools produce positive outcomes or not [14]. For example, Zimmer [15] has shown that an ALT study, using Smart Sparrow in an engineering course at the University of New South Wales, enabled a 55% decrease in drop-out rates.  James [16] has pointed out in his study that Appalachian State University has shown the overall test scores of the students in introductory biology courses have been increased with the usage of LearnSmart. McGraw-Hill Education [17] has made a study that collected data from 34 different studies and pointed out that there has been an overall increase of 10.8% in passing grades when they used LearnSmart as a needed tool for the course curriculum.

In North Cyprus, some of the secondary schools have started to use Dreambox in their Math course in April 2020. In this learning environment, students built math confidence by strengthening their social-emotional skills (skills that include learning grit, perseverance, and goal-setting). To decide the impact of Dreambox on exam scores, a one-way ANOVA was used to find differences among the exam score means of the three groups (A1, A2, and A3). The means of A1, A2, and A3 were compared to each other with alpha which is set to 0.05. Aposthocc Tukey’s Range test was used to decide the statistically significant differences between the groups. In conclusion, it is understood that adaptive learning had a positive effect on the grades and learning skills of Math.

As educators and administrators want to improve student performance and graduation rates, they increasingly leverage new Educational Technology (EdTech) such as streaming videos, gamification, etc. to deliver a higher quality learning experience and enable a learning environment beyond the classrooms. Since the students are increasingly diverse in terms of learning styles, culture, and economic background, it is realized that learners cannot absorb the course curriculums in the same way or the same details. Educators prefer to use adaptive learning systems to provide more personalized learning environments to the students.

As adaptive learning is a departure from traditional teaching methods, educators expect that AL will soon become the new platform with courses adapted around the unique requirements of each student.

The global EdTech and smart classroom market size is predicted to reach $181 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.1% according to Markets and Markets.

Based on a study done by Consortium of School Networks, AL is in the first five technologies deployed in 2020:

Adaptive technologies are among the top 5 technologies deployed in 2020:

• Digital platforms for collaboration
• Online tools for privacy and safety
• Adaptive and analytics technologies
• Cloud infrastructure
• Mobile devices

A Center for Digital Education Digital Schools Survey found that nearly one-third of U.S. school district leaders mention the reliability of their networks keeping them up at night and 22% are concerned about the combination of reliability, availability, and scalability.  Adaptive learning platforms and EdTech digital applications are bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive (reacts fast).  It can be realized that adaptive learning can be accepted as the future of education.

It can be concluded that with the growing educational needs in the world, the usage of smart educational tools along with highly productive and effective learning management systems are of extreme importance. The learning platforms integrate technological and communication tools to activate the learning process to maintain the requirements of different students under one umbrella. For example, the learning platforms can help to develop skills ls of studeinwith a positive learning environment. Moreover, the learning efficacy and quality can be improved by the consistent monitoring and analysis of the student’s performance via information processing platforms.

Education networks must become safer, faster, closer, and smarter to be able to support new Adaptive Learning and EdTech applications:

• Safer
• The technologies that increase the awareness of the health for the network to attract the attention before issues occur  
• Faster
• In terms of data speed and capacity
• Closer
• Making the cloud-based computer functions to be close to the network edge 
• Smarter

By using automation (intelligently organizing multi-vendor components, activating manual network processes, and taking action to prevent a negative network situation without having any intervention of the people), analytics, artificial intelligence, and virtualization capabilities.

With the adaptive blended learning systems, the education sector could currently compete and survive in the future in the student-based learning environment.

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