Active Learning for Soft Skills Development (POK)

This course provides a practical learning path on how to foster the development of soft and digital skills while teaching specific subjects. Soft skills defined by Haselberg (2012) are “a dynamic combination of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills, interpersonal, intellectual and practical skills that help people to adapt and behave positively”, are a vital component of any course: not only are they “most wanted” competences indicated by the corporate sector, but they are also essential life skills for all.

This MOOC is mainly for higher education teachers and trainers who recognise the importance of potentiating such skills in students and who want to improve their effective support for students to help them achieve this aim. It is also for those who have already actively engaged students in their lessons, but still want to re-think the proposed activity and enhance the results of this interaction working on soft and digital soft skills even further. Through this MOOC you will discover how an active learning method, i.e. any instructional method that engages students in the learning process, can effectively be designed and implemented in a curricular course to support students’ in their soft skill development.
The course is organised in 7 weeks.
Week 0 is an introduction to the eLene4Life project and to the MOOC, its structure and the main subject we are dealing with.From week 1 to week 5 you will explore one of the aspects related to the design and implementation of active learning to develop soft skills, starting from direct experience of international teachers around Europe who have implemented an active learning method during the academic year 2019/2020. Week 6 is dedicated to particularly valuable activities of experimentation of what you learned and of strengthening the community dimension by getting in contact with professionals in the eLene4Life Community of Practice (CoP). Week 7 collects and presents the complete interviews to the teachers who experimented with active learning.
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES: Actively participating in this MOOC, you will achieve different intended learning outcomes (ILOs).
In terms of knowledge, you will be able to:

• recognise and describe key elements of teaching practice design in the frame of active learning methodology (ESCO knowledge);
• apply principles of constructive alignment to your curriculum starting with an effective formulation of ILO for soft skills (ESCO knowledge - ESCO skill);
• identify the key elements in defining an assessment strategy for ILO achievement when working on soft skills, elaborating the best strategies and preventing critical issues when applying active learning methods in your class (ESCO knowledge);
• experiment with and develop new formats and pedagogical methods for instruction (ESCO knowledge - ESCO skill);
• comprehensively support your students while they develop soft and digital soft skills.

In terms of soft skills and digital soft skills, you will be able to:

• communicate effectively in digital environments or with digital tools (ESCO skill);
• positively and effectively engage with others (ESCO skill - ESCO attitude),
• experiment with different strategies and methods to acquire knowledge, know-how, skills and competences (ESCO skill);
• share and exchange knowledge, resources and experiences with colleagues and peers (ESCO skill);
• use professional communities and networks to reflect on new pedagogic practices and methods and as a source for supporting one’s own professional development (ESCO skill).


In terms of attitudes, you will be able to:

• develop a positive attitude towards new and challenging demands developing a lively interest in novelty, an openness to experience, to exchange, actively explore and discover new areas (ESCO)