MOOCs and Soft Skills: a comparison of different courses on Creativity

Abstract

The development of soft skills in undergraduate students is a key factor to ensure an effective transition from university to the labour market. The eLene4work project, carried out between 2014 and 2017, focused on the selection and definition of these soft skills, including digital soft skills. The project proposes a series of actions and practical tools to help students better understand the employers’ expectations, to assess their own level of competency and to develop their skills through MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and OERs (Open Educational Resources). The overall goal of the project is to test and monitor the possibilities offered by these resources to fill the gaps between the university and the labour market. It might seem quite challenging to develop soft skills through online resources since these skills are mainly behavioural components. One of the main outputs of the project consisted in designing an Orientation Guide for students and young workers, to help them in choosing and effectively using MOOCs to train soft skills and digital soft skills. This paper reports the results of the work carried out by the project partners during MOOCs selection and classification. Furthermore, the comparison of different MOOCs on creativity, based on distinctive pedagogical approaches and involving different types of activities and assessment tools, highlights some important trends in the ways used to foster students’ learning behaviours and different patterns of engagement.