We've already highlighted the soft skill of lifelong learning and its importance. However, there’s more to discuss when it comes to soft skills and eLearning.
When schools moved to remote learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic, there was a genuine concern about how remote and eLearning would affect student development of social skills and soft skills due to the lack of in-person interaction. Although not physically in-person, eLearning is a tool that can be used to help encourage soft skill development. This article will explain just how eLearning can be used to build soft skills.
Let’s get started.
Understanding the Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills
When it comes to eLearning, it is best to have a healthy balance between hard skills and soft skills. While most of us are familiar with the terms, many aren’t familiar enough with them to establish their differences.
We’ll start by taking a closer look at each.
Hard Skills
The skills required to fulfill daily responsibilities are known as hard or technical skills. For students, hard skills can vary based on the course they are participating in.
Hard Skill Examples
Analytics
Programming and App Development
Accounting or Financial Training
Soft Skills
Soft skills, or non-technical skills, help you function in work environments, social settings, and throughout day-to-day activities. Students can learn and develop soft skills throughout different stages of life.
Soft Skill Examples
Work ethic
Problem-solving
Teamwork
Communication
Time management
Why You Should Develop Soft Skills in eLearners
It is critical for eLearning students to develop soft skills because they are relevant in daily interactions as well as later in life in professional scenarios. Recent studies conducted by BestColleges.com show that only 11% of American adults utilize hard skills in their roles, while over 40% report utilizing soft skills regularly.
Teaching Applications in eLearning
eLearning processes can be improved through the application of both hard and soft skills. Let’s take a closer look at soft skills specifically in the online learning space.
Soft Skills Advantages in eLearning
As eLearning continues to be a popular education method, it’s important to understand the advantages it can provide in developing essential qualities in students, such as soft skills.
Reduced Cost
Time and costs can be significantly reduced as eLearning continues growing rapidly.
Accessibility
It’s no secret that eLearning enhances education’s accessibility worldwide. Similarly, the development of soft skills through eLearning becomes accessible to learners globally that have access to a computer and the proper software.
Develop a student's soft skills, including teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and more through eLearning programs. These skills can be highlighted in any subject through course interactives. Not only can a student learn geometry in an eLearning course, but they can also strengthen their communication skills through group projects, team challenges, or learning how to convey a real life math problem in written word.
Improved Results
Students also show improved results with eLearning as it promotes retention and enhanced levels of critical thinking. For example, when learners are able to test multiple strategies to find a correct solution, you provide an opportunity for them to think critically on how and why their previous strategies did not work out. Since repetitive action is pivotal to developing behavioral habits, including soft skills, eLearning proves to be an avenue for students to develop.
Challenges of Soft Skills in eLearning
But, how is it possible to go about measuring how soft skills are being developed in eLearning? It’s true that qualitative skills are easier to track, which means that hard skills will always be easier regardless of the format of the learning?
For example, understanding if a student has developed certain hard skills following an eLearning course can boil down to asking a few yes or no questions. You can quickly measure how students develop over a period of time as well as their competencies of hard skills in eLearning.
On the other hand, soft skills tend to be more challenging to measure. After all, how can you be certain a learner has the proper communication or behavioral skills to perform their individual responsibilities effectively?
The truth is that measuring soft skills in in-person learning is challenging, just as much as it is in eLearning. However, when utilizing eLearning, it gives you tracking metrics that are unique, including things like knowledge checks and scoring simulations. These metrics can help educators to:
Track the amount of time spent in certain areas
Track the attempts made before the answer is reached
Track the frequency that students are accessing soft skills training applications
Things to Consider When Incorporating Soft Skill Development in eLearning Courses
Specific strategies can be implemented to ensure learning and retention of soft skills occurs more effectively in eLearning. Here are a few recommended strategies to consider when incorporating soft skill development in your eLearning courses.
1. Make Materials Trackable
Especially compared to hard skills, measuring soft skills can be significantly challenging. Understanding this, it is critical for educators and those developing educational content to do their best to make learning processes as trackable as possible.
The eLearning course should be centered on reaching a set of attainable goals tied to key performance indicators. Measuring key performance indicators tends to hold more weight than surveys of participants, performance observation, and anecdotal evidence hold.
Key performance indicators will ultimately enable you to see whether the training is enhancing students’ performance as well as which soft skills students are applying throughout their eLearning.
2. Create Engaging Content
With interesting exercises that deliver tangible results, eLearning is unique because it allows learners to engage in simulated scenarios to put them to the test. Today, thanks to virtual reality, gamification, and other online formats, simulated systems are more sophisticated than ever.
3. Promote Observational Learning
One of the best formats found in eLearning that helps learners expand their knowledge base of soft skills is video. eLearners can observe the soft skills being used by those in the video and rapidly translate them into everyday life.
4. Make Learning Digestible
It’s unrealistic to expect learners to develop their soft skills overnight. Allow digestible and sustainable learning by creating manageable, bite-sized eLearning segments. Plus, make sure to build in multiple opportunities for learners to practice and apply the skills they are introduced to. Making learning digestible allows you to provide your learners with the best chance of success.
Wrap Up
Since we know that developing lifelong learners is the ultimate goal, it’s clear that soft skills are equally as important (if not more so) in eLearning. Thankfully, eLearning can help to develop these soft skills through multiple methods, including courses about soft skills or building soft skills into a course on a different topic.
Here at ryco.io we are committed to finding ways to engage learners through their academic skill development and their soft skill development. By incorporating hard and soft skills into course material, we hope to provide a virtual environment where learners can receive a more well-rounded and personally enriching education.
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