Technical abilities (also known as hard skills) are just as crucial as soft skills (such as communication, cooperation, teamwork, etc.) in attaining professional success. Therefore it is important to pay much attention to soft skills when developing the curriculum of engineering educations. Many elements can have a direct or indirect impact on students' soft skills, including course topic, course module (i.e., laboratories, seminars, etc.), the medium of instruction, and learning activities. Many academics have investigated the development of soft skills in a variety of disciplines, including engineering, science, and business. The purpose of this study is to assess the perceived impact of coaching on the development of soft skills in MS and BS engineering students. During four planned sessions over a six-month period, MS students acted as coachers, while BS students received coaching from MS students. After each coaching session, all students were asked to complete a survey to evaluate their perception for how their soft skills had developed. The results of the perceived efects of introducing coaching activities are presented in this article. This article is a first step, in the series of our investigation, in identifying the students' perceptions about the development of soft skills. According to the survey, the MS engineering students who were the coachers had perceived to improve most of their soft skills. However, in the perception of BS students, their soft skills did not improve as compared to MS students, prompting us to conduct additional research in the future to discover what hampered the growth of BS students' soft skills as well as how MS students' soft skills were enhanced.
RQ1: How do MS students perceive the efects of conducting coaching activities on their soft skills development? RQ2: How do BS students perceive the efect of being coached on their soft skills development? The ten soft skills that we focus on in the study are: Collaboration, Communication, Creative thinking, Decision making, Giving clear feedback, Problem solving, Presentation, Storytelling, Leadership, and Desire to learn. More information about study context, detailed soft skills, data collection, and analysis is provided in Section 2.
2.1. Study Context & Settings MS 1 Std 1 Std 2 Std 3 Std 4 MS 2 Std 5 Std 6 Std 7 Std 8 MS 3 Std 9 Std 10 Std 11 Std 12 MS 4 Std 13 Std 14 Std 15 Std 16
Meetings
Meeting 1 MS1 meets/ coaches BS1, 2, 3, 12 MS2 meets/coaches BS4, 5, 8 MS3 meets/coaches BS6, 10, 11 MS4 meets/coaches BS7, 13, 14, 9
Meeting 2 MS1 meets/ coaches BS1, 2, 3, 12 MS2 meets/coaches BS4, 5, 8 MS3 meets/coaches BS6, 10, 11 MS4 meets/coaches BS7, 13, 14, 9
Meeting 3 MS1 meets/ coaches BS1, 2, 3, 12 MS2 meets/coaches BS4, 5, 8 MS3 meets/coaches BS6, 10, 11 MS4 meets/coaches BS7, 13, 14, 9
Meeting 4 MS1 meets/ coaches BS1, 2, 3, 12 MS2 meets/coaches BS4, 5, 8 MS3 meets/coaches BS6, 10, 11 MS4 meets/coaches BS7, 13, 14, 9
Two Representative
Two Representative
Two
Representative
This research examines two courses taught at online1. All students were informed about the
meetLinköping University: Software Quality (6 credits - ing’s preparations, what to focus on/discuss during
MS) and Software Engineering - Bachelor Project the meeting, and the meeting’s conclusions. During
(15 credits - BS). The MS students learn about the each meeting, three teachers were present to answer
software quality concepts during the course through questions and monitor the dynamics of the group.
lectures, seminars, and labs. The BS students work
on bachelor projects to develop software products 2.2. Soft Skills
for external real-time clients from the academia or
industry with real requirements. MS students are This chapter outlines the list of soft skills which
responsible for coaching BS students on how to im- were assessed after each meeting in the survey for
prove the quality of the software system they are MS and BS students. The following ten soft skills
creating for the clients. The BS students had some have been identified as essential in the working life
preparation. They have about 1 credit in software of a software engineer by studies [
As shown in Figure 1, the 16 MS students were 2.2.1. Collaboration separated into four groups, MS 1 through MS 4.
Similarly, 98 students BS students were split into Collaboration skills enable students to work efec14 groups called BS 1-14. Each MS group coached tively with others to reach a common goal. They three to four BS groups as shown in Figure 1. There include open communication, active listening, adwere four pre-arranged sessions (each lasting 90 min- mitting responsibility for mistakes, and appreciating utes) in which the BS group assigned two represen- your teammates’ diversity. tatives to meet with the MS group. These two BS group representatives were either team leaders or 2.2.2. Communication quality engineers. These two representatives will It enable students to communicate themselves receive coaching on the software product’s quality clearly and convincingly in both written and oral characteristics and will subsequently teach their form. In addition, communication skills require team members. Each meeting was split into two attentiveness and responsive listeners. 45-minute periods, allowing MS students to meet with only two groups at a time, avoiding overcrowd- 2.2.3. Creative thinking ing and ensuring adequate attention. The meetings were conducted digitally. It refers to think critically, creatively, innovatively,
Students in the MS and BS programs received and analytically, as well as applying these abilities explicit instructions on the learning goals of these to a variety of situations. Creative thinking refers scheduled sessions. These instructions are available 1https://www.ida.liu.se/ TDDE46/coaching/TDDD96
TDDE46.pdf
It is about making critical choices concerning the progress of the software project.In addition, making judgments on client deliverables and teamwork.
Giving clear feedback entails a number of factors: it must be timely, consistent, actionable, substantial, and ofer ideas if necessary.
It helps in identifying the source of an issue and devise a feasible solution. This skill is intended to deal with dificult, unexpected, or complicated issues that come up during or after meetings.
This skill refers about focusing on body language, speaking performance, and visual display when giving an oral presentation.
The storytelling ability engages the audience. It is about creating a compelling vision of where we are and where we want to go, attracting others to join us on our journey in a manner that pure facts and logic can’t.
To mimic the real working environment, activities are led at each moment by a professionals in the position of leader. This skill refers to arranging, planning, and coordinating the tasks required to meet specified goal. The leader is also in charge of providing the deliverable associated with each activity.
An online survey was conducted by each student after each meeting session with MS and BS students.
The survey was completed by 44 students in age between 22 and 25 years: 16 MS students (4 females and 12 males) and 28 BS students (8 females and 20 males). During the course there was four meeting resulting in a total of 164 replies. The survey’s questions are listed below.
Q1: What is your course code? Q2: What is your BS project/ MS group num
ber? Q3: You are supposed to meet four times during the course for coaching meetings.
What meeting number is this? Q4: How many hours did you spend to prepare
this meeting? Q5: Describe a challenge faced during the
meeting in simple words? Q6: Rate the impact of coaching on your soft skills on Likert Scale (Improved, Slightly Improved, Unchanged, Slightly Worse, Worse) [S1:] Collaboration [S2:] Communication [S3:] Creative thinking [S4:] Decision making [S5:] Giving clear feedback [S6:] Problem solving [S7:] Presentation [S8:] Storytelling [S9:] Leadership [S10:] Desire to learn the ability to detect and appraise complex circum- 2.3. Survey Details & Participants stances, as well as make acceptable judgments.
The answers to the research questions are presented This skill refers to demonstrating the desire to in this section. The findings are given with regard learn through preparation before coming to meet- to each soft skill and the perceived influence of ing, learning new technologies that can improve the coaching on it to enhance readability. quality of the software product, and ask questions during the meeting. 6% 23% 14% 63%
63% 37% 39% 61%
61% 9% 60% 60% 38% 56%
6% 30% 40% 14% 40% 46%
Storytel ing
66% 34% 31% 30% 34% 69% 70% 66%
C 1 chaeo r s
C 2 chaeo r s
C 3 chaeo r s
C 4 chaeo r s 40% 40% 40%
40% 13%
17% 13% 3.1. Perceived Coaching Impact on Soft their collaboration skills were ’slightly improved’, Skills of MS/BS students - RQ 1 & but this is a small percentage as compared to those 2 whose skills were ’unchanged’. Unfortunately, at the ifrst meeting, 6% percent of BS students rated their 3.1.1. Collaboration collaboration skills as slightly worse’. We speculate that MS students were rigorously trained for the MS students’ perceived that their collaboration coaching activities and upcoming activities by the skills have improved as a result of coaching activinstructors during lectures, seminars, and labs. MS ities conducted within teams as well as with BS ifrsstutdmeenettsi,nags, 4il6l%ustorfatsetuddienntFs itghuorueg2h.t iDtwuraisng ’tuhne- isOntunaddtehvnaetnsochteha,veterhuphslaalnnedan,dediBnSgthtseotsueimdceopnartcoshviedndigdcmonloelaetbtdionergdasticiwoanetlsel. changed’ and as time passed (i.e., during the next enough time before coming to the meetings menthree meetings), students felt it was ’slightly improvtioning it as a challenge (i.e., ’time for preparation’ ) ing’ (i.e., approximately 70%). We can also observe in Figure 4. Although we encouraged students to that towards the end of the coaching activities, just attend after the allocated hour, it was highlighted as 16% percent of MS students mentioned that collabone of the challenges in getting the most out of the oration had remained ’unchanged’– a substantial decrease from 46% percent at the start as shown meeting. These findings can be supplemented with in Figure 2. According to the survey results, coach- a response to a fifth question concerning specific challenges encountered by the students throughout ing activities are perceived to have improved MS the meeting. As shown in Figure 4, the word ’Time’ students’ cooperation skills. BS students, on the repeated a lot as in ’time was short’ or ’little time’. other hand, consistently perceived their collaboraUnfortunately, we do not know if by time, they tion skills as ’unchanged’ throughout the coaching sessions, keeping a score of about 68% as shown in mean preparation time or meeting time. Figure 3. Although some students’ perceived that 34% 68% 69% 73% 62% 5% 15% 8% 38%
56% 35%
50% 40%
52% 18%
C 1 cahoe e
C 2 cahoe e
C 3 cahoe e
C 4 cahoe e 3.1.2. Communication improve creating thinking by providing them a complete and detailed agenda2. One the contrary, in Many MS students have perceived their communi- the perception of BS students, the percentage was cation skills either ’improved’ or ’slightly improved’ decreased from meeting 1 (81%) to meeting 4 (66%) during coaching sessions. Between session 1 and as shown in Figure 3. 4, students who considered it ’unchanged’ were dropped from 43% to 20%. Almost half of the students perceived their communication skill either 3.1.4. Decision making ’improved’ or ’slightly improved’. However, The sim- Decision making ability of MS students were perilar percentage of the BS students felt that their ceived to be increased between coaching sessions communication skill is ’’unchanged’ during or after from 30% (i.e., combining ’slightly improved’ and coaching session. This trend is similar to what we ’improved’ ) to 53%. We can clearly see in Figure 2 observed with the collaboration skill. 6% students, that students who felt their decision making ability similar to collaboration skill, considered it ’slightly as ’unchanged’ were dropped from 70% to 46% beworst’ during the first meeting. We observed a sim- tween meeting 1 and 4. Decision making ability of ilar ratio 60:40 within BS students (i.e., Figure 3) BS students were also perceive to be improved little between ’slightly improved’ and ’unchanged’. from 32% in meeting 1 to 48% in meeting 4, while maintaining a same percentage of approximately 3.1.3. Creative thinking 57% with ’unchanged’. MS and BS students were given several opportunity to make decision on meetStudent’s opinion was divided on creative thinking ing dates, agendas, topic matter, and deliverables, skill as we can see in Figure 2 that MS students rang- which influenced their decision-making abilities. ing between 40%-46% perceived it as ’unchanged’.
Similar percentage of students perceived it ’slightly proved’. One of the perceived reason is that we 2https://www.ida.liu.se/ TDDE46/coaching/TDDD96have not provided enough freedom to students to TDDE46.pdf
MS students perceived coaching a factor to increase their desire to learn as show in Figure 2 improving the percentage from 43% to 53% considering it ’slightly improved’. For BS students, this is the skill where more students felt it ’unchanged’ during all coaching sessions increasing the percentage from 68% (i.e., meeting 1) to 77% (i.e., meeting 4).
MS students perceived an improvement with respect to giving clear feedback. 74% MS students felt improvement in giving feedback during the last session as compared to what they felt in the first meeting (i.e., 26% for ’slightly improved’ and 18% for ’improved’ ). During the first meeting, 6% of 3.1.10. Storytelling MS students considered it ’slightly worse’ but it We can observe a consistent pattern in Figure 2 was perceived to be improved by the end of all where around 60-70% students perceived it ’uncoaching sessions. Similar positive trend can be changed’ during all meetings whereas 30-34% perobserved with BS students (i.e., Figure 3) where ceived it ’slightly improved’. Similar pattern was 86% mentioned it as ’unchanged’ but by the end of observed with BS students where 74-80% students last session, the percentage dropped to 62% show- felt it ’unchanged’. ing a little improvement. This is to be anticipated, given that MS students were constantly reviewing BS’s deliveries and ofering comments to help the procedures and products. did not feel any change in their presentation skills during the coaching activities.
Problem solving skills were perceived to be improved in MS students through coaching activities. Starting with 38% students during meeting 1, the percentage reached 61% (meeting 2 -3) and 54% (combined score of improved and slightly improved). 6% of those MS students who felt it ’slightly worse’ changed their opinion after few coaching sessions. Only 8% BS students felt it as ’slightly improved’ whereas approximately 74% BS students considered it ’unchanged’.
MS students’ leadership abilities were perceived to be strengthened as a result of coaching exercises. 63% students perceived it as ’unchanged’ in meeting 1 but the percentage dropped to 40% in meeting 4. More students felt that their leadership skills was improving by the passage of time. Most of the BS students were consistent in perceiving their leadership skill as ’unchanged’ (i.e., around 70% during all sessions). Coaching had relatively little impact, in the perception of BS students, on their leadership abilities.
Answer to RQ1 & 2: Coaching activities were perceived to enhanced eight out of ten soft skills among MS students except for creative thinking and story telling, which were perceived to be decreased slightly. As previously stated, the rationale was that by giving specific meeting agendas and prospective deliverable, they were unintentionally restricting their creative thinking and story telling abilities.
Receiving coaching, on the other hand, were perceived to have no substantial influence on the development of soft skills in BS students. For a greater percentage of BS students, the majority of soft skills were perceived to remained constant.
In the perception of MS students, coaching did not At the beginning of our research, we believed that
have an impact on improving the presentations skills. coaching activities had an equivalent influence in
By the end of coaching sessions, it is only 16 %/ the perception of MS and BS students. Surprisingly,
17% students who either felt that their presentation the majority of soft skills in the perception of BS
skills are improved ((i.e., 30% in meeting 1 to 46% students remained unchanged. During coaching
sesin meeting 4) or stayed ’unchanged’ (i.e., 63% in sions, however, MS students perceived these skills
meeting 1 to 46% in meeting 4 ). MS student’s to be improved (i.e., aggregated score of ”improved’
presentation skills were perceived to be improved and ’slightly improved’ ). We plan to conduct
inthrough coaching activities. Following a similar pat- terviews, as part of future work, with BS and MS
ter in other skills, a large parentage of BS students students to learn why their soft skills were
’unchanged’ or, how they are improved. We speculate
study [
There are several factors that have an impact eliminated the researchers’ bias by involving all 3 on students’ soft skills, either enhancing or being researchers in the design of the questionnaire and unchanged. For example, prior to the first coaching protocol. meeting, BS students were unfamiliar with the idea of software quality. Preparing for the meeting adds 7. Future Work more efort as well as new concepts that take time, efort, and attention. On the contrary, each idea We want to conduct one-on-one interviews with utilized in the coaching meeting was fully addressed participants to learn more about their experiences, with MS students throughout lectures, laboratories, dificulties, and expectations. Furthermore, we inand seminars. According to our observations, The tend to investigate why some of the soft skills were diference in the perception of MS and BS is due perceived to be ’unchanged’. If soft skills were perto do’s and don’ts of the coaching. During sessions, ceived to be enhanced, identify how and why. MS students began acting as instructors, clarifying topics and giving BS students with clear and suficient solutions. Similarly, BS students expected MS 8. Conclusion students to do their duties. On many occasions, we need to explain to BS and MS students about what coaching is and what should be the expectations.
Soft skills must be developed among university
graduates in the same way that hard skills were
developed through a number of various courses and
activities. Coaching activities are crucial and have a big
5. Related Work impact on soft skill development. We used MS and
BS students in this study to undertake coaching
Many researchers have investigated the activities activities, with MS students serving as coaches and
that can impact the development of soft skills in en- BS students receiving coaching. We conducted a
gineering. Morales et al. described their experiences survey and found that students who coached others
over a five-year period of carrying out activities in were perceived to improved their soft skills much
topics for the development of soft skills in the field more than BS students who were mentored. In the
of software engineering [
This work was conducted/supported at/by the Linköping University for the course Software Quality. We extend our appreciation and thanks to the Linköping University and students who participated in this study.