This paper turns to investigate the promotion and development of soft skills through MOOCs courses. Specifically, the article in the first theoretical part defines the concept of competence and declines the concept of soft skills according to the latest reference theories. The exploratory investigation was conducted through a Scoping Review using the methodology of Arksey and O'Malley. The objective was to investigate the impact that MOOCs courses can have on the promotion of soft skills and was born out of the growing consideration of soft skills development in academia. The findings by means of the Scoping Review shed light on the important role that academic learning science centers can play in training teachers and students to improve their soft skills. In addition, the results highlight the need to create personalized learning pathways for students to promote more effective learning and the development of soft skills needed for future labor market access.
Nowadays, due to continuous social, work and cultural changes, special attention has begun to be paid to the acquisition not only of so-called hard skills but also of soft skills. Soft skills turn out to be of paramount importance as they enable individuals to face new challenges, acquire flexible ways of working, promote cooperative learning, and operate in multiple contexts [1]. The World Health Organization defines soft skills-also called life skills-as “abilities for adaptive and positive behavior, that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life” [2].
The focus on soft skills is increasingly relevant today, especially in the Italian context where the Chamber of Deputies on January 12th, 2022 approved a bill named "Provisions for the prevention of school dropout through the experimental introduction of noncognitive skills in the teaching method" which promotes the inclusion of trainings aimed at fostering students’ Non-Cognitive Skills in secondary schools within a 3-year period.
As Tino [1] states, it is necessary to become aware of the fact that "today the competent subject is not the one who reproduces knowledge in a univocal and rigid way, but is the one who knows how to use the knowledge learned in a creative and flexible way, adapting to different situations and identifying creative solutions to new problems. Gaining awareness of this scenario is then also an educational responsibility, since the purpose of education is the integral formation of the person".
Teaching soft skills is not simple. To date, there are several methods being experimented with, and one of them involves the use of so-called MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses.
The concept of ‘competence’, over the years, has taken on different connotations. Even today it is still difficult to succeed in defining in an unambiguous way this concept.
In literature the first scholar to dwell and theorize on the topic of competencies was McClelland, in the field of organizational psychology. The scholar, in 1973, asserted that tests of study aptitude, school culture and academic qualifications are unable to predict an individual's professional success; therefore, according to the scholar, in the employment sphere for personnel selection it is ineffective to rely on intelligence tests, but it is necessary to assess the candidates' competencies [3]. A few years later, Spencer and Spencer, McClelland's students, theorized five dimensions of competencies [4] divided as follows: 1.
Motivation, which is that structure that enables the individual to define his or her goals and achieve them; 2. Traits, or how an individual behaves or reacts to a given stimulus; 3. Self-concept, which refers to an individual's perception and evaluation of himself or herself; 4. Knowledge, understood as the body of knowledge an individual possesses about a specific domain; 5. Skills, which are the abilities an individual possesses in relation to a task.
Through these five dimensions, the two scholars theorize the so-called "Competency Model" using the metaphor of the iceberg (fig. 1). This metaphor is useful in understanding how the different components are going to be distributed, until they compact and then become components of success.
As can be seen in figure 1, at the tip of the iceberg it is possible to find "skills" and knowledge; they are found at the surface as they are observable and easily modified in relation to the situation in which an individual finds himself. At the non-visible part of the iceberg, on the other hand, it is possible to find motivations, self-image, and traits, which refer to an individual's personality structure and psychological traits, less affected by situations [4].
Le Boterf, in 1990, states that competence is "a recognized and proven set, of the representations, knowledge, skills and behaviors mobilized and combined in a relevant way in a given context" [5]; the theory of competence elaborated by Le Boterf is systemic, meaning that according to the author, an individual's competence emerges only in relation to a given context and task. Continuing the historical excursus, Pellerey in 2004 states that competence is "the ability to cope with a task or set of tasks by being able to set in motion and orchestrate one's internal, cognitive, affective and volitional resources and to use available external resources in a coherent and fruitful manner" [6].
In the Italian scenario, ISOLF - Institute for the Development of Vocational Training for Workers in 2004 launched an experiment, lasting about four years, entitled "Organization, Learning and Competencies" (OAC). The objective of this project was to study the relationship between "competencies," "learning," "training management," "organizational models," "performance," and "competitive environment." The context of reference is lifelong learning and it tries to close the difficult but necessary gap between employability-oriented solutions, solutions oriented toward modernization of the production apparatus, productivity recovery and competitiveness. In this context, the OAC project has been placed under the banner of a full recovery of the focus on work [7].
According to the most recent definitions, Tessaro [8] states that the connection between learning and work, between personal existence and professional life, is embodied in competence. Moreover, competencies do not coincide with skills and knowledge but represent the ways in which these skills and knowledge are activated in different contexts [9].
Conventionally, it is possible to differentiate between hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are defined as the job skills, soft skills as the skills related to managing people. In recent decades, the view on soft skills has changed considerably. In the past, mastery of hard skills was valued first and seemed to be of paramount importance to the individual, while soft skills were considered "nice to have"; nowadays the perception has been reversed [10]. In fact, the term soft skills has been widely used to refer to all kinds of competencies related to interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. Pellerey [11] defines soft skills as nonspecific skills that relate to an individual's general ability to perform effectively in any workplace; they are generally described as perfectly transferable.
In general, it is possible to identify 22 soft skills divided into 5 groups: personal effectiveness skills (i.e., skills that reflect some aspect of an individual's maturity with respect to self, others, and his or her work. They are related to a person's ability to continue to be performant even under pressure or difficult environmental conditions), relational and service skills (i.e., skills that enable people to understand the needs of others and cooperate with them. Communication skills are related to all the other clusters but are included in this one because of the role they play in building relationships), impact and influence skills (skills in this cluster reflect an individual's ability to influence others), achievement-oriented skills (i.e., skills characterized by a propensity for action, a propensity directed more toward accomplishing activities than impacting other people) and finally cognitive skills (i.e., skills that reflect an individual's cognitive processes).
In addition, other terms have also been used in the literature to refer to soft skills such as "transferable skills," "soft skills," "emotional intelligence skills," and "employability skills". Moreover, according to the most recent studies, Non-Cognitive Skills are especially talked about as key skills to ensure success in terms of economic development [12]. Non-Cognitive Skills refer to all those human qualities not related to cognition. They refer to individual characteristics related to emotional, psychosocial and personality traits. Some examples may be motivation, resilience, empathy, proactivity and emotional stability. In fact, these skills, especially in Nordic countries, have positively affected employment rates, academics, health, life expectancy and income levels [13].
In Italy, a bill has been passed for the prevention of early school leaving through the experimental introduction of Non-Cognitive Skills into the didactic activities. The goal stated in the law is to increase, through teaching, Non-Cognitive Skills i.e., those skills that lead to positive and adaptive behaviors, which make the individual able to cope effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
A primary role in the training and development of soft skills can be attributed to e-learning tools. Since soft skills themselves by definition are multidimensional skills, and since training itself is a process that can be based on the activation of multiple intelligences, digital and interactive learning tools can be ideal for training soft skills [14]. Among them, one way of learning soft skills could be through the use of MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses.
MOOCs are courses that are usable at a distance through the web, massive and open, and free in their basic configuration. The term massive can have a double meaning; while for many it refers to the large number of participants, according to others the term refers to the amount of knowledge exchanged and a new participatory paradigm. The initiative has been inaugurated by well-known universities such as Harvard and Stanford, channeling thousands of students to specific existing platforms such as EduOpen, edX, Coursera, and Udacity.
These courses are particularly valued by students for their inherent characteristics and purposes including [15]: ● ● ● ● ●
Professional updating or deepening in disciplinary areas; Satisfaction of intellectual curiosity or need for cultural experience; Profit, in terms of spendable skills in the work environment; Acquisition of familiarity with digital tools; Opportunity for self-assessment and autonomy in learning, with positive effects on cognitive outcomes.
The present study aims to investigate whether and how the use of MOOCs courses has an impact on the development of Soft Skills, in the academic context. A Scoping Review was conducted to investigate this aspect. This study is intended to be an initial exploratory investigation also aimed at understanding how to methodologically set up a future Systematic Review; in fact, in the future we will aim to quantify the impact and determine which criteria produce it.
In this first phase, the Scopus search engine was used. The keywords used were: learning; mooc (or moocs); soft skills (or soft-skills).
In the research and analysis phases, the methodology of Arksey and O'Malley [16] was used. This methodology is characterized by the following 5 steps: ● Identification of the research question; ● Identification of relevant studies; ● Selection of studies; ● Data tracking; ● Collection of results;
The research question stems from research interests related to the investigation of issues related to teacher education and soft skills development, in educational and training contexts, with a focus on new technologies. In particular, the interest about the impact that MOOCs courses can have on the promotion of soft skills stems from a historical period in which such courses have been used by a greater number of people [17] and in light of the increasing consideration that the development of soft skills has in the academic field [18, 19].
Having established the research question, the first phase of searching through the Scopus database was initiated using the following keywords: learning; mooc (or moocs); soft skills (or soft-skills). This first phase of search resulted in 14 articles.
Next, the abstracts of all selected articles were read and analyzed according to the inclusion criteria of this scoping review: studies that implement or describe MOOCs that had an impact on the development of soft skills. Eight articles were selected at this stage according to the research questions and the inclusion criteria.
At this stage, the full 8 articles were read. All but 1 (a book chapter), were selected for the final review and analyzed.
The 7 selected articles were schematized in a table (Table 1) and in addition to the basic references related to authors, year and country, the following data were extracted from each article: topic, participants, context, main results, limitations, future perspectives.
Type of participants 12 women with an obesity surgery project
Context
Main results
Limits Healthcare Najafi et al. [23] 2017 Higher Education -MOOC scaffolds students’ elearning; -the MOOC has few ways which correspond to ADDIE’s teaching model Examine interaction design in MOOCs to probe the scope and depth of student-student and studentinstructor interaction
most effective MOOCs to their training Design and realize a training module for Educational Sciences students, with the aim of making students develop their teaching skills in the field of cultural and heritage MOOCs implementation The paper investigates whether a lowstakes model could provide learning benefits when team members collaborate remotely 42 students from the course in Educational Sciences
In the near future,
those students will
have to prove to be
able to show a
series of
competences
that the educational
scientific and
academic
community, the
European Union
and the global
system strongly
demand today
Results showed several potential benefits of MOOCs on users’ soft skills. Specifically, Pottier and
colleagues (2020) in their study examined the experience (users’ satisfaction and soft skills) of the
people with an obesity surgery project who have completed the training MOOC: “Obesity Surgery”.
This course proposes information about obesity surgery, simultaneously targeting patients, HCPs
(healthcare proxy), and information-seeking persons. It lasts 5 weeks and includes 9 videos telling the
story of 3 characters (2 in a surgical journey and 1 not wishing to be operated) and 9 videos with experts
delivering validated information. With regard to the method of assessment, quizzes evaluate the
learning and a forum for exchange between participants and with experts was available. Results from
this study showed that all participants perceived the MOOC as positive and useful, it responded to thier
expectation for knowledge about bariatric surgery and to their own questions. In addition to acquiring
new knowledge, the training permitted the acquisition of new psychosocial skills: participants felt more
inclined to interact and communicate with their caregivers and their family about obesity and bariatrci
surgery. Moreover, the knowledge acquired promoted the adoption of positive self-management
behaviours (e.g., active posture) for obesity in general and the surgery preparation. In addition to this,
Jano et al. (
Finally, in the contribution by MacNeil, Latulipe and Yadav (2015), learning in distributed low-stakes
teams is analyzed. Specifically, it was analyzed whether low-stakes teams communicating via Google
Hangouts can provide educational benefits, in terms of engagement and learning outcomes, compared
to students who are learning via video in a co-located environment or individually. Quantitative results
showed that learning gains are higher for co-located teams and do not support the initial hypothesis that
distributed teams would outperform individuals. It turned out that distributed teams offer latent benefits
such as opportunities for networking or social interaction, ability to observe and imitate other students'
techniques for self-regulated learning, and multiple perspectives for solving more difficult problems.
These examples show how participants can work together to find ways to mitigate and even technical
difficulties that arise. They suggest that students could feel more connected and create networks of
interaction among students who share ideas and maintain those interactions beyond the course. The fact
that distributed teams performed similarly to individual teams is promising. Working in teams allowed
students to interact socially and develop soft skills, such as self-regulation, teamwork and peer learning.
The studies screened above showed that MOOCs structure can have important secondary outcomes in
terms of users’ soft skills enhancement. However, there are also MOOCs specifically created to promote
users’ soft skills in terms of contents. The study of Cinque (
The last studies by Schutzberg (2019) pointed out the role of instructors. It promotes tough love as an approach to interaction aimed at promoting responsible behaviors of students. The team composed by instructors and designers used tough love to push students to be active learners and, specifically, to seek answers to their challenges independently and/or through peer support. Tough love approach has changed the behavior of both students and team members who implemented a scaffolding approach in sustaining students’ independence and coping skills in solving problems.
In today’s industry employers demand soft skills like problems solving, creative thinking, adaptable and flexible components. Thus, with the advent of industry 4.0 students are required to be equipped with content knowledge, competence, long-life learning skills and self-learning skills to reflect advanced technologies. This is especially true in Italy because the high levels of unemployability have made it necessary for them to acquire new skills that could help them to be more appealing than other candidates [27]. Thus, compared to the past, hard skills alone are not enough to reach big-status careers [28]: hard abilities, like intelligence quotient, accounted only for 20.0% of the educational training effects on employment outcomes because other skills contribute to drive work success [29]. According to these data, research showed that success in life depends not on the “general knowledge” achieved through school but on factors such as, for example, conscientiousness and curiosity (see Heckman & Kautz [30] for a review). Highly soft skilled persons, indeed, show more energy, passion in their job, and career engagement [31] as well as they seem to be more protected from work-related diseases (e.g., burnout; [32]. Based on this evidence, the European Commission [33] recently recommended reforming school and university curricula, finding teaching strategies that may effectively educate students in both knowledge-based disciplines and the so-called soft skills [34].
The main results of our scoping review have shown that MOOCs can both directly and indirectly enhance students’ and users’ soft-skills. The promotion of the MOOCs phenomenon is rapidly developing on a large scale, demonstrating the educational potential of a teaching technique which, apparently, has no limits. While several MOOCs have been created focusing specifically on the enhancement of soft-skills in terms of contents [34], others [22; 23; 25; 26] thanks to their structure (including activities during the courses that foster cooperative learning, decision-making, problem solving, communication etc.) were able to promote students’ soft skills as secondary outcomes. In this sense, of particular interest is the study by Pottier and colleagues who implemented a MOOC on obesity with a secondary improvement in participants’ health communication skills and psychological softskills. Finally, the work by Schutzberg [21] points out also the important role of MOOCs’ instructors. In this study, indeed, instructors modified their general attitude according to the though love approach, to foster students’ independence, especially in solving challenges issues.
These findings shed light on the important role that academic learning science centers can play in training instructors and students in enhancing their soft skills. Specifically, the results of the present scoping review highlight the need to create distinct learning pathways for students to promote a more effective learning and soft skill development necessary for the future access to the labour market. In the near future students, indeed, will have to prove to have a series of competences that the educational scientific and academic community, the EU and the global system strongly demand today. The findings of this review should be interpreted in light of the limitations of our own work. First, we only assessed the English-language literature, and may, therefore, have overlooked significant findings reported in other languages. Second, considering that we have conducted our research only through Scopus and that we have not taken into account the grey literature, it is possible that relevant studies were not retrieved. Third, although we attempted to thoroughly screen the retrieved studies, again it is possible that some salient studies were overlooked.
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