I was really surprised to see that the study resulted in 15% importance of Tech skills versus 85% for Soft skills. It makes sense, I suppose, when I stopped to think about it, but that number was a real eye opener. I've always sort of felt that soft skills were important for teachers, as we deal with people on a constant basis. It was really refreshing to see that those skills are appreciated in other industries as well! Very enlightening!

I knew or had heard about soft skills but I did not know much about Emotional Intellegence and how they are related. It is important for me to know how my or other people's emotions can influence the classroom. I like when the course points out that you want to control the emotions not the behavior in your classroom. Thanks for making me more aware of this!

Sometimes this task can be easy but sometimes it becomes a real challenge to do. Some students do well with it while others tend to struggle.

How do you test soft skills in the classroom setting?

What if a colleague uses your hand-outs and other materials or adopt some of your procedures and present them as hers without even mentioning your name as source. Will it be more efficient to talk to the person or to just keep quiet about it.

If the instructor wants to be effective in transferring the knowledge, they must feel the knowledge they share and feel the ones they share it with. That seems to be the catalyst for a successful learning environment. In the classroom one of the ingredients are missing, the feeling for the subject matter or the feelings for the students. How can one achieve both if the work environment does not really cultivate those qualities? Monique

Todays learners must have a desire to push themselves to engage in further training,computer skills,self-management,and ethics to become the BEST they can possibly be!

Technology today makes students lazy. Immediate answers are at their fingertips 24/7. They do not learn materials for a life time of recollection, rather for a moment to pass a test. Anything that can be done, there is a YouTube video for and information on the internet. Students feel they can look up information at anytime; therefore long-term retention is lost.

Instructors are role models that should lead by example. As an instructor you should display a sense of time management by starting class on time and ending on time. An instructors attitude should inspire and motivate students.

Hard intelligence and IQ is known by everyone. Same with me. I never thought of soft intelligence so important. But after going through this topic I realize that soft intelligence is very important in the daily life. The way we interact with students and other collegues is mainly based on soft intelligence. and success in the jobs and putting impact on students life is not depends on IQ only, mostly on EQ.So to be succesful in this respect we should be more focused on EQ then IQ.

I truly enjoyed taking this online program. I thought I knew exactly what "soft skills" contained, but, in fact, I learned much more about myself than I thought. I learned that I need to concentrate more on my own "personal" feelings, when discussing, teaching and relating to my coworkers on a day to day basis. I also believe, that "body language" has much to do with our "soft skills' as well as, our personal, verbal communication.

I teach in a program that is heavily technology-based, and I often find that some students have difficulty remembering HOW to complete a particular task on the hardware or in the software; however, they have no problem remember the loads of technical jargon that goes along with this field. The issue I've found is that many students have had it printed into their brain that studying is all reading and bookwork. What I do to solve this issue, and also to get the students learning at home, is give them short hands-on homework projects. Albeit many students do not always own the software at home, and have to come up to the labs to work; this forces the students to immerse themselves in project-based self-learning. Over the last few years, I have slowly shifted my class emphasis to about 50% project-based/self-learning assignments, 50% exams/quizzes/writing assignments. This has worked out well for most students. Ultimately, this is what they will have to do in the professional world anyway. Every couple of a years a new version of the software or hardware is released, which will require them to re-learn the material each time.

After covering a topic I will break the groups down by their tables. I will write down the main systems we are discussing on the board so they know what the topics of our discussion will be. Have each group add an explanation of the system to each topic and discuss the answers amongst the groups

I think there are no instructors at our school that lack common sense. We all seem to work together and do what has to be done- we all work together as a team and work together to figure out certain things.

I hope this hasn't been addressed already, but this immediately came to mind for me while viewing the presentations!.. I absolutely agree in the value and importance of both soft and hard skills, but specific to soft/people skills and workplace behaviors there has to be some type of balance. Being "too kind" or "too understanding", "too helpful" can quickly lead into being taken advantage of if not careful! I can think of several examples in my career in which something went horrible wrong, including instructors who were late posting final grades as they had allowed students to submit assignments very late in an attempt to be empathetic to their needs. Does anyone have thoughts about balance? Thanks!

I currently teach in a clinical program that has incorporated the use of computers daily in the curriculum. We use computers for scheduling patients, treatment records and radiographs. We agree that our students must be computer literate to give them the best chance to succeed as a professional on the job.

In this forum, I learned a bit more in using soft skills amoung diverse students that I often teach. The importance of soft skills was reflected in the Harvard student. That was a surprise.

Ethics should be taught as a critical and integral component of computer skills. Comparing this with the option of teaching ethics separately leaves the door open for students to disconnect or not associate the importance of ethics in the learning they are currently engaged in unless it is injected into the curriculum. Presenting ethics as necessary and in fact re-iterating that ethics and business go hand in hand prepares the student for greater success in the work force. It also allows them to recognize unethical practices that they might encounter as well once they enter the workforce. Ethical practices are the cornerstone of any work practice and need to be presented as such as often as possible. This should help keep it prevalent in the student's mind and move him towards reflexively making ethical decisions and actions in the future.

I agree that writing is a skill that needs polished and nurtured throughout ones profession. I am challenged by the issue of plagiarizing on occasion and always find this disappointing and awkward to address. I appreciate the sequence of a writing assignment in regards to offering the student support.

Professionalism in the classroom or workplace demands knowledge of computers and soft, as well as hard professional skills; however, can technology be utilized more in the classroom in smaller devices, such as: cell phones, iPads, etc.? Since it is problematic to control these devices, is there any way we can incorporate their usage into the curriculums in order to create more savvy students, and, to offer them not only a venue for use, but also to present a boundary for when they would not be used in a classroom scenarios?