Abstract:

The goal of the course “Pre-project and soft skills development for engineers” is to expand and improve the "toolbox" that the students carry upon completion of their engineering curriculum.

Soft skills development is a multifaceted process. It is affected by many different contexts at once, including family, school, community, and the workplace, as well as by the different types of personalities.

In the context of undergraduate electrical engineering studies, there is a clear emphasis on the development of hard skills, primarily technical and academic skills that are related to math, physics, and engineering principles. Soft skill development is not a primary learning outcome of most courses.

Engineering students need to develop a broad spectrum of skills and competencies besides technical skills. Students should learn to think in more integrated ways, considering interconnections and relations between the perspectives of different disciplines.

Even before the COVID19 period, the class size at "Pre-project and soft skills development for engineers" was limited to 20 students and two instructors. It combines independent work and workshops, as well as small group work to make work more effective.

The teaching method and the teaching nature of the courses have been adjusted to meet the needs of online learning because of the epidemic CAVID19. Participants must activate their cameras and microphones to participate in small group activities (using ZOOM's platform).

In this article, we will present the new methodology and also the students' responses to change and the expectation of innovative - integrated teaching, in the future. Even after eliminating the restrictions, some students still prefer online teaching for a specific course and for studies in general.

Keywords:

Online, electrical, soft skills, engineers.