How Does a Student-Centered Course on Communication and Professional Skills Impact Students in the Long Run?

MOTSCHNIG, Renate, Michael SILBER and Valdemar ŠVÁBENSKÝ. How Does a Student-Centered Course on Communication and Professional Skills Impact Students in the Long Run? In 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE). New York, NY, USA: IEEE. p. 1-9. ISBN 978-1-7281-8961-1. doi:10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9273962. 2020.

Basic information

• Original name: How Does a Student-Centered Course on Communication and Professional Skills Impact Students in the Long Run?
• Authors: MOTSCHNIG, Renate (40 Austria, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Michael SILBER (40 Austria) and Valdemar ŠVÁBENSKÝ (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: New York, NY, USA, 2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), p. 1-9, 9 pp. 2020.
• Publisher: IEEE

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Proceedings paper
• Field of Study: 10201 Computer sciences, information science, bioinformatics
• Country of publisher: United States of America
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Publication form: electronic version available online
• WWW: Výsledek v sborníku konference
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14330/20:00115856
• Organization unit: Faculty of Informatics
• ISBN: 978-1-7281-8961-1
• ISSN: 1539-4565
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9273962
• UT WoS: 000646660800094
• Keywords in English: student-centered learning; longitudinal study; mixed methods; qualitative content analysis; communication; professional skills
• Tags: firank_B
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

This Full Paper in the Research-To-Practice Category presents a long-term study about the effects of a student-centered course on communication and professional skills on students’ thoughts, attitudes, and behavior. The course is offered at a European university as part of a computer science master's program. This paper shares the design and challenges of a longitudinal study that reaches ten years behind and employs a mixed-methods approach. Besides presenting and interpreting the findings, we shed light on which features tend to stay on students’ minds and impact their way of being and acting in society. Moreover, we suggest implications for the design and practice in comparable courses to maximize constructive, sustainable effects, such as improved active listening, presentation skills, and openness to other perspectives. These are essential (not only) for computer science professionals. Our findings suggest that the course provided significant learning for the vast majority of respondents, including aspects such as presenting while keeping the other side in mind, managing one’s stress, and becoming less shy to speak up. All in all, we aim to contribute an evidence-based source of motivation for instructors in technically focused curricula who hold a student-centered stance.

Links

• EF16_019/0000822, research and development project: Name: Centrum excelence pro kyberkriminalitu, kyberbezpečnost a ochranu kritických informačních infrastruktur
• MUNI/A/1411/2019, interní kód MU: Name: Aplikovaný výzkum: softwarové architektury kritických infrastruktur, bezpečnost počítačových systémů, zpracování přirozeného jazyka a jazykové inženýrství, vizualizaci velkých dat a rozšířená realita.

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A