Designing Learning Content and Experiences for Innovative Higher Education to Foster Soft Skills

Abstract

To cope with upcoming challenges in education, almost all the higher educational institutes have reached a consensus on reforming their pedagogical methods to foster creativity and innovation for both learners and educators. In line with this, we need to raise fundamental questions about why we learn, how, and what to teach. This study proposes a procedural method for designing learning content for innovative education to foster soft skills in higher education. This study adopted an extensive systemic literature review to suggests a pedagogical approach to designing and co-designing the learning content and learning experience based on the learning objective level. This process consists of six steps: 1) extracting the topics to learn, 2) setting the objectives of learning, 3) designing the learning content and learning experience, 4) reflecting on the educational practices, 5) assessing the learning experiences, and 6) redesigning by co-creating. This research developed a blended learning course using an online learning platform to share the content as open resources. The results of this research, as a form of a course content, are implemented in a usual educational setting in a higher educational institute as a pilot study, and to be co-developed with appropriate learning content and pedagogical methods in further research for innovative education.