Introduction to Transferable Skills

Learn how to teach communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and self-motivated learning — four 21st-century skills strongly linked to student success. College educators and administrators gain a strong foundation in the theory, research, and practical applications of these crucial skills in both face-to-face and online college courses. You also examine skills frameworks, critiques of these frameworks, instructional design principles, and the science behind each of the four skills. The course features tips and strategies for teaching these skills in online courses, with a focus on instructional design, teaching, and assessment within online modalities.

• Develop a working knowledge of limitations with the dominant “soft skills” and “career readiness” discourses and the widespread emphasis on work-based learning (e.g., internships), and why they pose problems for students’ job prospects, equity, and overall success
• Develop an appreciation for how skills in the “real-world” are routinized, situation-specific sequences of action considered normal and acceptable to particular social communities – or what we call “cultural scripts” - and what this means for teaching and learning
• Understand key principles of instructional design and how to structure a course syllabus, individual lesson plan, or strategic plan to emphasize skills acquisition
• Understand the theory and research evidence supporting the value of communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and self-regulated learning, and different ways that cultural scripts that include these skills can be effectively taught in online or in-person settings
• Synthesize and apply your new knowledge by diagnosing and then transforming a curricular artifact of your own – whether it be an entire course syllabus or a single lesson plan – to prominently feature one or more cultural scripts in your discipline