How to Enhance Student Soft Skills in an Online Class?

Development of course content and assignments focused on basic horticultural knowledge and theory (hard skills) in an online setting is relatively straightforward and uncomplicated. However, it is slightly more challenging to improve students’ soft skills like communication, problem solving, critical observation, and professionalism in an asynchronous online classroom environment. To address this challenge, a set of etiquette rules were developed and implemented in online horticultural courses to set a professional tone. Assignments were then developed as challenge questions that focused on having students solve complex horticulture problems through written or oral submissions. Students were given data from simple experiments and asked to analyze and interpret the data. The recent addition of an online scholar’s ignite assignment has turned each student into the teacher for a brief moment – making the student an active learner and active listener. Finally, by setting weekly tasks and having a weekly reminder, the course structure assists with development of time management and organization skills. It is impossible to cover all soft skills in any class but by offering various types of assessment and assignments, many soft skills can be improved.