Deep Talk: Ascertain Soft Skills in Graduates to Improve Computing Education
: Ntinda Maria, Aerila Juli-Anna, Valkonen Tuula, Sutinen Erkki
: Jormanainen Ilkka, Mühling Andreas
: Koli Calling: International Conference on Computing Education Research
Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery
: 2023
: Koli Calling '23: Proceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research
: 48
: 1
: 2
: 979-8-4007-1653-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3631802.3631852
: https://doi.org/10.1145/3631802.3631852
Universities face challenges to keep abreast with the ever-evolving industry demands. One strategy involves identifying the lacking competencies of previous graduates, which can serve as a basis for improving the curriculum. This paper demonstrates how the Deep Talk (DT) method was utilised as an innovative approach to engage participants in narrative-based games to identify skills among graduates. Preliminary results show that graduates possess soft skills: communication, decision-making, critical thinking, and empathy. Hence, the curriculum can be re-evaluated to address competencies lacking in graduates. This study holds potential value for computing managers by providing insights to refine strategies for enhancing graduates' soft competencies. Simultaneously, these findings can guide universities to improve their computing curriculum. In future work, we plan to collaborate with industry partners to develop initiatives that effectively address and rectify soft skill deficiencies. Also, we propose the digitalisation of DT as a game.