Ohio State students learning on their iPads
Classroom Innovation

Ohio State University has figured out how to teach hard and soft skills


Through a digital initiative, OSU is meeting students where they are in order to take them to the next level

The right skills for long-term success

OSU’s three-pronged approach helps students build both hard and soft skills and positions them for success after graduation.

Coding skills might not seem particularly helpful for students in degree programs that aren’t tech-heavy, but those skills are increasingly in demand across all career disciplines.

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“When students go into their profession, it will open up opportunities for them in their career paths; we’re helping our students at a high level when we can do that,” Tressler says, recalling a library science graduate who had trouble finding a job after graduation, but was hired full-time after completing a coding bootcamp.

“Our students are consuming a lot of content that relies on heavy coding. How do we help them have some sense of what’s behind that?” says Gjestvang.

The OSU app connects focuses on connections

Students also have access to OSU’s custom app, Ohio State Discovery, which offers enough resources and information to help keep students engaged and focused on their academics and wellness.

Currently, the app’s four tabs focus on events and services, course schedules and financial snapshots, student organizations and how to get involved, and an interactive degree-planning tool. The plan is to increase personalization with future updates.  As OSU grows its digital content and planning, university leaders will focus on ways to make content more dynamic for academic colleges and departments, along with faculty and students.

“This is a way for us to deliver content right to where students are,” Gjestvang says. “It’s not about using technology to build relationships and experience college life through the app—it’s about how we can use technology to connect students to the experiences that are already out there for them to pursue.”

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Laura Ascione
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