Digital ecosystems of project activities in the university: a model for developing soft skills in students

The problem of insufficiently developed soft skills among university graduates, particularly in the context of accelerating digitalization of education, is crucial for ensuring competitiveness in the modern labor market. This research addresses the issue of improving the effectiveness of developing in students such key non-specialized skills as communication, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork, which are in demand by contemporary employers. The aim of the study is to develop and empirically test a model of a digital project activity ecosystem (hereinafter referred to as DPAE), focused on the targeted development of the aforementioned soft skills. The research materials included data obtained from an analysis of scientific and methodological literature, expert evaluation of the developed DPAE model, as well as the results of a pedagogical experiment. Methods of pedagogical modeling and statistical data analysis were applied to assess the effectiveness of the DPAE implementation. The proposed DPAE model is an integrated digital environment that combines educational platforms, online communication tools, and cloud services, providing opportunities for effective collaboration on educational projects. The results of the experimental study demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in soft skills development indicators (communication skills, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork) among students involved in project activities within the developed DPAE, compared to the control group. The study concludes that the implementation of digital project activity ecosystems in the educational process of universities is appropriate and promising. The practical significance of the research lies in providing a DPAE model that can be used to improve the quality of student training and their adaptation to the requirements of the modern labor market, as well as for further development of digital tools to support project activities in higher education.

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