A learner-centred approach to writing education aimed at developing soft skills and a vision for a writing feedback system during the pandemic, crisis of public health

Abstract

This study discusses the need to cultivate soft skills to avoid being marginalized in a rapidly changing data explosion era and implements new teaching and learning methods that meet digital natives' needs. It investigates the instructional effectiveness of writing education that embodies the innovation of the online writing centers through the case study of the online writing feedback system for university students in Korea. The online writing center was first launched to cope with the situation of COVID-19, but many universities in Korea are trying to make it an official center for new education after the pandemic. This paper utilized the Students Satisfaction Survey, which surveyed the students who participated in online writing counseling programs on the second semester 2020 to determine students' needs and satisfaction and analyzed their soft skills-focused on writing grading rubric used by operating online writing centers. The results were as follows. Writing centers should provide learner-centered and personalized counseling on writing and interpretation rather than mechanical correction to develop soft skills. Writing counseling can deliver mentoring, which is lacking in current university education. Therefore, non-face-to-face learning from online writing centers for soft skills development is suggested.