Abstract
Informatics engineers are currently in the spotlight of innovation. It is, therefore, relevant to analyse and reflect on how higher education can, and should, prepare future engineers to innovate as expected in this ever-changing world. This paper aims to further research and foster scholarly debate regarding the requirements and implications of teaching innovation. For that purpose, we examine an exploratory case study on interdisciplinary cooperation between two higher education courses, designed to promote students’ active learning of innovation through the progressive development of their soft and hard skills. Both courses engaged in an emancipatory pedagogical approach, mostly grounded in project-based work, active learning, and formative assessment.
 To obtain feedback on this interdisciplinary cooperation, questionnaires were devised to ascertain the students’ perceptions about this pedagogical approach. Individual responses were collected from both courses and data was analysed through simple statistical procedures. Articulating a priori soft skills development with a posteriori hard skills learning process is perceived by students as beneficial in gradually, yet successfully, understanding the subject of innovation. Also, there were even some external success indicators which showed the recognition of successful innovation skills development in informatics engineering students. Thus, according to students’ perceptions of their experience with an emancipatory pedagogy that connected soft with hard skills development, we conclude that such approach encouraged students to create new knowledge and allowed them to develop the necessary skills to innovate.
Highlights
Over the past decades, technological advancements have been shaping the world and changing our lives, allowing innovation to develop at an increasingly fast pace and creating countless opportunities
We examine an exploratory case study on interdisciplinary cooperation between two higher education courses, designed to promote students’ active learning of innovation through the progressive development of their soft and hard skills
Question #2 tried to ascertain if the conjunction of both soft and hard skills is perceived as means to make an innovation project feasible by providing tools to make an idea evolve towards a final product or service
Summary
Technological advancements have been shaping the world and changing our lives, allowing innovation to develop at an increasingly fast pace and creating countless opportunities. Technology is widely recognized as a major driver of innovation and, in turn, innovation is considered crucial for professional success. Many of these technological advances are being made by engineers, putting them into the spotlight of innovation. Informatics engineering, as a domain of knowledge, is at the core of most, every day, technological software applications, ranging from web browsers to very large-scale banking systems. Software is omnipresent in our lives, and we carry it with us everywhere. Specialists and expert professionals are, and have been, in high demand by the industry (EuroStat, 2017), with procurement rates showing no signs of diminishing in the years to come (EuroStat, 2016)
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