Assessing soft and higher order thinking skills among students using a rubric and progressive reflection

Significant efforts are being made both from academia and industries towards increasing employability skills among fresh engineering graduates in India. In this aspect innovative teaching and assessment methodologies play vital role in promoting higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and soft skills, thereby minimizing the gap between academia and industry. In this context, we have developed a rubric for assessing soft skill like, leadership and persuasive skills, communication and interpersonal skills and higher order thinking skills like problem solving skills and conceptualization. In this work an attempt is made to steer the students towards active engagement and knowledge construction through group discussion and the rubric so developed provides an opportunity to the facilitators for progressive reflection upon the individual students as well as student groups.