Software Engineering Education Through Experiential Learning for Fostering Soft Skills

This paper presents an investigation of an Experi-ential Learning approach aiming to: (i) provide an experience which bring students closer to practice by means of a real project; and (ii) foster soft skills. Our experience took place in a Software Engineering graduate course, delivered remotely. This work and its results are primarily to be viewed as a feasibility study, although the findings provide interesting results. Active strategies, especially the Experiential Learning, can be a useful approach to provide an experience closer to real-world software industry practices, besides to foster soft skills in the students (particularly Communication, Teamwork, Leadership and Adaptability and Flexibility).