Soft Skills and ICT Tools for Final Qualification Assessment in Universities of Ukraine and India in COVID-19 Framework

Abstract

The global pandemic and subsequent quarantine measures and restrictions have posed an array of challenges to the structure and procedure of university summative assessment process. Qualification assessment for Foreign Languages major programs is a strict regimen that involves different stages (oral and written exams, final project viva, internal and external review). This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the practices of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University (Kyiv, Ukraine) and International Business School (Hyderabad, India) digital qualification assessment for students of European (French, Italian, Spanish, English, German) and Asian (Mandarin, Japanese) Languages major programs, employed in the year 2020 due to quarantine measures. The survey and analysis of different ICT tools is used to translate real life qualification assessment practices into online blended format. The investigation identifies various groups of applied digital skills and soft skills, utilized through qualification assessment process by primary subjects (students). The choice of the considered cases of university Final Qualification Assessment for Foreign Languages major programs is informed by the need to estimate similar and divergent socio-cultural parameters of digital literacy development and application in multi-cultural context.  Comparison is provided for integral and differential parameters of Final Qualification Assessment in the universities of Ukraine and India under survey.