• Dorsaf Chaabane

Today, in a world flipped by technology, soft skills including communication, problem solving and leadership, are becoming the hard skills of the 21st century. In fact, education is converted into a purely digital act. Whether this unveils a utopia or a dystopia, critical thinking, emotional, social, cultural and digital intelligences shift into key assets in today’s marketplace. The recent challenges triggered by technological advancement, a catalyst for the newly imposed status-quo, urge educators to rethink sustainable ways of teaching. The main challenge is exploring whether traditional teaching methods and assessment means could ride the waves of the digital metamorphosis in education and at the same time incorporate soft skills, which are inherently elusive, fluid and invisible, as a pivotal pillar to bolster curriculum design. The objective of this paper is to explore the efficacy of teaching excellence frameworks in creating sustainable ways of teaching soft skills in a digital era. To address the role of digital leadership in fostering teaching excellence and improving students experience and outcomes, a mixed methods approach was adopted, after taking the informed consent of higher education students at the undergraduate level. Data was collected through class activity, namely podcasts. An assessment of soft skills and creativity in the podcasts was conducted. The study highlights a significant correlation between soft skills development and creativity enhancement, a finding that advocates sustainable teaching excellence within the 21st century. In conclusion, this study provides insights into the application of innovative tools to cultivate soft skills in a student centered approach in an era marked by a ubiquitous digital transformation.

Key words: soft skills, creativity, digital transformational leadership, sustainable teaching excellence.

"Soft Skills and Creativity Assessment in Students’ Podcasts within the Framework of Teaching Excellence", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 7, page no.a418-a429, July-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2507044.pdf

"Soft Skills and Creativity Assessment in Students’ Podcasts within the Framework of Teaching Excellence", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 7, page no. ppa418-a429, July-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2507044.pdf