Course Information

Course Aims

Researchers agree that writing is a tool for thinking (Menary, 2007; Klein & Boscolo, 2016; Miller and Jurecic, 2016; Reis, n.d.). As Reis explains, “The bodily act of writing externalizes our thoughts, and the imposed structure (the written word) provides a vehicle by which those thoughts may be reorganized into new thinking, a new way of seeing the thoughts or a new way of organizing thoughts.” Miller and Jurecic similarly argue that “writers discover what they think not before they write but in the act of writing” (2016, p. 60). One of the main aims of this course is to allow you to experience writing as a tool for thinking and to practice expressing ideas in formal writing and oral communication.

While you will have the opportunity to understand and practice the genre conventions that are specific to your discipline later in your studies, this first common communication course is designed to help you form habits of mind that will serve you across the university and even in the world outside of the university. Taken by all first-year undergraduates, this foundational course will develop your written and oral communication skills, as well as your ability to read and analyze texts. It will help you to understand revision as integral to the process of composition, to convey your interpretations and ideas with 

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1. Closely observe and analyze texts and phenomena
2. Design questions or puzzles from your engagement with a text that can motivate further exploration
3. Summarize, paraphrase, and quote from sources accurately and ethically
4. Compose complex arguments that build on the ideas of published authors and your own analysis and thinking
5. Express your ideas orally through both informal and formal presentations
6. Discover writing as a tool for thinking
7. Use peer feedback and teacher feedback to revise your thinking and communication
8. Recognize audience and rhetorical situation as significant factors in communication

Course Content

For this course, you will be asked to pick and explore a topic for your own research. Your choices are:

1) a place in Singapore
2) a community within Singapore
3) your own writing practices 

You will investigate your chosen topic by close observation, recording your observations, and finding interesting patterns or puzzles in what you observe. In class, we will practice how to come to a question to which you do not have an answer, and, after a review of presentation skills, you will present your discoveries to the class. This question will become the motivation for your later writing in the course. Eventually, you will be asked to find two sources that can help you begin to respond to your question. Your final goal will be to draft an op-ed (short for “opposite the editorial page”), a piece of writing usually found in a newspaper or magazine that expresses the author’s opinion on a current topic. Your op-ed will be peer workshopped and revised substantially over two to three weeks. You will also have the opportunity to consult with your teacher and receive individual feedback on your draft. By the end of the semester, you will send your op-ed to a newspaper or online platform.

In addition to the above, weekly readings will expose you to ideas in a variety of disciplines. With another student, you will present on one of these short course readings and lead class discussion once during the semester. In your presentation and discussion, you will be asked to convey the essential arguments and ideas of the text and to explain HOW this writer writes. In other words, how does this writer persuade you or get you thinking? Does she or he use anecdotes or a powerful metaphor? Is the writer too one-sided and thus lose credibility? 

Course Information

Course Aims

With digitalization now becoming the new normal in our daily life, this course seeks to equip students from different disciplines with problem‐solving techniques with the aid of computers and to enable them to acquire some common but essential digital skills that are crucial in today’s workforce. In this course, students will learn how to apply the concept of computational thinking and quantitative reasoning to solve problems and analyze data. They will also learn how to identify online threats and understand the principles of ethics and intellectual property rights in the digital world. They will also be exposed to current issues in the digital world, which they can better understand through the logic of computational thinking and quantitative reasoning, such as cybersecurity and the rise of fake news. In addition, students will also learn how to use some of the latest online tools for effective presentation, communication, and collaborative skills in teams during the course.

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Apply structured approaches to solve complex problems by breaking them into sub‐problems.
2. Apply quantitative reasoning to analyze data, guide problem-solving, and support decision‐making.
3. Use digital tools and technologies to search for, assess, analyze, develop, and share digital content and solutions through different media forms.
4. Interact and collaborate through digital platforms/channels.
5. Demonstrate one’s use of digital technology and online presence responsibly, ethically, legally, and with care. 
6. Describe current developments and issues in the digital world.

Course Content

The topics that will be covered in this course are:

1. Computational Thinking Problem-Solving Techniques
2. Quantitative Reasoning Techniques
3. Managing Cybersecurity
4. The World of Digital Misinformation
5. Principles of Data Ethics in the Digital World
6. Intellectual Properties, Rights and Data Privacy in the Digital World
7. Latest and Emerging Technology Trends

Course Information

Course Aims

This course aims to equip you with the necessary philosophical foundations to understand theories of ethics and subsequently apply those theories to real-life scenarios and issues. It also aims to enable you to understand and critically assess the civic institutions that structure their local and global communities. To these ends, the course will examine the nature of ethics, its understanding across different cultures, and how it is manifested in concepts, social structures, and governance institutions. Topics to be explored include human rights, democracy, freedom of speech and inequality. The rights and duties of citizenship shall be a unifying theme. You will think through assumptions they hold on all of these matters. They will be provided with the tools to understand various and even contradictory perspectives on these important issues. There will be a substantial amount of time devoted toward understanding Singapore’s own institutions and ideologies, which are of course products specific to the country’s own unique historical and geo-political circumstances. We expect that you will have better appreciation of the country’s institutions after reading the module.

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Collaborate & develop a multidisciplinary understanding, which are key features of ICC curriculum.
2. Identify the morally relevant features of situations, decisions, and policies; 
3. Explain your moral responsibilities to actively participate in activities that strengthen your local and global communities;
4. Critically assess the civic structures and institutions of your communities and your role in them;
5. Make well-informed arguments on some major contemporary issues.
6. Apply ethics and civics concepts to the Singapore context.

Course Content

The course will cover the following topics:

1. Introduction – What is Ethics, Civics, Multiculturalism and how is this relevant to you?
2. Reasoning for ethics and civics + Logic Quiz
3. Human Rights Part 1: Human Trafficking
4. Human Rights Part 2: Disability
5. Reproduction Ethics: Abortion 
6. Ethics of Death and Dying: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
7. Equality & Meritocracy
8. Multicultralism
9. Political Systems: Types, Features, and Moral Justifications
10. Free Speech: Meanings, Limitations, and Implications

Course Information

Course Aims

Having a creative and enterprising mindset can assist students in successfully manoeuvring through the VUCA world. It is crucial for students to nurture certain qualities associated with an enterprising mindset, including embracing uncertainty and change, honing critical thinking skills, and exhibiting a collaborative and adaptable nature. These qualities are vital in helping students to prepare for a rapidly evolving environment. The concept of "designing your work life" can be a valuable tool, inspiring students to explore their career options and possibilities by considering their values, interests, personality traits, and skills (VIPS) through prototype conversations. With more local employers emphasising skills-based hiring and retention, it is essential for students to continuously enhance their proficiency in relevant and sought-after skills to be well-prepared for the future of work.

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate the professional skills required to prepare for the future workforce.  
2. Ability to utilise the SODA (Self-Assessment-Explore Options-Set Direction-Take Action) framework and V-I-P-S (Values, Interests, Personality and Skills) to effectively design their work life.
3. Ability to use imagination, initiative and readiness to undertake new endeavours. 
4. Ability to resolve ethical and workplace-related issues effectively.

Course Content

Course Information

Course Aims

Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Describe what healthy living and wellbeing means to you as an undergraduate student.
2. Identify common health and mental issues (including knowing the sources of help) in Singapore and how this knowledge would benefit you and the people around you.
3. Demonstrate coping strategies for developing resilience and self-care, playing an active role in living a healthy and meaningful life. 
4. Distinguish between healthy and unhealthy communication styles, and apply empathic communication and conflict resolution strategies for healthier relationships.
5. Recognize the importance of self-determination, values-based actions, wisdom, and creativity in the pursuit of personal growth and self-actualization. 
6. Explain health and mental health care issues at a global level, in relation to understanding Singapore perspectives.
7. Discern between facts and myths of common health issues related to nutrition, fitness, and diseases.
8. Appreciate the consequences of health-related behaviours on longevity and health-adjusted life expectancy.
9. Collaborate effectively on health and wellbeing issues in cross-disciplinary teams.

Course Content

The following topics will be covered in this course:

1. The body-mind-spirit connection for healthy living and wellbeing
2. Health and Nutrition
3. Health and Fitness
4. Health and Disease
5. Health and Maturation
6. Health and Wholeness 
7. Understanding Stress and Fostering Self-care
8. Building Mental Health Awareness and Resources
9. Nurturing Healthy Relationships and Social Wellness
10. Aspiring Personal Growth and Self-actualization
11. Cultivating Wisdom and Creativity for a Flourishing Life

Course Information

Course Aims

Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon the successful completion of this course, you (as a student) will be able to:

1. Explain the multidimensional systemic nature of sustainability. 
   
2. Analyze sustainability challenges from social, economic, and environmental perspectives.
3. Identify and present possible solutions for a sustainable world on different scales for the individual, organizations, Singapore, and globally.
4. Critically discuss sustainability issues in small and large group settings.
5. Collaborate effectively on sustainability issues in cross-disciplinary teams.
6. Evaluate the work of peers on sustainability.

Course Content

Topics that will be covered in the course:

1. Every topic covered is analyzed from each of the three systems: Society, Economy, and Environment, and emphasizes how sustainable development needs to include all three systems.
   
2. Introduction - why each discipline should know about sustainability, UN SDGs, Singapore Green Plan.
3. Poverty and equality - how to measure it, how widespread it is, how to eradicate it.
4. Food systems - sustainability and global food security.
5. Water – availability and sustainable management of water resources.
6. Energy and Climate Change - sustainable and reliable sources, mitigation of climate change and policy instruments.
7. Responsible consumption and production - waste reduction.
8. Pollution – air, plastics, light, noise
9. Sustainable cities – the role of big cities in sustainability development.  What is a sustainable city?
10. Planetary boundaries, Earth system feedbacks and tipping points – staying in control of our planet and its systems. 

Course Information

Course Aims

The course aims to inspire a long-lasting mindset of awareness, critical thinking, curiosity, and collaboration across disciplines through the lens of contemporary and near-future challenges for human communities in relation to scientific and technological innovations. Students will learn to perceive and analyze the potential benefits and costs of scientific/technological innovations and applications from different perspectives and on different scales. Students will then use these skills to identify real-life challenges and to propose solutions. 

Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon the successful completion of this course, you (as a student) will be able to:

1. Content  Describe the basic scientific/technical principles of the featured cutting-edge fields/innovations; the kinds of human problems/challenges that these are meant to address; and the additional problems/challenges posed in and by their application.
2. Interdisciplinary  Describe and analyze connections between, three general classes of perspective on the challenges of innovation and application: scientific/technical, business, and humanistic/social scientific perspectives
3. Critical thinking  Identify, critique, and evaluate ethical, financial, organizational, legal, social, and cultural components surrounding the application of technological innovations.
4. Problem solving  Identify and present possible innovations and solutions for their application that would achieve a consensual balance between scientific-business-social concerns.
5. Team  Collaborate effectively on project development in cross-disciplinary teams.

Course Content

Topics to be covered in the course:

1. Ways in which Science and Technology can be understood as being for Humanity
2. 3 Perspectives on the relations Science-Humanity: Science/Tech, Business, Humanities/Social Science (i.e., Innovation, Application, Impact)
3. Introduction of “Circular model” for thinking about Science-Humanity/Humanity-Science relations (Why and how humans make science? How and why science impacts humans?)
4. Application of circular model through major humanistic themes (e.g., life, equality, prosperity) with respect to applications of specific technological examples
5. Detailed consideration of scientific-business-social challenges related to at least three major fields of cutting-edge scientific and technological development (e.g., Artificial intelligence, Data Analytics, Metaverse)