(9 September 2013) The National University of Singapore (NUS) today announced a new initiative to enable Returning Full-time National Servicemen (RNS men), who had earlier gained admission to the university, to earn academic credits before matriculation as undergraduate students. These RNS men can now have a head start in university education and more time to adapt to academic activities. About 2,600 RNS men who will be matriculating in August 2014 will be eligible for this pilot.
In January 2014, these incoming students will have a choice of eight modules ranging from Computing, Engineering, Science and Social Sciences. In addition, currently-enrolled NUS students will also be able to participate in two pilot General Education modules. These courses will be conducted using a technology-enhanced teaching approach that combines targeted and interactive classroom activities with a massive open online course (MOOC) component.
The online components will be hosted on the Coursera platform. NUS is the first and, to-date, the only university in Singapore to partner with Coursera, a Stanford-based educational technology company and one of the major providers of free online learning.
NUS is also the first university in Asia, and one of two universities outside of the US, to achieve integrated login or single sign-on (SSO) to Coursera. With this feature, NUS students could enjoy seamless and secured access to NUS courses hosted on the Coursera platform using their NUS campus-wide login ID and password.
NUS is already experimenting with the Coursera platform. The University will introduce a pilot module titled “Essentials of Clear Writing”, for all NUS students, using the technology-enhanced pedagogy. Designed and conducted by the Centre for English Language Communication with support from the Centre for Instructional Technology, the five-week module will be conducted in late September 2013.
Read about the New Pilot MOOC Modules here.
