What a semester it has been. From overloading 6 courses to committing to 3 CCAs, Year 2 Sem 1 has been a rollercoaster ride for me. With that said, it’s also my best semester thus far — I truly enjoyed every course that I bid for, even if that means 8am tutorial classes EVERY WEEK.
In semester one, I took the following courses:
DTK1234 (CHS* Requirement)
NM2104 (Major’s requirement)
NM2219 (Major’s requirement)
NM3217 (Major’s requirement)
RVSS1002 (RVRC)
CLC2204 (Unrestricted Elective)
*CHS = College of Humanities and Sciences
Nope, I’m not going to do a detailed course review or make any recommendations.. OR make complaints about the teaching staff, or tell you how to score them. Honestly, who knows :”) but I’ll be sharing more on my key takeaways from each course and how I see the relevance across disciplines.
Well, just so I remember what I have learnt from these courses by the time I graduate.
DTK1234 Design Thinking
In DTK we learn the process of creating a product, from identifying key problems to creating users’ journey maps, prototypes, endless iterations and evaluating them. I particularly find one segment on ‘creating sucks statements’ useful beyond the course — why do people not like the experience of using a product or space? What about it is unpleasant? How does that make them feel?
More often than not, it’s not just about a product or service on its own, we’re creating solutions to make the users feel better and have a better experience with it.
I managed to take this screenshot in one of my tutorial classes which I find intriguing:
“Ahh, so that’s why we appeal to certain products more than the other?” was what I realised. Well, at least, I used to think that certain products/services are more appealing than others simply because of their aesthetics or brand association. Taking this thought one step further, these aesthetic and brand choices are associated with how a person feels about the product. Say, for instance, a sense of authority or buying power.
Coming up with iterations or just wild ideas can be tricky. How wild should we go? How could we make our ideas less mainstream? Attaching another picture that I’ve taken during the tutorials:
HMW = How might we…
NM2104 Qualitative Communication Research Methods
Qualitative research. Wow. This is one that caught me by surprise. I was going to say that I enjoyed almost every part of it, except that I was reminded of how dreadful it was to get up every Thursday morning for this 8am class. Thankfully though, I stay on campus, so travelling to classes isn’t that much of an issue. NM2104 is one of the foundational courses of my CNM major, where we zoomed into the nuances and ‘intangible’ aspects of research such as body language and learned to interpret messages between the lines. I like that in the ‘world of qualitative research’, there is no definite right or wrong answers. “Well, it depends” is one of the frequently used responses the Tutor uses. It always depends on the context, and how the data was received.
NM2219 Principles of Communication Management
There is so much but (honest opinion) also so little that I’ve taken away from this course. That’s because there are quite a few theories on communication management. In fact, different types ranging from crisis communication, reputation management, organisational communication and more.
At the end of the day, however, it’s all about building good rapport and good relationships with your partners and other stakeholders. NM2219 demonstrates how Public Relations is different from other fields within Communication. It introduces PR as functions, a concept, a strategy, and a solution, almost like a whole new discipline on its own. I can’t deny that the theories do come in handy at times. I actually got to practice them first-hand during the semester, and it does work.
NM3217 Principles of Visual Communication Design
This is one of my top-of-the-top favourite courses. As someone who graduated from a polytechnic, every part of this course is up my alley. First off, it’s all assignments-based — meaning, no exams! Secondly, all of which, are individual assignments. Thirdly, the scope/topic of the assignments is up to us to decide. How cool is that?
It was like an Adobe crash course. I learnt a lot about Adobe Illustrator by doing it myself and from observing how my peers approach their assignments. Beyond NM3217, I find myself paying more attention to the everyday designs around me, and whether I find the message effective or not. Every design piece, is meant to communicate a message! See how this sort of relates to DTK1234 (looking at designs as a whole) and NM2219 (brand identity)? I thought the reflective journal, though tedious, probed me to keep a look out for the designs in my environment.
I can never see things the way I saw them before. Just take a look at KOI (bbt)’s new logo in 2023! The Old versus New.
It’s such a smart move to the point I’m speechless. The decision to extend the stroke of the letter “K” to simulate the bubble tea straw is brilliant. And the “o” as the toppings of a bubble tea? And using the sides of “k” and “i” to shape the bubble tea cup? Wow. Give this designing team a raise man!
RVSS1002 Feeding the Belly of A Nation
A friend recently asked me during the semester while we were having our dinner, “Do you eat to live, or live to eat?”
I also remember those days comforting myself with a cheap bowl of Maggi noodles thinking, “The food will be converted to poop anyways.” It was when I started to realise that food to me has always, almost, been just a means to survive for me. In RVSS1002 though, we explored the functions of food, how it is affected by policies, the solutions that people are creating to work towards 30 by 30, Singapore’s hawker culture, and how that has changed since the 70’s.
Did you know that prior to our hawker centres today, street hawkers had their own chairs to house their own customers? Instead, today, we have seats that are shared within the hawker centres. I thought that it was also interesting to think about how and where our food comes from through this course. Do hawker stall owners magically have meat in their stalls? Where are these goods imported from, how do we ensure that we have sufficient of such nutritious food for everyone in Singapore if there are people still wasting food every day?
There are endless questions in every seminar. Some serious questions that most of us take for granted for. Even till today, beyond RVSS1002, I still find myself learning more and more about food in our society.
CLC2204 Community Development With Youth
Exploring theories and practices on how organisations develop youths, CLC2204 introduced a new landscape to me despite having some experience prior with ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) in community development and social impact work with vulnerable communities.
Although almost everyone there was mainly driven by the motivation to clear their compulsory Communities Engagement (C&E) Pillar, I managed to find some great teammates. Contrary to my initial belief of how CLC2204 might be a counselling-like course for deviant youth behaviours or one that promotes youth volunteerism, this course is nothing like that. It shares youth engagement theories and how to build and bond social capital among youths. One of which is Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, which we commonly refer to as the “onion theory” in seminars for layman understanding.
My biggest takeaway from this course is keeping in mind that as much as theories challenge practice, it can also go the other way around. Without practice, there is no theory. Both are equally important, and I appreciate the emphasis on accepting that each theory has its limitations as well.
One other thing that I took away from the point above, was the realisation that there is no perfect approach to measuring impact — Not every output is quantifiable; qualitative output is also subjective. For instance, we discussed in one of our seminars the idea of a ‘caring individual’. Is a person no longer considered ‘caring’ if they are not able to commit to XX number of volunteering hours a month? How does one’s ideology of care differ from another?
OVERALL
As a whole, I think these courses were interesting to probe me further thinking beyond what the assignments were graded on. I find what helped me learn best was to carry that genuine curiosity and be open to unlearning things that I already knew. As much as grades do matter, I find myself enjoying this particular semester more (as compared to the previous semesters) and more eager to get feedback as much as I can.
It also allowed me to have a greater appreciation towards my discipline in communications and new media, and acknowledge that no other discipline or field of study is better than the other, because..
We all need each of every expertise to function in society.
As with the non-academic side of things:
Some of the highlights this past semester include forming a band with the other residents in my RC, performing for Christmas, meeting my new team at the 19th CNM Society and .. pulling all-nighters just to finish my assignments. I used to think that people were lying when they told me that “uni students no sleep one”.
No, they were not lying.
Cheers to another eventful semester ahead!
