ICC Courses

The following 6 ICC courses for undergraduate programmes were developed by NTU faculty of diverse disciplinary backgrounds to address real-world subject matters from various perspectives:

ICC web graphics AY2025-26

CC0001: Inquiry and Communication in an Interdisciplinary World

Course Information

Course CodeCC0001
Course Title Inquiry and Communication in an Interdisciplinary World
Academic Units2 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 2

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 confidence and clarity, and to consider audience and purpose when you communicate.

Intended Learning Outcomes

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

  1. Closely observe and analyse texts and phenomena.
  2. Design questions or puzzles that can motivate further exploration.
  3. Summarise, paraphrase, and quote from sources accurately and ethically.
  4. Compose complex arguments that build on the ideas of published authors as well as your own analysis and thinking.
  5. Express your ideas orally through presentations.
  6. Discover writing as a tool for thinking.
  7. Use peer and teacher feedback to revise your thinking and communication.
  8. Recognise audience and rhetorical situation as significant factors in communication.
  9. Reflect and set your own learning goals in the course (pre-course self-reflection).
  10. Reflect on your learning achievement in the course and the achievement contributors (post-course self-reflection)

Course Content

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

  1. A place in Singapore;
  2. A community within Singapore; or
  3. Your own writing practices.

You will begin by closely observing your chosen topic, recording your data, and analysing 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. This question will become the motivation for your writing in the course. Eventually, you will be asked to find two sources that can help you 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 an 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 consult with your teacher and receive feedback on your draft.

At the end of the semester, you may decide to send your op-ed to a newspaper or online platform.

CC0002: Navigating the Digital World

Course Information

Course CodeCC0002*
Course Title Navigating the Digital World
Academic Units2 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 1

* Only students who matriculated into NTU from AY2021 to AY2024 will be required to take this course. CC0002 will be retired from AY2026.

Course Aims

With digitalisation 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 digital technology and to enable students to acquire some essential digital skills that are crucial in today’s workforce.

In this course, students will develop the ability to apply computational thinking and quantitative reasoning to solve problems and analyse data effectively. They will learn to identify online threats and understand key principles of ethics and intellectual property rights in the digital world.

Through the lens of computational thinking and quantitative reasoning, students will explore current digital-age issues such as cybersecurity and the rise of fake news, and gain deeper insights into their causes and implications.

The course will also equip students with practical skills in using the latest online tools for effective presentation, communication, and team collaboration, enabling them to work confidently in technology-driven environments.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  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.
  7. Reflect and set your own learning goals in the course (pre-course self-reflection.
  8. Reflect on your learning achievement in the course and the achievement contributors (post-course self-reflection).

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 - AI

CC0003: Ethics and Civics in a Multicultural World

Course Information

Course CodeCC0003
Course Title Ethics and Civics in a Multicultural World 
Academic Units2 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 1

Course Aims

This course aims to equip students 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. You will be provided with the tools to understand various and even contradictory perspectives on these important issues.

Time will also be devoted toward understanding Singapore’s own institutions and ideologies, which are of course products specific to our nation's own unique historical and geo-political circumstances. You will have better appreciation of the country’s institutions after reading the module.

Intended Learning Outcomes

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

  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

ML0004: Career Design and Workplace Readiness in the V.U.C.A. World

Course Information

Course CodeML0004
Course Title Career Design and Workplace Readiness in the V.U.C.A. World
Academic Units2 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 1

Course Aims

This course empowers students to build successful careers through a combination of self-discovery and the development and application of essential workplace skills. Students will enhance their self-awareness through comprehensive self-assessment, mastering techniques for effective resume and cover letter writing, networking, and interviewing. They will then apply these skills through practical exercises, including mock interviews and resume critiques, receiving valuable feedback to refine their approach. The culmination of this process is the creation of a well-defined and actionable career plan, setting them on a path toward achieving their professional goals.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  1. Conduct a Self-Assessment and Explore Career Pathways: Students will perform a comprehensive self-assessment to identify their values, interests, skills, and personality traits, culminating in the creation of three potential career pathways.
  2. Refine a Chosen Career Pathway Through Prototyping: Students will refi ne one chosen career pathway through a structured prototyping conversation, incorporating feedback to inform career planning and the creation of a professional resume and cover letter.
  3. Develop a Targeted Job Search Strategy: Students will develop a comprehensive job search strategy, incorporating online platforms, networking, and informational interviewing, resulting in a targeted resume and cover letter.
  4. Develop effective Resume Writing and Job Interviewing skills: Students will learn, prepare, roleplay and be coached on Resume writing and Job interviewing skills through in-class activities and coaching clinics.
  5. Apply Key Workplace Skills to Workplace Examples: Students will learn and apply at least two key workplace skills (e.g. effective communication, confl ict resolution, ethical decision-making) using examples drawn from real workplace situations.
  6. Develop an Actionable Career Roadmap: Students will develop a detailed career roadmap outlining short-term and long-term goals, strategies, and skill development, informed by self-assessment, prototyping, and job search activities.
  7. Reflect and set your own learning goals in the course (pre-course self-reflection).
  8. Reflect on your learning achievement in the course and the achievement contributors (post-course self-reflection).

Course Content

The topics that will be covered in this course are:

Topic 1: Welcoming to the Future World

  • The Future of Work
  • The Fourth Industrial Revolution
  • The Future of Work: What Skills will be Needed
  • Digital, Green and Care Economy
  • Singapore Skills Framework
  • Career vs. Job
  • Designing your Life

Topic 2: Designing Your Career Path

  • Introduction to SODA
  • Values, finding true north and build your compass
  • Identifying Work View and Life View, Achieving Coherence
  • Flow Theory
  • Personality and Skills
  • Prototyping, Odyssey Plan, Dashboard
  • Career Mobility

Topic 3: Developing Job Search Skills

  • Ways to Get a Job
  • Resume – Component, Format, KSA, CAR
  • Cover Letters
  • Job Interview – Preparation, Interview Tips, Typical Interview Questions and How to Answer Them, Post Interview Follow-up

Topic 4: Taking Action in Your Career Journey

  • Personal and Online Brand
  • Elevator Pitch and Elevator Conversation
  • Outsider Problem
  • Prototyping Conversation
  • Networking
  • Offer Searches
  • Happenstance

Topic 5: Master LinkedIn for Success

  • Creating an Optimised LinkedIn Profile
  • Developing your Personal Brand in LinkedIn
  • Strategic Networking and Building Connections in LinkedIn
  • Content Creation and Engagement
  • Leveraging LinkedIn for Career Opportunities

Topic 6: Developing Critical Life Skills

  • Emotional intelligence
  • Self-Confidence / Growth Mindset
  • Adaptability, Resilience / Grit
  • Communication Skills
  • Presentation Skills
  • Collaboration Skills
  • Conflict Management Skills
  • Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving skills
  • Curiosity and Continual Learning

Topic 7: Developing Critical Workplace Skills

  • Importance of Internships
  • Political Skills
  • Working with Difficult Colleagues
  • Working with a Diverse Multi-Generational Workplace
  • Ethics in Workplace Challenges

CC0005: Healthy Living and Wellbeing

Course Information

Course CodeCC0005*
Course Title Healthy Living and Wellbeing
Academic Units3 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 1

* Only students who matriculated into NTU from AY2021 to AY2024 will be required to take this course. CC0005 will be retired from AY2026.

Course Aims

This course aims to provide multi-disciplinary competence in a cross-disciplinary, collaborative learning environment, with student interaction and collaboration across schools as a key learning foundation.  As the title connotes, the main objective of this compulsory undergraduate course is to examine what constitutes living a good, healthy, and flourishing life.

According to research, individuals around the world pursue this “flourishing life” in different ways, be it through improving one’s physical fitness, seeking authentic relationships with others, or making a positive change in the environment.  Thus, knowing and understanding how the different components of a “good life” contribute to one’s overall functioning is critical to one’s healthy wellbeing.  The latter, in turn, affords many benefits such as better health (physical, mental, and emotional health) and stronger relationships. 

By the end of this course, you would have developed an awareness of what constitutes living a healthy and flourishing life, both of which indirectly contribute to a successful undergraduate education.       

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:
  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. Recognise 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. Evaluate 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.
  10. Reflect and set your own learning goals in the course (pre-course self-reflection).
  11. Reflect on your learning achievement in the course and the achievement contributors (post-course self-reflection).

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

CC0015: Health and Wellbeing

Course Information

Course CodeCC0015
Course Title Health and Wellbeing
Academic Units2 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 2

Course Aims

This course aims to provide multi-disciplinary competence in a cross-disciplinary, collaborative learning environment, with student interaction and collaboration across schools as a key learning foundation. As the title connotes, the main objective of this compulsory undergraduate course is to examine what constitutes living a good, healthy, and flourishing life.

According to research, individuals around the world pursue this “flourishing life” in different ways, be it through improving one’s physical fitness, seeking authentic relationships with others, or making a positive change in the environment. Thus, knowing and understanding how the different components of a “good life” contribute to one’s overall functioning is critical to one’s healthy wellbeing. The latter, in turn, affords many benefi ts such as better health (physical, mental, and emotional health) and stronger relationships.

By the end of this course, students would have developed an awareness of what constitutes living a healthy and flourishing life, both of which indirectly contribute to a successful undergraduate education.

Intended Learning Outcomes

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

  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. Recognise the importance of self-determination and values-based actions in the pursuit of personal growth and self-actualisation.
  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, fi tness, and diseases.
  8. Evaluate 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.
  10. Reflect and set your own learning goals in the course (pre-course self-reflection).
  11. Reflect on your learning achievement in the course and the achievement contributors (post-course self-reflection).

Course Content

The following topics will be covered in this course:

  1. The Body-Mind-Spirit Connection for Health and Wellbeing
  2. Health and Wholeness
  3. Health and Disease
  4. Health and Nutrition
  5. Health and Fitness
  6. Understanding Stress and Fostering Self-Care
  7. Building Mental Health Awareness and Resources
  8. Nurturing Healthy Relationships and Social Wellness
  9. Aspiring Personal Growth and Self-Actualisation

CC0006: Sustainability: Society, Economy & Environment

Course Information

Course CodeCC0006
Course Title Sustainability: Society, Economy & Environment 
Academic Units3 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 1

Course Aims

The course aims to inspire a long-lasting mindset of awareness, critical thinking, curiosity, and collaboration across disciplines through the lens of current sustainability challenges. You will learn to analyze sustainability issues from different perspectives (social, economic, and environmental) and on different scales (individual, organizational, Singaporean, and global). You will then use these skills to discuss and propose solutions for sustainability challenges facing Singapore and the world. By the end of the course, you would have developed an awareness for, and a system thinking approach to, sustainability, which you can continue to develop no matter which discipline or career path you choose to embark on.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon the successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Explain the multidimensional systemic nature of sustainability.
  2. Analyse 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 their projects related to sustainability.

Course Content

Every topic covered is analysed from each of the three systems: Society, Economy, and Environment, and emphasises how sustainable development needs to include all three systems.

Topics to be covered in the course:

  1. Introduction: Why each discipline should know about sustainability, UN SDGs, Singapore Green Plan.
  2. Poverty and equality: How to measure it, how widespread it is, how to eradicate it.
  3. Food systems: Sustainability and global food security.
  4. Water: Availability and sustainable management of water resources.
  5. Energy and Climate Change: Sustainable and reliable sources, mitigation of climate change and policy instruments.
  6. Responsible consumption and production: Waste reduction.
  7. Pollution: Air, plastics, light, noise.
  8. Sustainable cities: The role of big cities in sustainability development. What is a sustainable city?
  9. Planetary boundaries, Earth system feedback and tipping points: Staying in control of our planet and its systems.

CC0007: Science and Technology for Humanity

Course Information

Course CodeCC0007
Course Title Science & Technology for Humanity
Academic Units3 AUs
Start of Instruction Week 1

Course Aims

This 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. You will learn to perceive and analyse the potential benefits and costs of scientific/technological innovations and applications from different perspectives and on different scales. You can 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. Describe the basic scientific/technical principles of the featured cutting-edge research/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. Describe and analyse connections between three general types of perspective on the challenges of innovation and application: scientific/technical, business, and humanistic/social scientific perspectives.
  3. Identify, critique, and evaluate ethical, financial, organizational, legal, social, and cultural components surrounding the application of technological innovations.
  4. Identify and present possible innovations and solutions for their application that would achieve a consensual balance between scientific-business-social concerns.
  5. 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)