COIL Grant Past Recipients

Faculty: Dr Hoo Hui Teng, COB/Nanyang Business School (NBS)

Collaboration Institute: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS)

Cultural intelligence, CQ is the capability to function effectively in culturally diverse situations (Earley & Ang, 2003). IQ and EQ are no longer enough, and CQ is becoming a critical predictor for success in today’s increasingly global and diverse environments. Some key CQ benefits include increased intercultural adjustment, improvement in cultural judgment and decision-making, and greater effectiveness in intercultural negotiations.  A malleable competence, CQ can be developed through training and coaching.  This course will provide students with a conceptual framework for CQ and a set of tools to further their capabilities to navigate and explore the world.

The COIL collaboration is between NTU and AUAS students who will work in teams of 4 to 5.  Students will learn from one another the content covered in their courses and then produce a cultural podcast.  The objectives are to enhance self-regulated learning, accelerated learning, and working in multi-cultural virtual teams.

Reference

Earley, P. C., & Ang, S. (2003). Cultural intelligence: Individual interactions across cultures. Stanford University Press.

Faculty: Assoc Prof Raymond Lau Wai Man, COE/ School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CCEB), and Dr Poernomo Gunawan, COE/ School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CCEB)

Collaboration Institute: 

1. Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia, Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

2. Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU), Taiwan, Department of Chemical Engineering. 

This course aims to provide students exposures to real life industry problems that are encountered in chemical, pharmaceutical, healthcare and other industry sectors, so as to bridge the knowledge gap between academia and industry and to broaden students’ perspectives. 

The course will include a field trip to our university and/or industry partners for our students to have a first-hand experience to understand the real scale of the problem as well as to have more exposure to different socio-geographical context that may be critical in solving the given problems. It will also enable our students to put their knowledge into practice through collaborative learning with local students from a partner university in the form of group work activities.

Faculty: Assoc Prof Andrea Nanetti, CoHASS / School of Art, Design and Media (ADM)

Collaboration Institute: 

i) Peking University, China

ii) Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy

This course will give students the tools to develop their skills using real specimens related to cultural heritage. Students will be presented with abroad range of techniques to analyse and document the biography of an example. This learning will provide the foundation for more advanced investigations into cultural heritage and technology.

The course will be enhanced to explore the potential of virtual learning by expanding the classroom overseas in NTU partner institutions (Peking University and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). NTU students will benefit from the cross-cultural environment guaranteed by the involvement in the international project supervised by the instructor for the celebrations of the 700th year since the death of Marco Polo (1324-2024) in Venice-Italy and Beijing-China.

Faculty: Assoc Prof Peer M Sathik, COHASS/ School of Art, Design and Media (ADM)

Collaboration Institute: IIT Bombay, India

The primary goal of this course and collaboration is for students from both sides to design solutions to problems/issues identified by the other. The secondary goal is to foster debate and discourse on this topic among students from both sides, preparing them to become future designers/media artists for the world beyond the borders of their own country and culture. The outcome is expected to be the first exposure for design students on either side to designing for 'global markets/audiences’ not for purely commercial purposes, but for real-world problems faced in Mumbai (and India) and Singapore (and Singapore).

Faculty: Dr Rebecca M. Nichols, COHASS/ School of Social Sciences (SSS)

Collaboration Institute: Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), Surabaya, Indonesia 

This NTU-USP module aims to strengthen students’ understanding of sustainability issues, widely defined, with a focus on exploring these topics in the context of social, communal, and cultural dynamics. Student teams will centre their research on a sustainability issue important for both Surabaya and Singapore, deepening a general understanding of related problems while also creating space for innovation in the management and mitigation of related difficulties.

With support from the COIL grant, students from both NTU and UNAIR will participate in the module.  NTU students will join classes physically while UNAIR students will join remotely. NTU students will also travel to Surabaya to meet their UNAIR counterparts during the recess week for fully in-person fieldwork programme. All students will engage in learning activities that are designed to promote learning outcomes, develop intercultural skills, improve digital competencies, and reflect critically about collaborative work involving individuals who are dispersed geographically. By the end of this course, students will attain a higher level of intercultural competency and achieve another step towards becoming a global citizen, as they will understand nuances in their neighbouring country’s language, social exchanges, and cultural norms through their collaborative exploration into sustainability issues.

Faculty: Dr Astrid Schmied, National Institute of Education (NIE)

Collaboration Institute: Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI), Chile

With an emphasis on translating neuroscientific findings into practical teaching and learning practices, this COIL course adopted an active learning approach and provided undergraduate students with a theoretical basis to evaluate existing pedagogies and to develop new ones informed by neuroscience. 

This COIL course not only allowed students to understand how neuroscience research can help optimize teaching and learning, but also to learn cross-culturally and collaboratively with international peers and instructors located remotely through a blended learning structure. 

The COIL course was co-taught by instructors from NIE and UAI.

Faculty: Dr Seetha Lakshmi, National Institute of Education (NIE)

Collaboration Institute: Universiti Malaya, Malaysia

The course aims to introduce students to the historical background of Tamils in different diasporic

communities. Students will understand ways in which their language and culture were maintained and

be introduced to concepts for explaining the changes in Tamil language development. Students will

also learn about the lifestyle of migrated Tamils in different countries and understand their culture,

customs, habits, as well as changes found in the domains of their social life.

Interaction with students from overseas partner institutions will enhance students' learning in this course. New online resources and materials will be developed for the blended learning approach in order to facilitate inquiry-based learning. Furthermore, the field trip will provide students with immersive experiences that will help them better understand the differences between diasporic Tamil communities. The diverse backgrounds of their local and international peers provide a diversity in class discussion that will enrich their understanding of cultural nuances.