NUS Almost Dropouts

NM4208/NM4208HM NUSMods Link Taken in: AY23/24 Semester 2 Lecturer: Mr Tan Kai En Grading: 5% - Participation 30% - Integrated Communications Plan 65% - Final Project (Individual) 45% Magazine 20% Website 25% (HM ONLY) - Analysis and Critique Paper I took the HM variant for pre-CHS cohort, which had the additional 25% portion. In this module, you'll use advanced InDesign to create a 16-page magazine for your final project. You'll also be taught simple Figma and can use it (or WIX, or other site builders) to create a 5-page (or 5-section, scrollable) website. The magazine and website are both for an organisation of your choice, to achieve certain strategic goals. You will of course, start with the Integrated Communications Plan (ICP). Yes, I wrote about the assignments in backwards order. Basically, all the ...

NM4259/NM4259HM NUSMods Link Taken in: AY23/24 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Dennis Ang Grading: 10% - Participation 40% - Project 1 (Group) 30% Group Grade 2 x 2.5% Weekly Milestones 10% Final Group Presentation 15% Final Group Report 10% Individual (4 x 2.5% individual reflections) 50% - Project 2 (Individual) 10% Initial Proposal 5% Low-Fi Wireframes 10% Mid-Fi prototype and Prototype evaluation report (5% each) 25% High-Fi prototype (10%) and overall design documentation (15%) I took the HM variant for pre-CHS cohort, which had the additional 25% portion. PS. Sorry for uploading this review a semester late. This module focuses on designing for mobile interaction. The focus is on mobility (obviously smartphones, but also smart...

NM4231/NM4231HM NUSMods Link Taken in: AY23/24 Semester 1 Lecturer: Ivan Tan Grading: 20% - Participation 30% - Assignment 1: Media Zine (Group) 20% Group Grade 10% Individual Reflection 50% - Assignment 2: PSA Video (Individual) 5% Pitch 45% Video 25% - Reflection Essay (HM only) I took the HM variant for pre-CHS cohort, which had the additional 25% portion. Wahahah! I'd like to admit first-off that, I wasn't planning on taking this module. I didn't do so well for the prerequisite NM3230 and thought I'd certainly swore off videography. Well, I took this because there's a new lecturer taking this course for this AY, and my friend wanted me to take with them. So, I stuck around. I'll be frank. The difference between this and NM3230 is you'll be a little...

NM4238 NUSMods Link Taken in: AY22/23 Semester 2 Lecturer: Dr Taberez Neyazi Grading: 20% - Participation (in-seminar and forum posting) 20% - Individual Lead Discussion 30% - Individual Essay (Max 3000 words, week 8) 30% - Final Group Project (Designing an Inclusive Software) 20% Final Paper (Max 6000 words, reading week) 5% Week 13 Presentation 5% Peer Review This module is for discussion of software from a critical, humanities-based approach, which, I think might be much-needed in an era of tech-dominated solutions. You'll discuss software (such as AI and algorithms), and some topics could include the ethics of software in making decisions, the discourse around AI-generated art, how software shapes identity, etc. If that sounds like yo...

NM4102 NUSMods Link Taken in: AY22/23 Semester 2 Lecturer: Dr Elmie Nekmat Schedule: 3h seminar-style Grading: 20% - Participation 20% - Class Project (Method Critique) 10% - Presentation 10% - Class Activity 25% - Individual Method Critique Paper 35% - Final Group Research Project 5% - Week 13 Presentation 20% - Final Report Note: Unsure about breakdown. These percentages were listed on the assignment guideline. This module is meant to support your Honours Thesis research by refreshing on research methods that were previously taught in NM2103 and NM2104 (respective reviews may be outdated). There is a greater focus on Quantitative meth...

Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Suwichit Chaidaroon Tutor: Ho Wei Yang Grading: 10% Class participation 30% Online case discussion x2 30% Group project 30% Final project + Video presentation Funny story, I actually didn't plan to take this module - I bidded for NM2203 (some module on social media, I think the CNM department no longer offers it) and took this as a desperate last minute decision. I had planned on taking NM3219, which requires you to take either NM2219 or NM2220 as a prerequisite. At that time, I was already set on taking NM2220 as I was more interested in journalism. Well thank god everything worked out and I ended up taking this module, as it quickly became my favourite module of the semester. Dr Sean's teaching style is a breath of fresh air, imbuing many of his lectures with interactive activities and interesting real-life examples of PR campaigns. And as always, if you've read my NM2104 review, you would know that Wei Yang is the absolute best ...

NM3217 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 2 Lecturer: Tan Kai En Tutor: Tan Kai En Grading: 10% - Participation 10% - 7 Lecture Assignments (All due week 13) 3x15% - Assignments 1-3 35% - Final Project (Brand Style Guide): 5% - Business Card 10% - Overall Brand Style Guide 10% - Logo 10% - Resume This is the design module that teaches you Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, in order of how often you'll use the software. After taking this module, I discovered how much of a gem InDesign is, and grew less scared of working with Vector Graphics. Actually, most of the assignments require you to use InDesign and mostly use vectors. I actually didn't use Photoshop in any of my assignments... The final project of this mod...

NM2220 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Wu Shangyuan Tutor: Ms Sim Ee Waun Grading: 20% - Participation 20% - Assignment 1: News Angle Pitches 35% - Assignment 2: Feature Story 25% - Assignment 3: Press Release NM2220 was scary to us, because some seniors complained it was hard to do well in, some made it out barely scraping by a B. Though, others seemed to get by just fine. Well, we took it anyway. This module covers a lot of aspects of media writing including print journalism (news), broadcasting (radio/TV), web, advertisement, media ethics and law, PR, etc. However, this module does not go deeply into many of the topics it covers, and the assignments have an emphasis on written work (News article, Press release). The assignments cover print/written ...

NM3216 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Alex Mitchell Tutor: Lee Junhui, Brandon Grading: 10% - Participation 30% - 10% x 3 Written Reflections (500 words each) 15% - Project 1 (Board Game, Wk 3-5) 5% Group 10% Individual 35% - Project 2 (Computer Game, Wk 6-13) 10% Week 13 Presentation 5% Group 20% Individual 10% - Weekly Tutorial Milestones (Wk 3 to 13) 1% x 3 - Project 1 Milestones 1% x 7 - Project 2 Milestones This module covers the fundamental theories of game design, including level design, types of players, fun, interaction, etc. A lot of theory behind what makes a game. The assessment is 100% CA, with an emphasis on group project work. This...

NM2213 Taken in: AY21/22 Semester 1 Lecturer: Dr Alex Mitchell Tutor: Dr Alex Mitchell Grading: 10% - Participation 20% - 10% x 2 Essay Assignment (1000 words each) 20% - Midterm Quiz 20% - Final Quiz 30% - Group Project comprising of: 20% Weekly Presentations (7 Presentations, 3min each) 5% Final Proposal 5% Individual Reflection (500 words) NM2213 is one of the more fun and "hands-on" modules in CNM. It dives into the basics of UX design, which if you've taken NM1101E, was briefly introduced in the interaction design segment (Recall the Don Norman reading). This is basically your gateway to the interactive media design (IMD) branch of CNM. This module covers the theory of interaction design in the first half of ...

Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Lecturer: Tabarez Ahmed Neyazi Tutor: Ozan Kuru Grading: 20% Class participation 20% Midterm quiz 20% Review of extra readings 5% Presentation  25% Final group report  5% Peer evaluation  5% Research participation (Extra credit) 3% SPSS quiz NM2103 is otherwise known as every CNM student's dreaded compulsory stats mod. Most seniors would advise against taking the three CNM core mods (NM2101, NM2103 and NM2104) together but I ended up having to that because ModReg refused to give me anything else. It turned out fine and I feel that they're  actually  quite complementary, because some content overlaps. All three have a week on ethics and the quantitative research mod mentions qualitative research and vice versa. What I would say is that you should definitely take NM2101 before, or at least at the same time as NM2103, as the project expects you to already have background knowledge on media theories in order to apply them to your project...

NM2101 Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Lecturer: Prof Renyi Hong Tutor: Prof Subhayan Mukerjee Grading: 20% - Attendance and Participation 10% - 4 Online Quizzes 20% - 2 Application Essays (1000 words each) 25% - Midterm Essays (3500 words) 25% - Final Essays (3500 words) NM2101 is basically NM1101E's tougher cousin. Many of the theories covered were already taught before in NM1101E, but personally, as compared to Prof Nat's teaching, Prof Hong's explanations of the same theories were much clearer and understandable. However, in exchange for that, the workload for this module is much higher than the NM1101E. Given that this module was conducted fully online this semester, the module had a 100% CA format, which I would argue made the mod much heavier. For an essay only worth 10%, you are expected to write 1000 words of tying a theory to a real-life media/communication phenomena, which I found really difficult - and even more frustrating since my tutor didn...

NM2104 T aken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Lecturer: Prof Angela Li Ke Tutor: Ho Wei Yang Grading: All Individual Work 20% - Tutorial (15%) and Forum Participation (5%) 20% - Media Diary 10% - Interview Questions 20% - Visual Analysis 30% - Final Project: Digital Ethnography (10% Presentation, 20% Submission) Note: This module was conducted entirely online for this semester M:  My favourite mod taken in NUS so far! Came in thinking the module would be boring (I mean... Research... Eh...) but I thoroughly enjoyed all the assignments. Some friends of mine had gripes about the module being too 'fluff' but I'm more than okay with that LOL, I love writing about useless things and this module is exactly that. The assignments are all pretty broad and open-ended -- you're left to pick your own topics yourself so I really enjoyed doing them. (For e.g., my research question for the 'interview questions' assignment was "How did the use of media...

NM2207 Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2 Lecturer: Prof Lonce Wyse Grading: 15% - Tutorial Participation 15% - Midterm Quiz 20% - Final Quiz 15% - Homework Assignments 35% - Final Project Note: Classes were conducted entirely online this semester. NM2207 is an introduction to HTML, CSS, and Javascript, packaged neatly in a module that will get you familiar in 13 weeks. You will probably take this module if you're pursuing a minor in IMD, and it's generally a nice module to learn about front-end development. By the way, don't be daunted that you're learning technically three languages. These 3 go hand-in-hand so you don't normally have one without the other two. Each week, there is a tutorial session where you will gather with your classmates to tackle a coding challenge for the day, and your tutor will be there to go through with you. In place of lectures, you will be expected to watch a code-along video which teaches you the...

NM1101E Description: Exposure mod that will introduce you into the field of CNM. It covers a wide range of fields within the study of communications, including the basic theory of communications, PR planning, interaction design, and culture in communications. AY20/21 Semester 1 Grading: Tutorial Participation: 10% Mid-Term Exam: 20% (Done on Examplify) Group Project: 30% + 10% Peer Evaluation Final Exam: 30% (Done on LumiNUS Quiz) Lecturer: Prof Natalie Pang Midterm: 10 MCQ and 1 Application Essay Final: 3 Application Essays Group Project: Represent a client to write up a PR plan to address an issue. M: My least enjoyed module last sem, despite me coming in almost fully certain I was going to major in CNM. Lectures were painfully boring, with Prof Nat's enthusiasm in teaching not nearly enough to get N and I to continue attending each lecture live. Certain theories to me were confusing to understand as well (that one week where w...