National Taiwan University (NTU) has implemented innovative teaching methods in the cross-disciplinary design courses offered by D-school, Special Second Fields provided by colleges, advanced courses incorporating digital technique, online advanced placement courses for High School students, and courses focusing on boosting communication and writing skills.
The budget implementation efficiency of 2019 has reached over 80%. The results of this project are highlighted as follow:
In terms of implementing innovative teaching methods:
- Promoting cross-disciplinary learning
By 2019, NTU has offered 36 credit programs and6 Special Second Fields. To raise students' willingness to take cross-disciplinary courses, the minimum credit requirement for each credit program is lowered from 20 to 15, and that for each Special Second Fields is lowered from 15 to 12.
NTU has provided various cross-disciplinary courses, such as co-teaching courses and cross-disciplinary specialty courses, with the participation of nearly 2000 students and teachers. It also actively collaborates with organizations inside or outside of the university through D-School. In 2018 and 2019, NTU collaborated with the University of Tsukuba to hold the Entrepreneurship camp and offered courses on innovation and entrepreneurship in the AEARU 2020 Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program. The program fosters innovation-based entrepreneurship through the exchange of creative proposals while promoting its innovation and entrepreneurship mechanism. With such an improved mechanism for cultivation, students who join the program’s courses can take the first step to start a business in a year. Meanwhile, the number of innovation and entrepreneurship course-related creative proposals or innovative projects has reached a total of 51.
- Deepen fundamental and professional courses
In response to the future trends and needs of the industry, all teaching units expand their curricula by deepening intermediate, advanced, and practicum/hands-on courses, establishing modes of domestic off-campus learning and internships, refining core professional courses, and promoting capstone modules. For example, the Department of Mathematics breaks down the course Calculus into four modules "Calculus (1)", "Calculus (2)", "Calculus (3)" and "Calculus (4)" to reduce students' stress in taking this subject and enable them to arrange their course schedule more flexibly.
Besides, all teaching units put a lot of effort into maximizing students' opportunities for internships abroad. For example, the College of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science proactively contacts overseas enterprises for more internship opportunities, matching suitable candidates with the enterprises, hosting information sessions, and experience sharing sessions of overseas internships to increase the international competitiveness of students. The Department of Computer Science & Information Engineering also signed an agreement on academic and research cooperation with the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) in Japan and has sent five graduate students to attend the internship program to increase students' international mobility.
Colleges have also continued to provide and deepen their hands-on courses to encourage cross-disciplinary thinking, problem-solving skills, logical thinking, and practical ability. Take the course "Introduction to Biological Mechatronics Engineering" offered by the College of Bioresources and Agriculture as an example. The first half of the course comprises introductions to mechanical systems, Mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and bioprocess, which establishes the framework of the foundation and application of biological mechatronics engineering. The second half of the course is constituted by presentations of empirical cases and end-of-semester creative projects to inspire students to apply intelligent engineering technologies to physical design in agriculture or daily life.
In the school year 2019, a total of 15,993 courses were offered by all teaching units, including 435 advanced courses, with the participation of 10,648 students. A total of 1,096 practicum/hands-on courses were offered, with the participation of 30,550 students. Of all the courses in NTU, the practicum/hands-on courses account for 7.05%.
- Innovative Teaching with Digital Platforms
(1) “NTU COOL”, the Digital Teaching and Learning Platform: During the Fall Semester 2019, the total number of courses was 320, which were open to over 10,550 faculty members and students. Meanwhile, more than 250 online blended/ hybrid courses were available for over 10,000 participants.
(2) Offering Credit for MOOCs Learning: By the end of 2019, NTU had provided 56 MOOCs courses by collaborating with Coursera, the international online learning platform. The number of registrants exceeded 940,000. Among them, more than 20,000 participants completed their courses, and 2,000 received certificates. Starting from the Spring Semester 2018, NTU has been promoting “MOOCs Credit Transfer and Accreditation System”, and 3 NTU Coursera courses have been integrated into the general education program since then, offering flexible and diverse ways of learning for students. In total, 498 applications for accreditation were submitted in 2019.
(3) Initiating the Self-Evaluation System for Pre-Freshman Calculus: NTU has built the calculus question database to help students overcome the difficulty in understanding calculus. Instructional videos and course PowerPoint slides are also provided for first-year students to self-study. During the Fall Semester 2019, a total of 794 students applied for the self-evaluation system, accounting for 30% of the total number of students who take calculus.
In terms of develop the university’s characteristics：
- NTU’s 1st Science Innovation School for Global Young Scientists was held from August 19-25, 2019. The event’s two big themes were “Quantum Computing” and “Life Science”, which are two leading trends worldwide. 20 outstanding and specially selected students from Taiwan and 27 talented young students from the top high schools in Japan, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, who came to Taiwan for academic exchanges, teamed up in group projects to compete in the final presentation.
- The NTU Family Meeting was organized for the first time in 2019. 27 representatives from 22 partner universities from 10 countries participated in the event, including from Heidelberg University, KU Leuven, the University of California, Davis, the University of Tokyo, Seoul National University, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Sydney.
- International student recruitment results: In the academic year 2019/2020, NTU welcomed 282 international degree students, 18 double degree students, 754 exchange students, and 53 visiting students, in total 1107 international students, which is an increase of 8,96% over the same period last year.
In terms of enhance the social responsibility of higher education：
- Increase enrollment opportunities for economically or culturally disadvantaged students and boost social class mobility: The enrollment quota for disadvantaged students increased to 58 in 2019.
- Promote comprehensive care for disadvantaged students: cross-unit plans to increase abilities and skills, financial support, help with schoolwork, international exchanges, career exploration, cultural and social service schemes, and other counseling programs. In 2019 3714 students have been counseled, and special funds of more than 20.43 million TWD were granted for counseling and tutoring.
In terms of university social responsibility：
NUT’s University Social Responsibility (USR) project team “University PLUS: A New Social Responsibility Platform” aims to build bridges between the university and community. Through well-designed social practice courses, students and citizens are able to engage with each other and explore new ideas in a self-directed, place-based, and user-oriented way. With hands-on learning experiences, students can provide innovative solutions to solve local problems. The “University Plus” team strives to make students, communities, and campuses thrive together and promote NTU’s social responsibility.