DYOM, aka Design-Your-Own Module is applicable for students who are keen to explore beyond their disciplines, or those who just want to clear their UEs. More information can be found here. Since I have completed 8MC worth of EDX in this semester, I am only able to provide guidance based on EDX modules that are enrolled via LUMINUS. I know that NUS is transitioning into CANVAS next semester onwards, so I am not sure how that works, and if the procedures are still the same. Nevertheless, I will my best to relay the enrolment procedures as per my experience with LumiNUS.
NUS has kindly provided a wiki guide as to how one can enrol for a module on EDX and I find it rather intuitive and clear. I will cop a few pictures from the guide and attach it here for your easy reference, but for clearer explanations, you can refer to the wiki guide here.
Step 1: Login into LumiNUS and click the ‘Module Search’ at the dashboard. Click ‘EDX Modules’.
Step 2: Click the EDX module that you want to enrol into. ONLY ENROL IN MODULES THAT HAVE THE BLUE LABEL FLAGGED AS ‘DYOM’, as these are the modules that are recognized by NUS.
Click the blue enrol button if you are interested to take this course. Please take note that doing so does not mean that you have officially enrolled into the course, you are only auditing the course. Only after you have paid for the course, gotten your certificate, and filed for reimbursement will the course be recognised as part of your EDX modules. It’s okay to enrol in this module, and change your mind later, because you can easily unenrol afterwards. (This is only if you have NOT paid for the course, if you have PAID, then you have to GET THE CERT, if not you can’t claim from NUS)
When you click the enrol button, you will be directed to this external edx page, so you just need to agree to the terms and condition, and then click ‘Yes, continue’ to confirm your enrolment. AGAIN, I REPEAT, unless you have paid for the course, it is not really an official enrolment and you are just auditing it, so you can always unenrol at the EDX page.
Step 3: After enrolment, and you have decided that this is the EDX module that you want to do, you need to get a verified certificate. To do so, you have to complete and pass the module criteria (usually. some quizzes and mini exams), but to get access to those, U NEED TO PAY FIRST.
To upgrade your course from audit mode to the verified track, you just need to click into the EDX course, and theres this ‘Upgrade now’ as shown above. After you make your payment, you can just proceed to do the course normally until you get a passing grade (or if you super onz, you can try to aim for 100% – but for me, I just get the passing grade to get the cert). The cert looks something like this: (I copped this from the wiki guide too) You can upload this cert on your LinkedIn for flexing purposes 🎉. (hahaha jk — or am i?)
P.S. If your payment fails, go to your bank acc and make sure you have enough money $$. Basically, even though the course may reflect that its USD 50, you pay close to SGD60-70 for it. If your card don’t have enough balance, then your payment may not go through
Step 4: After you get the cert, you can upload your supporting documents on EDUREC, so you can claim your money.
This can be found on EDUREC > ACADEMICS > DESIGN YOUR OWN MODULE > DYOM (EDX)> NEW APPLICATION (via LumiNUS).
When you click ‘NEW APPLICATION’, the list of enrolled EDX (which you have enrolled via LumiNUS via the verified track – aka you alr paid for it), should automatically pop up. IF it doesn’t show up, don’t fret, it usually shows up 2-3 days after you have paid for the course.
Now, heres what you need:
- PDF copy of the EDX Certificate that you have cleared and the corresponding certificate link.
- The payment receipt (when you upgraded it to verified track, there should be a receipt for it, KEEP THAT COPY IN PDF)
- A screenshot of your bank account showing the payment transaction (Need to show your account number and name, you can blur out the other unimportant details, and show only the payment for the EDX)
Basically, you just gotta submit all these three documents PER EDX MODULE, and then submit it for reimbursement. This takes around 1-2 weeks for the credits to be transferred to you, and another 1-2 weeks for the money to be reimbursed back to you. Heres the legend:
I recommend for you to submit all EDX claims in one shot (aka, if you decide to take 4 EDX courses, just submit at the same time, bc its just more convenient, and you can get your money back one shot too)
Like I mentioned above, I KNOW THAT NUS IS TRANSITIONING FROM LUMINUS TO CANVAS (and can i say… NOOOOOOO i love luminus). I am not sure when EDX will transition to CANVAS, and I am also not sure if the steps will be the same as above. NEVERTHELESS, i will just leave the above steps here as per my experience signing up for my EDX modules.
BUT ok, I know yall came onto this blog review, cuz yall want to know what EDX modules I took. Here’s the modules that I took, some of which I totally recommend, some…. not so much.
- Crisis Resource Management (2MC)
This is offered by Columbia University. 10/10 course, totally recommend for yall if you are looking for an easy EDX to clear. (soz, the ss is kinda dark)
Theres no exam for this course, you just have to watch all the videos, notes, and then do an attestation (where you attest that you have completed the readings and lectures for the week) and you can get your cert!
2. Mandarin Chinese for Business (2MC)
HEAR ME OUT, I just wanted to clear an easy EDX course, and after coming to uni, my chinese speaking and writing skills has gotten SOOO RUSTY. In my last internship, i legit struggled to speak chinese to my colleagues (who communicated in chinese 99% of the time istg). So when i chanced upon this module, i thought that its good to learn some chinese catchphrase in the business context. This was offered by MandarinX. Also a 10/10 course, but I may be biased cuz I rate this as to how easily I cleared this and I did study 高级华文 (but my chi sucksss now) for a period of time lol.
I wouldn’t say that I didn’t learn anything, but I wouldn’t say that I didn’t learn a lot too LOL. I guess I learnt some 好词好句 in some business context, and some business-phrases that i didn’t know before. Midway through, I just gave up watching the videos, and just dove into doing the quizzes (many of which were 汉语拼音，听写) which were quite easy to do (imo).
3. Teaching Computational Thinking (8MC)
This is offered by University of Canterbury, quite an interesting module that teaches computational thinking in our everyday life, some aspects of user heuristics. Also 10/10, but I may be biased cuz I cleared this quite easily LOL. I wanted to take computational thinking (GET1031) but saw this, so I just cleared this as an EDX instead.
To pass this module, you need to complete a final exam, but don’t worry, there are some quizzes that provide hints, and you have done your readings/watched the lecture videos, the questions are all very easy to do.
4. Justice (2MC)
This was offered by Harvard University, and I did this module because I audited this module for a while, and was quite interested in the lecture videos which explored various topics of justice: income distribution, same-sex marriages, loyalty etc. A lot of interesting insights and debates and moral dilemmas which I feel are quite applicable to our everyday life. I will rate this as a 10/10 for interesting topics, but a 1/10 for the exams 💀 cuz I died doing the questions IT WAS SO TOUGH and I STRUGGLED SO HARD TO PASS. I suggest doing this module as an audited track instead of verified track cuz the exam questions were super hard and theory-based.
AS mentioned above, I really enjoyed the topics covered in this module. There are polls dispersed throughout the lecture videos, which revolves around different dilemmas, and we can share our thoughts and what we feel is the correct action (p.s. theres actually no correct ans haha) Familiar topics, such as the trolley problems are explored in the module.
Conclusion
If you are looking for easy to pass EDX modules, I recommend taking the first 3 EDX that i suggested. The EDX module on Justice is really tough and I really struggled to pass it, but if you are interested in the topics, feel free to explore it under the Audited track (but if you decide to do the verified track then good luck to u 🤡)
P.S. I think some ppl are confused as to when you can take EDX, for me, since i wanted to count it into my Y4S1 transcript, I took my EDX in Y4S1, anytime from Week 1 til the end of the Exam Week of Semester 1. I think if you decide to do it in Winter (after exam week of sem 1) and claim your reimbursment during winter, then the credits may be transferred as part of your special term instead??? But ok dont quote me, cuz I only did mine in Semester 1 Week 9 so its reflected as part of my Y4S1, so pls check with whoever is in charge of EDX for clarification.
P.S. Not a lot of people know this, but if you actually google ‘EDX coupons’, you can get discount code (etc up to 30% off for EDX courses), which u can claim when you upgrade your course into the verified track. Yeah ik you can claim from the school anyway, but if you use these discount codes, you can potentially take more EDX courses 😀 you’re welcome
Others:
Lecturers: NIL, different DYOM have different instructors.
Readings: Quite a bit depending on the DYOM you take, but you can always skip them.
Content:
Justice (2MC) is the most interesting module out of all 4 DYOMs. But it is also the most DIFFICULT.
Crisis Resource Management (2MC) is the most chill DYOM and easiest to pass.
Mandarin Chinese for Business (2MC) was just 汉语拼音, so if you are good at that, then it’s also easy to pass.
Teaching Computational Thinking (2MC) The most applicable out of all 4 DYOMs.
Recommend?: All except Justice (bc the quiz was really tough😮💨)
voez
28 November 2022
NUS MODULE REVIEWS 