Posted in Module Reviews, Semester Reviews

ALS1010 Learning to Learn Better

This was a 2 MC module that I took to clear my extra UEs 😀 Heard many good reviews about this mod, and since it is a CS/CU mod, I went ahead to bid for it. True enough, ALS1010 is legit a super chill class that I will recommend for future batches. (I think bc its an online module HAHA). A good thing about this module is that theres only classes on specific weeks (e.g. Weeks 2-5 and Weeks 8-11) so we got time to grind for our mid terms and finals 🤡

When I took ALS1010, it was taught by Prof Kamei ( a super chill prof from YLL School of Medicine 😮 ) and Dr Magdeline (also super chill (supposedly) librarian ??) And there was a bunch of TAs that helped facilitated the session and made every class super interactive (theres music playing, kahoot, guest speakers, pollev, miro, group discussions).

Here’s the grading components:

  1. Attendance and Participation (30%)

Since this was an online class, we were expected to turn on our cameras, but thankfully, mute ourselves (unless we want to speak up, but theres almost little chance to do so because theres like 200+ ppl in the same zoom call). There’s also alternative forms of participation, aka everyone spamming the zoom chat hahaa. The TAs frequently post discussion questions in the zoom chat to facilitate participation.

Other forms of participation, as mentioned above, includes PollEv quizzes. In almost every class, Prof activates a PollEv quiz with some simple questions (relating to the topic), to track attendance and to facilitate class discussions.

On some weeks, we split into group (aka being randomly assigned to a breakout room) to be involved in some form of group discussions on Miro. Honestly, I think the effort was appreciated, but at least in my group, when we all went into the breakout room, all of us turned our camera off and it was just 20 mins of awkward silence cuz nobody (me too) wanted to lead the discussion HHAHAAH

2. Completion of Surveys (20%)

At the start of the course, we were expect to do like 1-2 surveys (basically to understand more about you), and then theres a follow up survey thats disseminated at the end of the course ( I guess its to track like before-after progress, and whether you have learnt anything from the course??) Tbh, I don’t really remember what the survey questions were on oof paiseh, and I didn’t even know this was graded until i’m writing this review now gg 🤡

3. Learning Draft (first draft) (15%)

We had to submit the first version of our learning draft, which comprises of the following:

a) Aspiration Goals

b) SMART Learning Tasks / Behaviours

c) Some table on Metacognitive Learning Cycle/ Self-Regulation/ Health & Wellbeing

d) Template Learning Calendar

Basically, we had to link the concepts taught in class, and then write it in our learning draft. Honestly, I didn’t really know how to fill in the learning draft, esp the table, but we were told that we just had to fill in half of the table and leave the Implementing and Evaluating for later, so I just filled in a) and b), and submitting it accordingly. Thankfully, the department did upload like a sample learning draft plan, so we could always refer if we didn’t know how to fill in the document.

4. Updated Learning Draft (15%)

I thought we were supposed to get some feedback from our first draft, but I didn’t get any??? So I was super confused about this, I ended up just modifying my document and resubmitting the same doc with like more specific goals, and also added the Implementing and Evaluating portion of the table.

5. Course Reflection Slide (20%)

This was basically just a one-page, A4 slide, where we write about some key takeaways from the course and reflection. Etc some questions that they kindly provided include:

• What are some changes in your behaviour (if any) after taking this course?
• What are some real-life examples you can think of which involve applying the learning strategies you have learnt?
• How do these strategies fit into the Holistic Learning Framework?

• What was your background of ‘status’ of learning before enrolling for this module?
• What are your learning gains and (renewed) sources of motivation?
• What aspects of your life do you see yourself applying what you have learnt?
• Are there any surprises which you have around your learning/how we learn?

There was some suggested word count (etc around 300 words for reflection, 50-100 words per takeaway), and specific font size, but honestly its so hard to fit all the words in a single slide lmao. I ended up writing so much and had to ignore the font size requirements just to fit everything into the slide. P.S. Canva has really nice slides, so i basically used a template from there :D.

Conclusion:

That’s all for the ALS1010 review!! Sorry it’s kinda short, tbh…. I don’t really remember what I have learnt from this course (oof), I wouldn’t say that I learnt nothing (Holistic Learning Framework and Chunking methods were kinda cool) but I wouldn’t say that I learnt a lot too (I keep seeing SMART framework everywhere). But I guess if you are looking to clear UEs, or if you are looking to overload on a semester, I think that ALS1010 is chill enough cuz it has a manageable workload. However, ALS1010 is not really offered every semester, so if you get the chance to take it, just hurry up take and clear it hhahhaa.

P.S. Theres actually another mod called ALS1020 Learning to Choose Better – which sounds rather cool too, but heard its not offered this entire academic year oof sad

Others

Lecturer: Prof Kamei and Dr Magdeline

Readings: NIL

Content: Can be rather dry… But can expose you to different concepts and frameworks, etc different studying methods.

Recommend?: If you have extra UEs, sure. (controversial opinion, but I wouldn’t say that I loved this mod bc I just took this to clear my UEs…) Workload is LOW and module is CS/CU.

voez

29 November 2022

Author:

Hi, I am currently a Year 4 student taking a double major in Business Administration (Marketing) and Economics at the National University of Singapore. When I first entered university, I remembered feeling lost and confused about how things work at NUS, and thus created VOEZNUSBIZ, a blog where I can help juniors and prospective students alike on their journey at NUS.

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