Welcome to AB0603, Business Gone Green!
I have been teaching this course since 2013, and love teaching it. I want to extend a warm welcome to those of you who have decided to join Mr. Wan and myself on this journey.
And it is a journey. As you will learn in class this week, AB0603 was designed to be a flipped-classroom course. This may be the first time you experience a flipped-classroom course and you may feel a little unsure (or perhaps excited) about it. That’s perfectly OK. We’ve designed the course with that in mind.
To allow everyone some time to familiarize themselves, Week 1 will be dedicated to introducing the course, ourselves, and talk about some key ideas in sustainability. Mostly, I’m just interested in meeting you all this week, and getting to know you a little bit. During class, I will also walk you through this blog, to show you where to find things, and help you gain a sense of direction.
We will then have four weeks (Weeks 2 to 5) of introductory material to cover. During these weeks (as well as remaining weeks), you will be required to engage in online and in-class participation which makes up 25% your grade. The weekly content provided on the blog for Weeks 2 to 5 is in-depth, and we will deepen our learning through exercises online an in-class. The purpose of these weeks is to provide you with a sufficient foundation of sustainability that will help you with your assignments and throughout the course. During these weeks, I will lead all the classes.
Groups for team work will be formed during Week 3.
Because this is a flipped-classroom, much depends on your active engagement during class. This requires your physical presence. Please note that absences will affect your participation grade. |
Week 6 to 13 will demand more self-directed study and initiative on your part. That is part of the goal of a flipped-classroom design. Therefore, the content provided on the blog is less comprehensive. But, key information is provided in PowerPoint slides you can download, to help you get started in the right direction. In addition, there will be lots of reference material provided for you to do your own research.
During Week 6 to 13, each team will be asked to lead portions of the class twice. Don’t worry. I will be there to guide you in the prior weeks and help you out wherever you need. Please do make sure that you understand the instructions for these team assignments, and if you have any questions at all, please approach me or Mr. Wan.
As well as having student-led portions in weeks 6 to 13, there will be instructor led portions. So apart from the team work, you will still need to engage as an individual online and in-class. Do not forget this (it’s a large portion of your grade).
In addition, you will also have to complete two individual assignments, which are essays. There is no exam for this course.
For this week, please do the following:
- Read carefully through the course outline below. It’s downloadable, in case you want to keep it in your own files.
- Familiarize yourself with this blog. Make sure you know where to find course content, assignment instructions, rubrics, the online discussion forum, additional resources, etc. If there is anything you can’t find, please ask me during class.
- Be aware that I will need your NTU email address to give you access to the online discussion forum. I will do this right after the first class, and update for the first three weeks to accommodate add/drop students. Please engage in online discussion right away – these need to be completed before class starts each week, from now on.
I really can’t wait to start this course and look forward to meeting you. See you in class!
– Judith and Chew Yoong