Course Design

Overview: NCCU is actively advancing AI curriculum development, enabling faculty from diverse fields to participate in AI education and broaden their teaching impact. The Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Center has completed an inventory of all AI-related courses offered university-wide in the 2024–2025 academic year and compiled the results into an AI Interdisciplinary Course Map, which helps students plan their course pathways and provides faculty with valuable reference material for course development.

Overview: In recent years, NCCU has actively promoted “Sustainability Courses,” encouraging faculty to integrate the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their teaching and design courses with a global outlook and social impact. Through a keyword-based inventory, the University offered 792 sustainability-related courses in 2023, accounting for 14.20% of all courses — a clear sign that sustainability has become a defining feature of NCCU’s teaching culture.

Overview: The “Interdisciplinary Credit Program” provides students with a learning experience that transcends the boundaries of a single discipline, helping them acquire more comprehensive and in-depth professional knowledge from multiple fields. Through a flexible combination of courses, students can take courses from different disciplines based on their interests or career goals, cultivating a broader perspective, innovative thinking, and interdisciplinary problem-solving skills.

Overview: A “Microprogram” is a compact, specialized course cluster of 8 to 12 credits, planned by academic and research units, designed to help students develop interdisciplinary competencies in a flexible and structured way. Microprograms are divided into two categories — “Introductory Microprograms” and “Advanced Microprograms.” These programs encompass foundational, core, and applied courses, allowing students to progressively deepen their expertise based on their interests.

Overview: The “Capstone Course” is a high-level, integrative course designed for third- and fourth-year undergraduate students, helping them synthesize and deepen the foundational and advanced knowledge acquired throughout their university studies while connecting it to their future careers. Through systematic training, students have the opportunity at this final stage to reflect on their learning journey, integrate competencies developed across multiple courses, and produce a representative final project or portfolio.

Overview: “Innovative Teaching Courses” refer to courses that incorporate diverse and creative instructional approaches, enabling students to develop humanistic literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills beyond content knowledge alone. Innovation takes many forms, including humanities care, social engagement, information literacy, interdisciplinary learning, STEAM, generative AI, sustainable development, Problem-Based Learning (PBL), co-teaching, and cross-institutional collaboration.

Overview: “English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) Courses” refer to courses in which all instructional materials, teaching, interaction, discussion, assessments, and presentations are conducted in English. The use of other languages is permitted to a limited extent when clarifying technical terms or complex concepts, but all other course activities are conducted in English.

Overview: The “Advanced Placement (AP)” program was developed by our university in response to the 108 Curriculum Guidelines for senior high schools, enabling academically capable high school students to engage with university-level content ahead of time. By participating in AP courses, high school students can gain a deeper understanding of specific academic disciplines, confirm their intended field of study, and arrive at university better prepared.

Overview: “Open CourseWare (OCW)” primarily consists of self-study resources and knowledge made available by the university. Learners can set their own learning goals and choose how they engage with the content. The materials may also serve as a preview to help prospective students plan their future coursework, or as a review resource for those who have already completed a course.

Overview: “MOOCs” are open online courses delivered via the internet that allow large numbers of learners to participate freely. Our university uses the “NCCU DKB” as its primary platform, enabling faculty to manage courses online, design quizzes and assignments, facilitate discussions, and monitor learner progress and performance in real time. Free from time and location constraints, both students and members of the public can join at any time.