INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS (IMC)

Branding Fundamentals

Building a brand is the cornerstone of marketing communication campaigns in the dynamic media and communication industry. This module will introduce one of the key design thinking principles – Deep User Understanding - so that students will be able to develop integrated marketing communications campaigns or media content that are enriched with good knowledge of the target consumers to aid in building a brand.

Critical and Analytical Thinking

This module aims to equip students with skills in critical and analytical thinking, which includes the ability to evaluate different perspectives, articulate a point of view and support it with relevant and credible evidence. The module also provides students with opportunities to practise information literacy, and critical and analytical thinking skills through the exploration of contemporary local and global issues.

Education and Career Guidance 1: Personal Development

This module aims to help you discover your strengths, values and interests. It also supports you in making informed educational and career choices to achieve your career aspirations.

MAD Taster

Choose 2 out of 5 taster modules.

Narrative Thinking (NAT)

This module aims to equip students with the skills to critically evaluate the elements of narratives used in a variety of contexts, and to appreciate and harness the power of storytelling in our daily life. Students will analyse narratives to connect and contextualise self to society, and learn to craft impactful personal narratives to inspire or influence others.

PlayLab

Creativity, as well as the ability to explore problems through transdisciplinary lens, are key skills needed to solve complex real-world issues. PlayLab aims to cultivate these skillsets, by getting students to understand how we can disrupt the thinking process, to trigger creative ideas, in a playful, purposeful and meaningful way. PlayLab is an interdisciplinary, studio-based project module that aims to teach students how to approach complex problems in a systematic yet creative way, through playful and creative problem solving. To further expand their scope in generating novel and innovative solutions, they will also be introduced to prototyping with technology. These skills will provide them with opportunities to arrive at solutions, from a holistic standpoint, beyond the parameters of their respective disciplines.

Polywide Elective

Principles of Design

Design plays a vital role in shaping and improving the user experience across all disciplines in the creative industry. It is a basic skillset that is core to the creation of effective animations, games, videos, marketing campaigns, etc that users interact with daily in the real-world. This module aims to cultivate these skillsets through the introduction of the basic principles of design. Students will engage in hands-on photography, digital imagining and illustration exercises to expose them to the importance of visual hierarchy and flow, colour theory, typography and other core design elements. They will undergo training to understand the importance of the design process from developing creative concepts, to sketching for communication and finally art directing effective designs for their users across various platforms.

Research Methods

Having a deep understanding of who you are creating for is the first step in creating desirable content, campaigns, programmes, products, and services. This is a skill that all media and design students need. This module introduces students to the research tools needed to understand their stakeholders and test out their ideas. In this module, students will develop fluency in deriving insights to tackle the problems/issues at hand through research. They will practise teamwork and develop problem solving skills when analysing data.

Sports For Life

Sports for Life (SFL) is a physical education programme that has become part of the Graduation Criteria for ALL Year 1 students matriculated since AY2018/19. During this e-learning Semester, Year 1 students can choose their preferred module from a selection of 9 sports. SFL aims to encourage students to lead an active lifestyle by following a holistic e-learning package with videos and supplementary materials that focuses on acquiring knowledge, rules of the game, basic sports techniques and maintaining fitness. Besides physical activity, the e-learning curriculum also comprises of syllabus on Mental Wellness and Personal Leadership using 7 Habits of Highly Effective College Students.

Story Craft

Stories are the most powerful way to communicate. A good story captures our attention, makes us feel, shapes the way we think and even influences our actions. Telling a good story is essential in the media and creative industry whether you choose to be a writer or a journalist, a games developer or a designer, a brand specialist or an animated content creator. Through the study of storytelling, students will recognise the power of story in connecting people and shaping the way we see the world. They will learn key concepts from ideation to character development, story world building and narrative structure. They will examine themes and create original stories that will resonate with a target audience. They will learn tools in video storytelling. Ultimately, students will present their story in the form of a media product using audio visual technology.

Human Experience and Behaviour

Psychology is the foundation for understanding users. This is integral to the user experience (UX) process which underpins the MAD core modules. In this module, students will learn how humans process information, how our personalities and motivations shape us, and how media and the people around us influence our emotions and behaviours. They will also learn basic concepts in secondary research to enrich their understanding of users, audiences, or stakeholders to create more effective ideas that appeal best to their users, audiences or stakeholders.

Video and Audio Fundamentals

This module aims to train students in basic video production. Students will learn essential camera functions and grammar of shots. They will plan, shoot, edit the sequence and export the video for delivery. This module will also teach students to select required audio formats, and edit and export them. At the end of the module, students will be required to combine video and audio to produce a presentation of good quality.

Writing Across Media Platforms

Introduces students to the various platforms in the media world and how they have evolved to dominate the present way of communication. Students will be able to recognise the changing identity, preferences and habits of the consumer of the different media platforms. They will learn to craft stories and content for each medium and platform. The module will also take the student through the processes of conceptualising, crafting and developing an idea into media content that can cross different platforms, for the evolving media consumer.

Advertising

This module gives students an overview of the advertising industry. Students are taught how to develop a strategy and a big idea in response to a brief, and implement a marketing campaign across different paid platforms. They will also be able to develop a budget and propose metrics to track the success of the campaign.

Building A Brand

This module will deepen students’ foundations in brand building and managing a brand, through Design Thinking principles – Ideation, Prototyping & Co-Creation and Strategic Business Framework- as well as other principles essential to building a brand. Students will learn the mechanics/tools necessary for formulating a winning and sustainable brand.

Digital Analytics

In this module, students will be equipped with the skills to utilise a variety analytics tools and interpret data obtained from these sources to refine marketing strategies which will influence the overall business strategy of companies. They will have the opportunity to develop adaptability and problem-solving skills through the analysis of data to develop key insights which help create effective campaigns.

Digital Content Development

In the current business landscape, digital content is one of the driving forces behind marketing communication and brand building. Digital marketers create engaging content to connect with their audience and achieve their business objectives. Digital content also allows brands to create the desired disruption that brings attention to the business. This module introduces how digital content can be an important tool to create brand image and sell a product or service. Students will apply what they learn in this module to strategically plan, create, deliver and optimise digital content in the most strategic manner.

Digital Marketing

In this modern, fast-paced and dynamic digital world, digital marketing serves as an essential tool for marketers to understand users’ online behaviour to spread awareness, generate buzz and engage with their target consumers. This module equips students with the skills and knowledge to apply consumer and user empathy in digital user journey mapping, design feasible and measurable digital marketing campaigns for brands. Students will also learn to employ various concepts and strategies to effectively use social media to build a professional online presence.

Education And Career Guidance 2

This module helps you to discover and develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed for work effectiveness. Upon completion of the module, you should be able to develop professional skills and build interpersonal relationships, acquire the skills to seek and secure work, develop the ability to adapt and respond effectively to changes at work, and appreciate and respect the diversity of individuals, culture and work environment. You would also learn to be financially savvy consumers.

MAD Studio Project

The MAD Studio Project aims to build on the interdisciplinary practices taught in PlayLab in order to further develop students’ ability to generate new ideas and contribute to innovations. Students will work in mixed groups and take on complex, real-world industry projects. They will draw on the domain knowledge and skills from their own tracks, as well as those of their peers from other tracks, in order to gain a deeper understanding of an issue, and transform them into new knowledge which confronts the challenges of the present world. This module is a facilitated time and space for students to explore across the disciplines of creative perspectives, which necessarily includes research and design, problem-solving and communication of ideas. The teaching facilitation will also embrace the design inquiry cycle that enables learners to mind shift and lead into a convergence of viewpoints.

MAD White Space 1

MAD White Space 2

Polywide Elective

Public Relations

Every business needs to communicate with the various publics that they engage with: customers, community, government, employees, and so on. This module equips students with the fundamentals of public relations practice (also otherwise known as ‘Owned’ and “Earned” media in the POE framework), as well the skills required to handle the changing nature of public relations taking into account digital and social media. They will use problem-solving, empathy and creativity to connect with different groups, and build mutually beneficial relationships.

Sustainable Innovation Project

Work in multi-disciplinary groups to apply the design thinking method and tools backed by research and qualitative data, to tackle local issues mapped to the UN SDGs. You will also tap on what you have learnt in the CCC modules that come before this module to create sustainable and innovative prototype solutions for real-life issues faced by a local community in need. In the process, you will develop empathy for the community you have identified for your project and a better understanding of yourselves.

Web Design

In this module, students will learn the basics of design, as well as front-end development for web. Students will begin with a practical understanding of information hierarchy and interface design, which escalates into the planning and production of multi-page web projects. The module focuses on web content management with the emphasis on user needs analysis.

Writing for News, Features and Branded Content

Creating written content for journalism, marketing and promotions is an integral part of the media and communication industry. Our graduates would need to be proficient in the various types of writing such as news, features and branded content for traditional and new media platforms in order to be effective media and communication professionals. This module will equip students with the basic writing skills to handle the various forms of writing necessary in digital media and communication.

IMC Studio Project

This module serves as a platform for students to reinforce their skillset and knowledge in order to develop effective and creative integrated communication strategies and campaigns based on provided ‘live’ clients’ briefs. Students will craft their integrated communications proposals for their clients – from situation analysis, conducting quantitative, qualitative interviews, creating personas of key target segments, ideation/prototyping/co-creation, to the selection of various communication strategies, promotional tools and evaluation of what constitutes to be successful campaign measuring metrics.

Internship Programme

This module aims to immerse students with the real-world industry experience. This programme comprises a 22-week enhanced internship programme integrating a structured learning outcome which facilitates authentic learning.

Media Law and Ethics

The module teaches the basic concepts of media law and ethics applicable to the media and communication industry. At the end of the module, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the Singapore legal system; freedom of expression; defamation law; law and policy on print media, broadcast media, Internet and film; advertising law and policy; and intellectual property law.

Polywide Elective

Transdisciplinary Project

The Final-Year Project is an opportunity for students to integrate, apply and deepen the knowledge, skillsets and competencies (both technical and general) they have gained over the course of their study. Building on the skills taught in PlayLab and the MAD Studio Project, students will work in mixed groups to tackle complex real-world issues through industry projects. They will learn how to research and generate new, innovative solutions that go beyond a single domain, while considering other factors such as meeting a business-end, dealing with resource constraints, as well as taking advantage of social, cultural and economic trends. They will also learn how to communicate with their stakeholders and manage a project. By the end of this module, students will deepen their skills in acquiring and synthesising knowledge from across disciplines and develop resilience and an entrepreneurial spirit in tackling complex problems.