AB1601 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR & DESIGN (3.0 AU)

Professor: Guido Giannaso (But he left NBS already)
Acquired grade: B+
Generally, I felt that I enjoyed this module mainly because of the professor and not so much of the content. And I think my batch got off lucky for not having OB finals as I heard that the previous batches has a final exam for this module, which I felt was insane, given the amount of content it has every chapter. But in return, I guess like what the other reviews say, it made us feel like WKW students, as it involved a lot of videography in replacement of the final exam we never had. In this module, we had 2 group projects, 1 individual recorded presentation and 2 individual reports (1 critique report on an assigned topic and 1 reflection report towards the end of the semester). The first As which I got in my Year 1 was actually from this critique report, one of my group project which made me had high hopes that I will get a final grade of A/A+ at the end of the semester. But to my dismay, I ended up getting a B+ which I think it was largely because of my individual presentation and because perhaps my groupmates slacked off a bit for the last group project( we got a B for this). Hence, my advice, would be to really give it your all for your individual components, try to classpart a lot, such that even the professor remembers your name by heart. I think my biggest regret was this, because I had really solid groupmates , who were really creative and I felt was carrying the team all the way. But I think it was my individual part where I did not put in a lot of effort to make sure that my individual components were as solid as my other classmates. I think, just don’t slack and you can easily get that A. And remember to smile when your presenting, because my prof actually gave a lot of Bs for the individual presentations, because all of them weren’t smiling? like wth right. But yeah, I think you might think that its silly but I think it makes sense, as it makes you look confident and all. HAHA
If you are like looking to prep yourself for this module before the semester starts, I would say don’t bother haha, just remember to read up the materials before every seminar and ace your individual components and pray for good grpmates:> All the best!

AY 20/21 Sem 1
Grade: A+

Personally felt this mod had a lot of filming involved, content wise is easy to understand, really more like a creative extract from students. No finals, not much preparation needed for in class activities. Teaching could be better but I guess it’s a fluff mod so can’t really expect much.

AY 20/21 S2
Tutor: Daniel Siew
Expected Grade: B+
Actual Grade: B+

Workload for this module is immense. On a weekly basis, the expectation is to read 30+ pages of content, give feedback on 4-6 5min individual presentations, pose a question to a 25min presentation, attend 2h seminar, and if you have Dr Siew as your prof, write a 500 word reflection. Further, there’s 2 writing assignments, and a individual video and group videos to be completed by various weeks in the semester. On average, I spent close to 10 hours a week on this, but because grading is very tutor dependent, it can be extremely challenging (or easy) to score because of how they interpret the grading criteria.

My advice to freshies taking this module? 1. Ensure you have a generous prof so that you can save time on this module for other mods. 2. Hope that/try to group with good teammates (grouping is prof-dependent, once again). If not for my groupmates, I would have absolutely detested this module.

This mod is very heavily biased based on how much your prof likes you. Your prof controls almost all your marks as finals have been removed. Make sure to do class part and DEFINITELY ensure that your timetable with other mods (*ahem* marketing) does not clash too much. This mod really made me feel like a mediacorp star, I did not sign up to be in WKW, with the amount of filming I did. However, content is pretty interesting but pretty self-explanatory.

Year: 2020 Sem 1
Prof: Ivy Kwan

The content is relatively easy and probably one of the few modules which require 0 studying and mugging. That being said, there is an insane expectation for us to complete a lot of assignments and video presentation during the recess week but if you manage your work well it should be hard but manageable.

Grading is very hard to predict. I personally managed to score an A+ for most of my assignments but end up with a B+ overall so who knows how they mark. That being said this is a core mod so there is no escape from it, so just go in with an open mind and try to enjoy the more interesting lessons available, maybe even make some friends along the way

Honestly one of my least favorite module in NBS. Those thinking of a HR specialization, please do not let this “pre-requisite module” shape your expectations of HR because the module is hardly relevant to HR.
The lecture content is undoubtedly good and important, as you understand how people work in organizations, which helps you with people management, to some extent.
The assignments however, made the module difficult, time-consuming and irrelevant. You will learn critical thinking and design thinking, and while the concepts are important at work, it doesn’t belong in a course called “Organizational Behaviour”. A lot of emphasis was placed on being creative which once again while important, do not reinforce the learning of OB concepts at all. Pick up an OB textbook and test your NBS seniors and I highly doubt they can answer basic conceptual questions.
Overall, I think “Soft-skills training” is a much better way to name the course because you learn a plethora of soft skills in the module but I see little resemblance to OB.

Year: 2020 Sem 1
Prof: Daniel Siew

This mod requires you to do some 20 pages reading before the start of each seminar. The book can be found online so you do not need to pay for it. There are no quizzes or finals, so most people actually do not do their readings. It will be better to do the readings to understand the content but not doing so does not affect your grades.

The mod content is very easy to understand and in fact the whole subject is “fluff” and is quite useless and not really practical. Regardless, it is a core mod, so we don’t have a choice. There are no tutorials but the amount of assignments is very intensive and many students have complained about it. During my time, we had to do 2 team videos and 2 individual videos. There is also 1 individual article analysis and 1 individual reflection. You will need to start early to have time to complete your assignments, especially the videos which many groups put a lot of effort into the editing. Group dynamics is very important here but depending on your profs, you may not be able to choose your group so it is just luck-based.

There is a 4% grade for research participation whereby you will need to take part in 2 experiments and this is just free grades. Make sure to sign up early so that you will not have to get too stressed about this at the end. There is a certain day of the week which they will release the experiment in the system but I can’t remember which day. The timing they release is around evening.

Class part is about 15% and for Prof Daniel’s class, you will need to write a mini reflection at the end of each lesson and speak up in class to get the highest possible marks. Attendance is important too. Prof Daniel explains the concepts well and often apply them to things in real life so he makes the lessons more interesting. However, he is quite strict when it comes to grading.