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Undergraduate Enrichment Courses
Enrichment courses are short, intensive courses conducted by SIS instructors & faculty members for SMU students.
They aim to:
- Expand the knowledge base of students
- Equip students with marketable and industry-relevant job skills
- Prepare students for professional certifications
The school adds value to students by complementing the SIS curriculum with enrichment courses.
Such courses usually span between half a day to 5 full days, and are purposefully priced affordably for students. They are usually held during vacation breaks, and are voluntarily signed up for.
Students do not gain academic credits or course exemptions from completing an enrichment course, but take advantage of these instructor-led sessions to gain additional practical knowledge. Most students find the skills picked up through enrichment courses extremely helpful for their internships and the implementation phrase of their IS Software Project (IS480).
First run of the SUSE Linux Fundamentals course (Aug 2007)
New Linux experts: “We have earned our cute little Tuxes!”
Broadly speaking, courses can be categorised into 2 groups:
- Licensed courses
- Non-licensed courses
Licensed courses are based on official curriculum developed by independent commercial entities, and are conducted by our instructors under a special agreement between SMU and the relevant organisations. For example, the Sun SL-110 (“Introduction to the Java Programming Language”), SL-275 (“Java Programming”) and SL-285 (“Java Programming Workshop”) are conducted by Sun Educational Services for professional clients in the IT industry. We have an academic agreement with Sun to offer the same courses to our full and part-time students using identical course content and materials at a vastly subsidised rate. Another example of such a collaboration is the partnership between Novell Singapore and SMU – through which the Novell 3071 (“SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Fundamentals”), 3072 (“SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration”) and 3073 (“SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Advanced Administration”) courses are made available to SMU students at highly attractive rates.
To ensure consistent delivery of such courses, SMU instructors need to obtain relevant professional certifications and may be required to undergo train-the-trainer sessions before they are licensed to conduct them. Some of these licensed courses prepare participants for professional certifications
For example: SL-275 is tailored to match the Sun Certified Java Programmer certification requirements, and Novell 3071, 3072 and 3073 are meant to prepare a candidate for the Novell Certified Linux Professional practicum examination. Students who have completed these courses are encouraged to go for the related certification examination, but – in accordance with the spirit and objectives of this entire initiative – exams are purely optional.
Non-licensed courses are specially created by our own instructors or based on Web content which are free for usage in academic institutions.
Enrichment courses are scheduled depending on the availability of instructors, the demand for certain skill sets and matching expertise. They are usually conducted during summer break (April-August) and the December vacation.
Click here  for the presentation slides about enrichment courses used at the Senior Academic Briefing (August 2007).
Please email the enrichment course coordinator for more information.
Java Programming course (July 2007)
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