NTU: NTU Hosts its First AI Online Program
Every year, NTU’s Office of International Affairs (NTU OIA) offers short-term programs to students from home and abroad. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, educational institutions across the globe have turned to online instruction. Last year, the OIA’s Plus Academy hosted its first online program:“2020 AI Development and Application Online Program. ”NTU’s OIA invited six distinguished professors from a variety of departments to explain how AI can be integrated with other academic fields. The program courses offered information and insights into AI applications in engineering, agriculture, medicine, geospatial, human-computer interaction (HCI), and virtual reality.
The AI online program was offered via NTU COOL, an online platform developed by the Digital Learning Center at NTU’s Center for Teaching and Learning Development, where students can access and watch pre-recorded video lectures. The participating professors used NTU COOL’s online quiz feature to measure the students’ learning results. The program was held from November 23 until December 6, 2020. After completing the courses, students were asked to submit a short essay on a topic of their choice to illustrate what they found interesting during the program.
Since online courses are flexible, convenient, and not limited by class times, classrooms, or bad weather, student enrollment in the 2020 program was 78, higher than the previous years’ enrollment. The online AI program attracted students from around the world, for example from the University of Texas, Stony Brook University, The University of Auckland, and The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. High school recruits from Japan, Indonesia, The Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan also participated in the program. To offer the international students a vivid impression of the NTU campus, the OIA uploaded videos of international students sharing their experiences and thoughts of studying at NTU and living in Taiwan.
Keeping pace with the next-generation AI technology, NTU envisions expanding the world’s pool of AI talent by sharing Taiwan’s cutting-edge AI knowledge and achievements with students worldwide. The online program not only showcases NTU’s expertise in AI but may foster new international collaborations. The school anticipates that the program will attract global attention and encourage more international students to study at NTU.