problem Solving Strategies in Action in the Curriculum Development for Basic Academic Skills An ICT Enhanced Course for Better Communication

This paper is to share our experience of designing a new course to meet the new needs of the current society. The first is on the curriculum development for communication for the higher education. The mission of the higher education is to provide the optimal education matching the needs of the society with students who will be the future members of the society. It should be noted that the needs of the society is constantly changing. Thus, in order not to lose sight of the needs from the society, in other words, the focus of the mission of education corresponding to new needs, the mission of the higher education must be constantly adjusted. Recently it has been revealed that most university graduates, in three years after graduation, feel the needs for such fundamental skills as the problem solving (situation analysis, data collection and processing, agreement formation, etc.) as well as the teamwork and communication to build trust in a team, leadership. It is attempted to incorporate such features into the curriculum development for communication. The second is to report the two types of problem solving strategies in the curriculum development for the fundamental academic skills: one for the improvement of the quality of course contents to meet the needs for better communication skills; the other for implementing such methodological improvement into the traditional course operation and management system in support of the cutting-edge media technology. Thus, this paper purports to share the experience of designing a new course for communication to build long-lasting trust through the process of problem solving in the curriculum design. Keywords-component; problem solving; curriculum development; curriculum design, fundamental academic skills; agreement formation; critical thinking; communication skills; trust building; media technology; SNS