Exploring grand societal challenges

Learning outcomes

After completion of the course the student should be able to:

• Engage with stakeholders to understand, define, and reframe challenges.
• Collaborate effectively in interprofessional Nordic teams, integrating diverse disciplinary insights to define and reframe challenges.
• Analyze complex societal challenges.
• Identify and apply appropriate methods for ideation.
• Identify ethical aspects and discuss and assess their consequences in relation to a specific challenge.
• Communicate and convey information, problems, methods, and development processes, both orally and in writing.
  
  

Content

This project-based course, in the form of a Blended Intensive Program (BIP), focuses on interdisciplinary reframing of demographic challenges on the municipal level in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The course combines online lectures and preparatory work with on-site workshops and group work in teams with mixed competences. 

The course highlights demographic challenges from different areas such as healthcare, service provision and city planning, and encourages participation from a broad range of disciplines to get new perspectives on issues which are otherwise often discussed only within the disciplines traditionally seen as most affected. 

Organization

The course format consists of on-line teaching and learning as well as self-study of the competences and skills necessary for the task prior to the on-site activities. The course will have participant from higher education institutions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The course is run by an interdisciplinary teaching team from the involved higher education institutions and the practical on-site activities will be conducted at Chalmers during five days.  

The workshops and teamwork are centered around one concrete challenge per team, defined by the teams themselves with input from the municipalities in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. The workshop output should be a reframing of the challenges, which may be further developed in solutions in coming courses at each participating higher education institution.

Literature

Literature will consist of online articles, reports, etc. The Literatur will be announced 8 weeks before the course starts. 

Examination including compulsory elements

The course is evaluated by criteria for the learning outcomes based on the process and the results of the team project through continuous assessment at the end of each day during the on-site week. The examination consists of oral presentations and a final written report. 

Eligibility

General entry requirements for bachelor's level studies.