Course syllabus

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The purpose of this course is to prepare students as self-aware, responsible agents of change in the world, such that you are able to apply critical thinking and a long-term systemic perspective to the plethora of development opportunities provided by digitization.

We discuss sustainability and sustainable development concepts in class and relate them to climate change, world economics, systems thinking, and technological development. This builds the foundation for critically assessing the potential and risks of digitization in a changing world - i.e. when new ideas come around, you will be able to judge them well. To make this very applicable in your future, we also conceptualize and develop prototypical IT systems that support sustainable development. 

The course is carried out via: 

  • Development of and reflection on a personal sustainability practice. That means we try practices like yoga, meditation, walks in nature and reflect on the effects - yup, we have a well-qualified professor for that in IT, see below; 
  • Flipped classroom for introducing concepts. You will be watching a documentary or reading a book or research article as preparation and then we discuss them in class and reflect on how to use these concepts in our work. 
  • A team project will be carried out in small teams over the extent of the course to apply all the new concepts (so you are comfortable at integrating your new sustainability knowledge into technology development), including requirements engineering, design, and prototyping of an IT service or product to explore sustainable development.

The course responsible and main teacher is Associate Professor Birgit Penzenstadler, who has been researching the connection between technology and sustainability for a decade, and for the last three years integrated her yoga teacher practice into research to increase the wellbeing and resilience of developers and engineers. There may be further guest teachers.

Kindly email me at birgitp@chalmers.se instead of messaging via Canvas.

 

This course is linked to Global Goal number: 3 (health & wellbeing), 9 (innovation) and 11 (sustainable communities).

 

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding: Students will know and understand the important concepts around sustainability, sustainable development, how technology can support humans in shifting towards a sustainable lifestyle, and what risks to be aware of.

Competence and skills: Students will be able to apply business analysis, requirements engineering, design and quality assurance methods that support the integration of sustainability-related values and objectives into IT systems and service development.

Judgement and approach: Students will be able to assess and judge the sustainability of a system under consideration in a specific context with its respective stakeholders using an established analysis framework and derive implications for supporting the envisioned benefits and mitigating potential risks in long-term systemic effects.

The course is sustainability-focused, which means that at least one of the learning outcomes clearly shows that the course content meets at least one of the University of Gothenburg’s confirmed sustainability criteria. The content also constitutes the course's main focus.

Components

  1. Project, 5 credits
    Grading scale: Pass (G) and Fail (U)

  2. Assignments, 2.5 credits.
    Grading scale: Pass (G) and Fail (U)

Form of teaching

Development of and reflection on a personal sustainability practice; flipped classroom for introducing concepts; a team project will be carried out in small teams over the extent of the course, including requirements engineering, design, and prototyping of an IT service or product to explore sustainable development.

Language of instruction: English

Assessment

The assessment is composed of active participation in class, contributions to the design and implementation of the team project, a final presentation thereof, and a written and illustrated report on the project including a documentation of its developments and analysis of its sustainability impacts.

If a student who has twice received a failing grade for the same examination component wishes to change examiner ahead of the next examination session, such a request should be made to the department in writing and should be approved by the department unless there are special reasons to the contrary (Chapter 6 Section 22 of the Higher Education Ordinance). If a student has received a recommendation from the University of Gothenburg for study support for students with disabilities, the examiner may, where it is compatible with the learning outcomes of the course and provided that no unreasonable resources are required, decide to allow the student to sit an adjusted exam or alternative form of assessment.

In the event that a course has ceased or undergone major changes, students are to be guaranteed at least three examination sessions (including the ordinary examination session) over a period of at least one year, but no more than two years after the course has ceased/been changed. The same applies to internships and professional placements (VFU), although this is restricted to just one additional examination session.

Grades

The grading scale comprises: Pass (G) and Fail (U). The course is passed if both modules are passed with at least 50%.
All assignments have to be submitted. If assignments are submitted after the due date, grading may be delayed until mid-September.

Course evaluation

The course is evaluated through meetings both during and after the course between teachers and student representatives. Further, an anonymous questionnaire is used to ensure written information. The outcome of the evaluations serves to improve the course by indication which parts could be added, improved, changed or removed.

 

"Literature" list

(in quotes, because includes other media formats)

Research articles

Books - I don't expect you to read all of them, we will do excerpts for everyone and have you pick a favourite to read fully.

Podcasts (most are scientists, personal opinions involved)

Further reading and online resources

Tools

 

Face to face meetings

We will have a combination of input, discussion, and working sessions, with most afternoons being working sessions. We meet at Pedagogen Hus A in room 311. Here is the Google Maps pin to the building.

  • Week 27:
    • Tue, July 5: 9-12 & 13-17 (yeah, it's a long day, but we will have fun!)
    • Thu, July 7: Birgit outta town (therefore the Tues-long-day)
  • Week 28 - from here on we have Tuesday afternoons free so you can participate in all of the social program:
    • Tue, July 12: 9-13 - discussion of The Untethered Soul + podcast summaries & reverse panel discussion
    • Thu, July 14: 8:30-12 & 13-15 - literature summaries & reverse panel discussions
  • Week 29:
    • Tue, July 19: 8:30-12 - project work ideation: guided journey, brain writing, persona mini story (intention, challenge, synthesis or impact), story pitches, team building

Rough visual outline (subject to change)

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Education credit points magic: If you ever wondered how this works, I am also documenting this for myself and future instructors. 7.5 ECTS gets us to work together for about 200 hours, and with 5 weeks in this summer school, that means you will be fully occupied by this program, because that turns into 40 hours of work per week. We meet face to face for 8 hours per week, first for discussing input after you prepared it according to the reading list and my instructions, then you work in groups to apply what you have learned. Part of that group work you do on your own outside of class, and there are feedback and tutorial sessions where we work together and you can ask me lots of questions.

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Course summary:

Date Details Due