Innovations for Emerging Cities: OpenLab Multidisciplinary Project Course, period 1

Description of this course

About the course

This is a multidisciplinary, international project-based course. It provides you with tools to apply design methods and innovation knowledge, both in your future professional practice and in further studies.

You will learn to apply Design Thinking and develop innovations addressing a given societal challenge from Region Stockholm or the City of Stockholm. During the course, you will learn to understand and define societal challenges as well as identify and prototype innovative solutions together with students from three universities:

• Karolinska Institutet
• Stockholm University
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology

The solutions to these societal challenges should contribute to societal development within healthcare, education, and other areas of community planning.

About the teaching

The course employs challenge-driven pedagogy and challenge-driven innovation, with self-directed learning in relation to a challenge provider. Students receive methodological guidance from the course instructors.

This course can be part of a course package

If you wish, you can take this course as part of a course package, together with Innovations for Emerging Cities: OpenLab Multidisciplinary Project Course, period 2. The course coordinator recommends that participants choose one of the following two options:

• Take the full course package, periods 1 and 2, 15 credits. Most participants take the full package. You are recommended to start with period 1 and then continue with period 2. Period 1 provides an introductory breadth of methods, while period 2 offers greater focus and some specialisation. You apply for both courses separately.
• Take only period 1, 7.5 credits. You can choose to take only Innovations for Emerging Cities: OpenLab Multidisciplinary Project Course, period 1. (It is also possible to take only period 2, but the course coordinator does not recommend doing so without first completing period 1.)

Innovations for Emerging Cities: OpenLab Multidisciplinary Project Course, period 1

Innovationer för den växande staden: OpenLab mångdisciplinär kurs, period 1

Specific entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree or a professional degree worth at least 180 credits in healthcare. Or 180 credits from a study programme in medicine, dentistry, psychology or speech and language pathology. And proficiency in English equivalent to English B/English 6.

Outcomes

The aim of the course, which is an multidisciplinary, international project-course, is to use Design Thinking methodology to develop knowledge about creating solutions to large societal challenges in the health care of Region Stockholm, in new co-operations and bordering traditional fields of knowledge.

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• identify and analyze complex phenomenon and present new innovative ideas that can be developed and implemented to sustainable use and value for a specific target group,
• apply an interactive and creative work methodology through Design Thinking
• reflect over and have knowledge of perspectives and practices from different knowledge fields and target groups, and
• design and organize innovation work over different knowledge fields,
• communicate the work and the results of the innovation project with the chosen target group challenge giver, and the society.

Content

The course is given within the framework of Openlab, a learning environment and innovation hub where students and teachers from Karolinska Institutet, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University and Södertörn University work with challenge givers from The Stockholm City Council and the health care of Region Stockholm. Through challenges on themes evolving around emerging and sustainable cities, students work in project form to design, organise and present an innovation project that borders across academic disciplines.
The course can be combined with 2QA307 Innovations for the emerging cities: Openlab multidisciplinary project course Periode 2, to pursue the project initiated in period 1 for longer and more indepth learning and to receive more tools according to Design Thinking methodology.

Subject areas: Development of ideas, User involvement, Business/organisational development, Teamwork, Communication, Quality development and Design methodology.

Teaching methods

In the course, different project workmethods are used, such as teacher lead workshops, multidisciplinary group tasks included in the innovation process, onsite immersing with challenge givers´organizations, individual reflective assignments and written documentation and presentation for the challenge givers.

Examination

Examination of the course consists of a written report of the innovation project, a presentation of the innovation project for the challenge givers and an individual reflective assignment.

For the grade Pass, students are required to demonstrate records of active participation in the merepart of the work of the project group, individual responsibility for part of the presentation for challenge givers and passed individual assignments are required.

The examiner decides whether, and if so how, absence from compulsory course elements can be compensated for. Study results cannot be reported until the student has participated in compulsory course elements or compensated for any absence in accordance with instructions from the examiner. Absence from a compulsory course element could mean that the student can not retake the element until the next time the course is offered.

Students who do not fulfill a substantial part of the attendance requirement, or one of the two course assignments are entitled to re-do the examination or an equivalent alternative task on five occasions. If the student has failed a total of six examinations, no additional examination is given. Each occasion the student participates in the same test counts as an examination. Submission of a blank exam paper is regarded as an examination. In case a student is registered for an examination but does not attend, this is not regarded as an examination.

If there are special reasons, or a need for adaptation for a student with a disability, the examiner may decide to deviate slightly from the syllabus's regulations on the examination form, the number of examination opportunities, the possibility of additions or exemptions from the compulsory section/s of the course etc.

Neither the content and learning outcomes, the project form pedagogy, nor the level of expected skills, knowledge and abilities may be changed, removed or reduced.

Transitional provisions

Examination will be provided during a time of one year after a possible close-down of the course.

Other directives

Language of instruction: English

The course may not be included in a higher education qualification at the same time with a course whose contents completely or partly corresponds to the course content.

Literature and other teaching aids

Point of departure in the course is that the students will work with a specific problem. Included in the learning activities is that the student themselves will search for information and literature suitable for their task.

• Thomas, Both, Bootcamp Bootleg. Stanford D-School, Stanford University D.School Creative Commons, 2019
• Dorst, Kees, The core of ´design thinking´ and its application, Institutionen för neurobiologi, vårdvetenskap och samhälle, 2011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.006,