Study Guide

Learning outcomes

Overarching learning goal is being able to mitigate and solve sustainability problems. It comprises of five key competencies to be developed and assessed during the course:

1. Systems thinking competence:
- Having completed the course, the student is able to understand structure and dynamics of complex systems related to solving sustainability challenges in a real-life project.
-He/she can describe given sustainability challenges from multiple perspectives.

2. Anticipatory competence:
-After the course, the student is able to anticipate possible and/or sustainable futures related to solving practical sustainability challenges.
- He/she can apply his/her knowledge in order to predict possible outcomes of sustainability projects and compare those with alternative scenarios.
- He/she is able to manage expectations and anticipated results of projects.

3. Normative competence:
- Having completed the course the student is able to differentiate, justify, and apply values and goals for sustainability.
- He/she can approach sustainability challenges from a normative perspective and recognize the different values guiding the project at hand.

4. Strategic competence:
- Having completed the course, the student is able to create transition and intervention strategies to enact change.
- He/she understands the basic principles of project management and can plan and lead a project from beginning to end.
- He/she feels comfortable using different project management tools and understands the basics of working with companies and other stakeholders.
- He/she is able to reflect on, and deal with, possible risks.

5. Interpersonal competence:
- After the course, the student has developed his/her communicative and collaborative skills.
- He/she is able to organize and manage working in a multi-disciplinary team of individuals.
- He/she understands the basics of projects’ internal and external communications.
- He/she can apply collaborative working methods in his/her work.

Implementation and methods of teaching

The course is in collaboration with Turku UAS, Helsinki University, Metropolia UAS and LAB UAS. The course has teachers and students from all of am. universities and from Bachelor and Master level. The course is fully virtual project course, where the project assignments are from the working life. The students will solve sustainability challenges from the working life commissioners.

Timing and attendance

Course in action 14.3.-6.5.2022 for students.

Learning material and recommended literature

All material needed for the course can be found on the course online platform.

Alternative completion methods

No alternative ways of study.

Working life cooperation

Collaboration course with working life in project form.

Exam retakes

The course has no exam.

Learning environment

Virtual course platform in www.digicampus.fi platform. Project work in virtually in student teams. Live remote and recorded lecturers. Tutoring sessions conducted by tutor teachers in virtual meeting channels

Contents

Climate change, depleting natural resources, pollution and urbanization pose some of the greatest challenges in the history of humankind. Good solutions are needed now! These so-called wicked problems are so complex that they need actors from all levels of our society working together. Wicked problems are turned into wicked solutions only by strong collaboration between companies, universities, cities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This means that future problem-solvers need to know how to work in the middle ground between the business, research and decision-making sectors. On Solutions.now course it is time to put the knowledge learned from books into practice by solving real life challenges related to sustainability issues. The challenges on the course are given by real companies, who want to make a positive impact with their business.

Much of today’s work consists of working in and leading multidisciplinary projects. However, practical project management courses and company collaborations are non-existent in many university studies. Solutions.now course combines problem- and project-based learning methods with sustainability issues, to let students learn the most critical project management skills while gaining valuable working-life experience. At the same time students learn valuable future skills such as tolerating uncertainties and conflicts and balancing with the knowledge learned from the literature and the frame given by the company.

This course is ideally taken after other sustainability courses so that the students already have some basic knowledge of the complexity of sustainability issues. This course offers a practical way to use that knowledge in real life as well as learn new skills in planning and executing sustainability projects. Students work in multi-disciplinary teams, each team dedicated to one sustainability project. They get to experience how it feels like to use their knowledge to make a positive impact on the world.

Additional information for students: previous knowledge etc.

A student has one or more of the following:

Courses from Environmental Engineering B.Sc. programme
Degree student position in Master in Sustainability programme
Exchange student in Environmental Engineering
Studies in Kiertotalousväylä
Studies on climate issues, sustainability, corporate responsibility
Open LAB University student with interest of sustainability implementation

Assessment scale

1-5

Failed (0)

Not completed task(s) belonging to the course program.

Assessment criteria: level 1 (assessment scale 1–5)

1.Creativity competence:
Not really able to combine knowledge from different fields to come up with novel solutions to sustainability problems.
Poorly familiar with different creative problem-solving tools.
2. Initiative competence:
Not really able to work towards goals and to take responsibility of own work and learning.
3. Systems thinking competence:
Not really able to understand structure and dynamics of complex systems related to solving sustainability challenges in a real-life project.
Not really able to describe given sustainability challenges from multiple perspectives.
No so good in critical thinking.
4. Strategic competence:
Not able to create transition and intervention strategies to enact change.
Does not really understands the basic principles of project management and cannot plan and lead a project from beginning to end.
Student feels uncomfortable using different project management tools and does not understand the basics of working with companies and other stakeholders.
Student is not able to reflect on, and deal with, possible risks.
Student is not able to manage expectations and anticipated results of projects.
5. Interpersonal competence:
Poor communicative and collaborative skills.
Student is not so able to organize and manage working in a multi-disciplinary team of individuals.
Student does not really understand the basics of projects’ internal and external communications.
Student cannot really apply collaborative working methods in his/her work.

Assessment criteria: level 3 (assessment scale 1–5)

1.Creativity competence:
Able to combine knowledge from different fields to come up with novel solutions to sustainability problems.
Familiar with different creative problem-solving tools.
2. Initiative competence:
Able to work towards goals and to take responsibility of own work and learning.
3. Systems thinking competence:
Able to understand structure and dynamics of complex systems related to solving sustainability challenges in a real-life project.
Able to describe given sustainability challenges from multiple perspectives.
Good in critical thinking.
4. Strategic competence:
Able to create transition and intervention strategies to enact change.
Does understands the basic principles of project management and can plan and lead a project from beginning to end.
Student feels comfortable using different project management tools and does understand the basics of working with companies and other stakeholders.
Student is able to reflect on, and deal with, possible risks.
Student is able to manage expectations and anticipated results of projects.
5. Interpersonal competence:
Good communicative and collaborative skills.
Student is able to organize and manage working in a multi-disciplinary team of individuals.
Student does understand the basics of projects’ internal and external communications.
Student can apply collaborative working methods in his/her work.

Assessment criteria: level 5 (assessment scale 1–5)

1.Creativity competence:
Able to combine really well knowledge from different fields to come up with novel solutions to sustainability problems.
Very familiar with different creative problem-solving tools and is able to use them well.
2. Initiative competence:
Excellent in working towards goals and taking responsibility of own work and learning.
3. Systems thinking competence:
Able to understand very well the structure and dynamics of complex systems related to solving sustainability challenges in a real-life project.
Able to solve given sustainability challenges from multiple perspectives.
Excellent in critical thinking.
4. Strategic competence:
Very good in creating transition and intervention strategies to enact change.
Does understands the principles of project management very well and can plan and lead a project from beginning to end.
Student feels very comfortable using different project management tools and does understand the basics of working with companies and other stakeholders.
Student is very capable to reflect on, and deal with, possible risks.
Student is very capable to manage expectations and anticipated results of projects.
5. Interpersonal competence:
Very good communicative and collaborative skills.
Student is very capable to organize and manage working in a multi-disciplinary team of individuals.
Student is very good in projects’ internal and external communications.
Student can very well apply collaborative working methods in his/her work.