Study Guide

Objective

The overarching learning goal is being able to mitigate and solve sustainability problems. Learning takes place in a variety of ways: by self-study but also by learning from peers.

The course comprises of five key competencies to be developed and assessed during the course. These key competencies are also part of the CDIO framework that is guiding the studies at Turku University of Applied Sciences. Additionally, the students will learn more about sustainable development.
Key competencies developed on the course:
1.Creativity competence: Having completed the course, the student is able to combine knowledge from different fields to come up with novel solutions to sustainability problems. The student is familiar with different creative problem-solving tools.
2. Initiative competence: This project course is a flexible model for learning that does not offer straightforward answers but motivates the students to work towards goals and take responsibility for their work and learning.
3. Systems thinking competence: Having completed the course, the student is able to understand the structure and dynamics of complex systems related to solving sustainability challenges in a real-life project. Students can describe given sustainability challenges from multiple perspectives. Students have improved their critical thinking.
4. Strategic competence: Having completed the course, the student is able to create transition and intervention strategies to enact change. The student understands the basic principles of project management and can plan and lead a project from beginning to end. The student feels comfortable using different project management tools and understands the basics of working with companies and other stakeholders. The student is able to reflect on, and deal with, possible risks. The student is able to manage expectations and anticipated results of projects.
5. Interpersonal competence: After the course, the student has developed his/her communicative and collaborative skills. The student is able to organize and manage to work in a multi-disciplinary team of individuals. The student understands the basics of projects’ internal and external communications. The student can apply collaborative working methods in his/her work.

Content

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 on 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.

Evaluation scale

H-5