Course Catalogue

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Collaborations in Practice is an interdisciplinary course at the University of Glasgow that provides the opportunity for research-oriented, challenge-based learning where you will learn about how to survey a societal challenge and design an enquiry into such a challenge. This course addresses the enquiry design process, ethics, impact, knowledge transfer and the different ways of knowing that are realised through interdisciplinarity. This first half of the course will expose you to 'taster' interdisciplinary challenges around specific societal challenges and will target the development of your graduate attributes and employability skills. The second half of the course builds on this and enables you to engage in a real research-based project, working in a multi-disciplinary team that, in turn, encourages an interdisciplinary learning environment that will develop different ways of knowing, thinking and practicing for all students. Your engagement in a project, provided by a real-world project partner, will expose you to different disciplinary norms and practices but will crucially also enable you to develop a project output which you will have (a degree of) ownership of, and direction for. This course is specifically targeted towards students entering the second year of their undergraduate degree programme and will enable you to practice and develop skills alongside applied knowledge in new interdisciplinary contexts that will be valuable to your future career, regardless of what that career might be.

The course involves an initial intensive week of delivery (in induction week) involving 4 main sessions, each 2 hours long, with game-based, challenged-based and scenario-based elements. Each main session will be timetabled for 3 hours to ensure that 1 hour following each main session provides an opportunity for support. Two additional 'group work' hours will also be timetabled on each day of delivery in the intensive week. These will be unstaffed.

Three group-based tutorials, weekly up to and including week three, will then provide support for the group pitch and development of reflective journals. A final 'pitch' session will take place during week three, allowing students to reflect on their individual and group approach in time for the research-based projects that begin in week four. 

The research-based group project will be delivered throughout the second half of the semester, though project specific requirements may require amended timelines (which will be outlined in provided project briefs at the outset of the course). Typically, from week four each student on the course will spend around 10 notional hours per week working on their group project. This includes time spent thinking, learning about and actively doing project work. Any exact requirements for contact time or supervised project work (as opposed to pedagogic supervision) will be dictated by the nature of the project itself. Additional time to finalise assessed components of the course is expected to involve around 30 notional hours per student. Protected, timetabled time on a Wednesday afternoon (2 hours per week from weeks 4-9 inclusive) is arranged to support this.

A typical timeline for the project-based second half might involve the following:

■ An initial 1-hour introduction to the project by your 'project partner' alongside a mentor-led 1-hour tutorial

■ Three weekly 2-hour meetings with your mentor involving progress updates for your project partner

■ A 2-hour assessment tutorial with your mentor including a draft project and opportunity for feedback

■ A 2-hour showcase with your mentor and project partner where you present your final project output

The exact schedule and amount of contact with the project partner would depend on individual project details, but the formal supervision contact with your mentor ensures consistent academic support for all on the course, regardless of the nature and availability of the project partner.

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There are three components of assessment for this course:

■ 10% group pitch for the problem-solving task [ILO1, ILO3]

■ 50% co-designed project output for the research-based task from your group [ILO1, ILO2, ILO3] which is comprised of:

■ 25% progress updates/task completion

■ 25% final output

■ 40% individual reflective log, reflecting on entire 10-week course [ILO3, ILO4].

This course aims to develop your awareness of different disciplinary ways of thinking and practicing that allows you to negotiate collaborative, sustainable and interdisciplinary ways to respond to local, national and global societal challenges. As part of a team, you will collaboratively design a project proposal in response to a real local, national or global societal challenge that utilises the range of experiences and expertise in your team. You will then gain a key experience by engaging in an interdisciplinary project provided by a real-world project partner. Through engagement with the project and with students from across the University, you will develop confidence and skills associated with working within realistic interdisciplinary teams, learning to navigate distinct worldviews based on different ways of thinking and practicing within distinct academic disciplines, and build and articulate the experience and skills that employers value.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Design an approach to solving a societal challenge that covers a range of social, political, economic and environmental impacts.

2. Demonstrate the necessary skills to effectively deliver project outputs including project management, planning, professional ethics, managing challenges and executing project-related tasks.

3. Evidence engagement with other members of the project team, harnessing the team's strengths and valuing diverse disciplinary perspectives and responses to societal challenges.

4. Critically reflect on interdisciplinary learning and its relevance to their development as an individual.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.

Due to the group-based nature of this course, its learning activities and the focus on learning to work in interdisciplinary groups, students must normally attend a minimum of 75% of the seminars during the first, intensively taught component of the course. Students must also normally contribute to a minimum of 80% of the group progress reports/task completion assessment. Contribution is assessed by the group members through the agreed social contract, moderated by their mentor.