94729 Transdisciplinary Collaboration A
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 3 cp
Subject level:
Postgraduate
Result type: Grade, no marksRequisite elaboration/waiver:
Minimum of three MCISI subjects or TD School postgraduate subjects in consultation with Course Director
Description
This subject draws on transdisciplinary learning and practices and applies them in collaborative, professional settings. Students design and develop a brief for a defined challenge /or opportunity to explore networked innovation with others in real world contexts. Each challenge or opportunity is supported with bespoke TD expertise and mentoring to create iterative feedback loops, creative interventions, reflective cycles, and a distillation of insights for future applications. The process from design, execution and reflection for this subject is contained within a six-step cycle completed within six weeks.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Use transdisciplinary methods and practices to design a workplace, collaborative challenge or exploration of an opportunity 3.2 |
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| 2. | Use a workplace, collaborative challenge, or exploration of an opportunity to research, develop diverse data to explore, and evaluate with multiple frames and relevant contexts 3.3 |
| 3. | Use creativity in the design, data collection and communication of the challenge or opportunity from initiation to completion 4.3 |
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
1.1 Critically analyse and creatively reconfigure established patterns, assumptions and understandings of real-world problem situations utilising frameworks of complexity and systems thinking
1.2 Conceptualise approaches for strategic interventions within organisations and professional fields as dynamic and complex systems
1.3 Create productive strategies for contributing to thriving and sustainable innovation networks and ecosystems
2.1 Apply theoretical and philosophical perspectives to critically analyse assumptions and the ways disciplines, paradigms and practices guide thinking in academic, professional and everyday contexts
2.2 Examine different fields of thought, including indigenous worldviews and cultures, to elicit insights for professional practice
2.3 Apply advanced research methods to gather, adopt, adapt, apply and synthesise knowledge, principles, concepts, practices and methods from across various domains to generate new knowledge and practices
2.4 Critically reflect on their own professional practice and develop strategies for integrating different models of transdisciplinarity to catalyse innovation in their own contexts
3.1 Analyse different patterns, frameworks and methods and test their value for investigating and addressing complex challenges in professional fields
3.2 Conduct independent and collaborative inquiry to identify challenges and new developments in professional fields, and conceptualise transformations or new practices required to respond to emerging challenges
3.3 Create and execute experimental projects that integrate approaches from a range of disciplines and fields of practice to evaluate the strategic potential of proposals
3.4 Engage with diverse worldviews and exercise ethical judgement in evaluating the impact of innovation on stakeholders, communities and the environment
4.1 Investigate and analyse the conditions required to develop the collective capacity within or between organisations, across sectors and/or internationally to respond to complex global challenges
4.2Interpret, integrate and advocate for various perspectives to persuade and influence relevant stakeholders to mobilise organisational or societal transformation
4.3 Generate strategies for nurturing new practices, paradigms and professions and propose pathways to change that sustain innovation potential within organization(s)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject links workplace contexts to postgraduate transdisciplinary learning. It is run self directed online and face to face. Participants distil workplace challenges and opportunities into a staged exploration, with the aim of developing tangible recommendations and roadmaps for implementation. Tools, methods, and frameworks learnt as part of the MCISI program are applied to the design, execution, evaluation, and communication of the exploration of an extended challenge or opportunity. Participants are matched with relevant TD School academic expertise and where relevant, supported by professional staff in design, delivery, evaluation, and recommendations. Additional expertise at UTS and opportunities for research partnerships may also be embedded.
Content (topics)
- Designing a transdisciplinary experiment, challenge, or expanding an opportunity
- Implementing creative strategies for engagement and recording diverse stakeholder contribution
- Collecting data and narrative artefacts
- Developing feedback loops and iterating
- Evaluating and communicating insights
- Develop strategic recommendations for future iterations, action, and innovation
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Assessment 1 Journal: data drive
| Intent: | Assessment 1 Brief Weight: 30% Individual assessment Due: Digital link to or physical journal compendium annotated and shared at agreed regular intervals that align with the project/ experiment development, refinement, and execution. Where: via Assessment 1 submission link on CANVAS Word limit: No word limit for your journal but the compendium should reveal an active and regular engagement with artefacts gathered from field and desktop research with iterative annotations and reflections. A journal can be a personal treasure. It is an artefact of any research or experimental journey, a rich repository of context specific data and a record of your living reflexive, reflective and creative experience that has unlimited value as a reference both now and in the future. Journals have been kept by scientists, artists, writers, inventors, leaders and attentive citizens of life throughout time and often further catalyse imagination and innovation. They also leave traces of the ways ideas and innovations have evolved for future reference. The media and tools for keeping a journal are infinitely diverse and high quality editions are underpinned by a rigor, appreciation of detail and an aesthetic quality that emanates from the value invested in the process. As you create your journal seek to make a beautiful, personalised work that becomes a treasured artefact and a memoir you can refer to into the future. Keep a journal that creates a compendium of resources that you gather, create, amend and refine as you develop and deliver your collaboration experience. In developing your TD Collaborative experiment you will go through a process of drawing upon a range of ideas, methods and situational prompts. Collect artefacts that reveal the resonances that feed into your thinking. These artefacts can span multiple media – they can include music, film, social media, memes, images, written texts, landscapes, snippets of heard conversation, drawings, sketches, designs, samples of fabric , notes on serviettes, pamphlets, business cards– the gamut is broad and linked to your context. What to do: Gather artefacts and annotate with short comments and reflections as to why they have been chosen, how they stimulate ideas, feedback loops and contribute to the evolution of the project. If you involve others, annotations can include collective discussions. Your journal can be kept on a digital platform such as Miro, be entirely physical or a combination of both where physical artefacts can be photographed and uploaded to a digital platform. Option for annotations can include sticky notes, comment boxes and /or text. This is a working document and the value lies in the trail and evolution of thinking. As you gather, take a beat to notice the phenomenological and semiotic or symbolic associations. Some of the dynamics you might consider include:-
*it may be useful flip through Creative Reboot for prompts. |
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| Type: | Journal |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 30% |
Assessment task 2: Assessment 2 Findings: portfolio realisation
| Intent: | Assessment 2 Brief - Findings: portfolio realisation Weight: 70% Individual assessment Due: Digital portfolios are the most accessible medium. You may wish to establish a website, use platforms such as Sway, Medium or creatively use Miro. Submitted in final week of completion. Where: via Assessment 2 submission link on CANVAS The portfolio realisation is a refined public facing record of the project you have undertaken. The format will vary pending your project. It may include a ppt or presentation, a workshop guide with a sample work such as a gallery or padlet, a body of photographs or images, a piece of music, a design, a conceptual, model, podcast, video, a policy, a short publication - the options are flexible and will respond to your context. Portfolios works are used widely and provide sample works that reveal your range and signature through diverse projects. Once the homeland of entrepreneurs, designers, artists, and inventors, portfolios are increasingly used across many disciplinary and industry contexts. They offer public exhibition or a reference space of refined outputs while suggesting a diverse and adaptable approach. Digital portfolios are the most accessible medium. You may wish to establish a website, use platforms such as Sway, Medium or creatively use Miro. The choice is yours – practical considerations include: · Easy to edit/ update · Accessible URL · Public /open access · Templates to help with layout · Duration – is the platform likely to remain active over time? For TD Collaboration A and B you are required to create a portfolio realisation but this can be extended to include projects across your CISI journey. As you progress through CISI, you will develop a compendium of creative, professional and scholarly outputs including method cards, presentations and professional interventions. Ideally in developing a portfolio platform, you will include other examples of your CISI outputs that can be used to showcase your work. What to do: 1. Post your realisation or project output on your portfolio platform 2. Provide a supporting statement (200 words) that provides a succinct description of the work including what you did, why, who was involved and key insights. 3. Develop a reflective response (max 400 words) reviewing: · how iterative feedback loops informed your creative intervention · aha moments or key shifts/ recalibrations of assumptions or approaches. · integration of input from others and situational qualities · distillation of insights for future applications with attention working collaboratively Your subject mentors will work with you to reflect as your progress and resolve any questions or dilemmas you encounter. They will also provide curated readings, support materials and connections to relevant expertise to deepen the design, thinking and learning for this project. |
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| Type: | Portfolio |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 70% |
Minimum requirements
Participants must attempt both assessment tasks and achieve an overall pass mark to pass this subject.
Other resources
Readings curated with subject coordinator relative to bespoke setting/ context