| Unit name | Integrated Perspectives on Design and Creativity |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MGRCM0060 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Sotiris Lalaounis |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | University of Bristol Business School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences |
Why is this unit important?
This unit is the compulsory unit in TB1. The Integrated Perspectives on Systems Design and Creativity unit brings together design and creativity topics drawing from the expertise of colleagues across all Schools involved with the programme, i.e., University of Bristol Business School, School of Civil, Aerospace, and Design Engineering, School of Electrical, Electronic, and Mechanical Engineering, and the School of Arts. It will provide you with knowledge and skills on how to design, engineer, and manage the development of complex and integrated systems (involving products, services, experiences). They will cover topics including design management strategies and processes, design thinking and creative processes from the Business School, Pahl & Beitz, Agile, Lean, Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT), and V-Model from Engineering, and creative methods and design frameworks from Arts. The unit sits at the interface of Business, Design, and Engineering disciplines.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit is unique to this programme and will not be shared with other interdisciplinary programmes (unlike the Interdisciplinary Research and Practice unit in TB2). It brings together all students across all pathways, making sure that all students on the programme have solid integrated knowledge and skills in design, design thinking, and creativity. The unit will co-taught by colleagues across all four Schools (4 weeks Business School, 2 weeks CADE, 2 weeks EEME, and 2 weeks School of Arts).
An overview of content
The unit provides you with integrated knowledge of how organisations can design, engineer, and manage the development of complex and integrated systems (involving products, services, experiences). The unit offers you a rigorous understanding of systems thinking as well as of engineering and management principles, essential for delivering solutions to organisational problems and for tackling societal challenges. It explores ways organisations can apply design thinking on management problems by pursuing a “managing as designing” approach. It provides you with solid understanding of various design thinking models such as IDEO’s inspiration-ideation-implementation process or the ‘Double Diamond Model’ (UK Design Council).
How will students, personally, be different as results of the unit
Upon completing this unit, you will have the knowledge and skills to be able to successfully understand human behaviour (to empathise), develop ideas (ideate), give these ideas form (prototype) to test them in order to arrive to optimal solutions for a variety of organizational and societal problems. You will be equipped with knowledge of the different stages of the iterative design thinking process and develop your investigative, brainstorming, and visualising skills, necessary a successful design leader and manager.
Learning outcomes
Upon completing this unit, you will be able to:
ILO1 – Understand Systems Thinking and apply it to a range of organizational and societal problems.
ILO2 – Understand and Apply Design Management methods from Business, Engineering and Arts.
ILO3 – Critically apply the Design Thinking process to a range of organizational and societal problems.
ILO4 – Create and Evaluate mixed methods/logical approaches to multi/inter-disciplinary problems.
The teaching method will be centred around a 3-hour lectorial session each week for ten weeks. The lectorial contains a combination of lectures and seminars. Lectures will introduce the concepts of systems thinking, design thinking, and creativity. Seminars will focus on interactive and problem-based learning. During these sessions, you will engage in case studies where you will explore real-life complex organizational and societal problems and undertake practical exercises in which they work with others to develop appropriate solutions to these problems.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Case studies: you will explore a number of case studies during seminars. This will provide them the opportunity to make connections between theory (taught during lectures) and practice by understanding real-life complex organizational and societal problems to develop appropriate solutions to these problems. You will be provided oral feedback during seminars throughout the term.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
You will be assigned a group to explore an organization of your choice and identify a problem and/or opportunity the organization faces / should capitalise on. Following this, you are expected to apply different frameworks (taught in the unit) to develop an appropriate solution to this problem. Your solution can include different forms of design such as brand and communications design, graphic design, product design, interior design, architecture, web design, social media design, process design, or a combination of these.
Each group is expected to:
For the group presentation, each group should provide a work-log of each group member’s contribution to the presentation. For the group project report, each group member should provide a 200-word reflection on their contribution to the project report. Tutors will adjust group marks to reflect the quality of individual performances where there is evidence through extremely uneven performance of a member not contributing appropriately.
When assessment does not go to plan
The re-assessment will take the same form as the original assessment: If you do not pass the group report, the individuals should resubmit the report. If you do not pass the presentation, you should submit a new slide deck.
Each group will be awarded a grade for their presentation and a grade for their report. These grades are group grades and awarded equally to all members of each group.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MGRCM0060).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
