THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh Futures Institute : Edinburgh Futures Institute

Postgraduate Course: Futures Project: Sustainable Lands and Cities (fusion on-site) (EFIE11211)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh Futures Institute CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits40 ECTS Credits20
Summary*Programme Core Course: Sustainable Lands and Cities (MSc/PGD/PGC)*

Please Note:
This course is only available to students enrolled on the Sustainable Lands and Cities (MSc/PGD/PGC) degree.

Developing insights from across disciplines and applying them to complex global challenges are fundamental to the aims of the Edinburgh Futures Institute. In this final project you will be able to contribute to this agenda by applying your learning in depth to a domain, issue or concern which drives you. Your project can be in an area you wish to interrogate because of your own personal or professional interests. It might also be defined by your employer, be sponsored by one of our EFI industry, government or community partners, or aligned to one of the EFI research programmes. You can submit your final project report as a written piece of work, or combined with other forms as appropriate - video, visualisation, digital artefact, performance, code. It is your chance to apply an interdisciplinary perspective and a methodologically robust approach to an issue you care about.
Course description The final project will be relevant to the programme on which you are enrolled, and will address a particular challenge area which may have an organisational, community, cultural, societal or planetary scope. It will take an interdisciplinary approach both methodologically and conceptually, drawing on the taught elements of the programme to interrogate a particular issue in depth.

In line with the EFI focus on data skills, data ethics and creative, critical enquiry, the final project will engage with the idea of 'data' in whichever way is most appropriate - for example, creating and using datasets, crafting data visualisations or artefacts, or exploring the epistemological, social, creative, critical and ethical dimensions of a 'datafied' world. Projects will adopt a wide definition of what constitutes 'data' - including both numerical and qualitative - in line with the multiple epistemologies and disciplinary perspectives circulating through the portfolio.

You will provisionally define your project early on in your time at EFI, and - via the 'Knowledge Integration and Project Planning' 20 credit course - will develop and refine your project idea in an iterative way over the course of your studies. In this way you will be able to apply the deep intellectual insights and key skills you need both to conduct a sustained piece of enquiry, and to develop as a confident citizen of the world.

The student learning experience in relation to the project will in large part be integrated with the work you do through the 'Knowledge Integration and Project Planning' course, which will include peer feedback, supervisor input and sustained reflection. In addition, you will have access to the broader support contexts of the Edinburgh Futures Institute - its event and seminar programmes (both online and offline), its research programmes and its external partnerships.

During the 'Knowledge Integration and Project Planning' course, supervision will take place on both a group and an individual basis (three group meetings and one individual meeting). Once you start the Futures Project, supervision will take place on an individual basis through two individual meetings. Regular group supervision meetings during the 'Knowledge Integration and Project Planning' stage will enable you to connect with others on their programmes who are conducting work in aligned areas, supporting you to build networks of peer support. Individual supervision will be provided to give direct and focused support at key points in the project process, specifically in relation to the project plan and the early drafting of the final project report.

You will be given the opportunity to present your projects in multiple forms, relevant to the future-facing and interdisciplinary focus of your programme. These might include conventional written dissertations, or creative and multimodal outputs as appropriate to your programme - you will be encouraged to push at the boundaries of representation of academic knowledge, and to take a bold and context-specific approach to the production of the final report.

Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:

The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.

Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.

As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Block 5 (Sem 2) and beyond
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 400 ( Dissertation/Project Supervision Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 390 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) The final project report will be submitted in mid-August, with a flexible approach taken to word count in order to reflect the interdisciplinary and multimodal options for its format.

Format options include:

1) Text only report: 13000 Words
2) Multimodal Output (e.g. video, visualisation, code, web site): Output plus 8000 Words
3) Substantial Creative Output (e.g. crafted artefact, performance, substantial digital artefact): Output plus 4000 Words

Individual Project Supervisors will be responsible for agreeing which approach is appropriate.
Feedback Feedback on this course will include:

1) Detailed feedback on the project plan will take place as part of the 'Knowledge Integration and Project Planning' element. Students will also receive feedback on their emerging project plans at other points during the 'Knowledge Integration and Project Planning' element, which includes group and individual supervision meetings.

2) Students will have further individual supervision meetings in which they will receive detailed guidance and feedback. Ahead of project report submission their Individual Project Supervisor will review and comment in detail on the equivalent of one chapter (approximately 3000-4000 words, although with flexibility to refine according to the mode of representation used).
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate their ability to apply interdisciplinary perspectives and relevant methods to a substantive piece of independent work, applying the research skills and advanced knowledge they have acquired over the course of their studies.
  2. Engage critically and analytically with the literature in fields relevant to their specialist interest area, and construct theoretically informed arguments based on this literature.
  3. Collect and analyse evidence, justifying the approaches and techniques used, demonstrating that the study complies with relevant ethical guidelines, and identifying the implications of these decisions.
  4. Critically examine the contribution and limitations of the study undertaken in theoretical and applied terms.
  5. Confidently and creatively represent their findings and conclusions in an appropriate format.
Reading List
Readings will be drawn from the domain-specific literatures relevant to the project focus.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Throughout this course, students will:

Demonstrate integrative knowledge and understanding of cross-disciplinary perspectives on enquiry (SCQF 1).

Learn how to apply their knowledge, skills and understanding to the design and completion of a project (SCQF 2).

Scope cross-disciplinary approaches to enquiry from a critical and integrative perspective (SCQF 3).

Develop high level skills in communication and representation of knowledge across different forms (SCQF 4).

Evidence substantial autonomy and the ability to take responsibility for their own work, managing to negotiate complex ethical, professional and intellectual issues in a reflexive way (SCQF 5).
KeywordsPG,EFI,Level 11,Futures Project,Knowledge,Integration,Project Planning,Project
Contacts
Course organiserMr John Brennan
Tel: (0131 6)50 2324
Email: John.Brennan@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk
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