Postgraduate Course: Data / Futures 2 (fusion online) (EFIE11372)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Please Note:
This course is currently under development. As such, some information may change in advance of its delivery in the 2025/6 academic session.
'Data / Futures 2' will allow you to build on the work completed during the first core course ('Data / Futures 1'), providing you with a grounding in the academic study of the future, and allowing you to further develop your earlier work in the application of interdisciplinary methods to complex global challenges. Working with the data skills and grounding in data ethics from the first course, you will learn additional skills in data representation, combining these with a developing understanding of futuring and design methodologies. Over the course of the semester, you will develop critical skills in designing, representing and advocating for preferable, ethical futures. |
| Course description |
'Data / Futures 2' will allow you to build on the work completed during the first core course ('Data / Futures 1'). You will build on the data skills and grounding in data ethics from the first course, learning additional skills in data visualisation and building an understanding of the basics of more advanced fields such as machine learning. This will include further exploration of the ethical implications of these areas. You will combine this with a grounding in futures studies and established design methodologies, applying your learning to the development of a prototype for the future.
The course covers critical areas which will underpin your studies within your programme, introducing you to key literatures and practical case studies within the fields of futures studies and data representation and visualisation. As a compulsory course for all EFI Masters students, you will have the opportunity to learn alongside a large and diverse group of people drawn from all programme areas.
Taught in the EFI fusion style, you will learn through a combination of methods including fusion seminars and lectures, with small group work, coding workshops and online discussion woven throughout. Working with an Open Prototyping methodology, you will develop data-driven future prototypes showcased through a virtual exhibition and fusion launch event at the end of semester, engaging the wider public with your ideas.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online 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 note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed. There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
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.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate competence in independent research, group collaboration and effective communication to a variety of audiences.
- Engage critically with futures frameworks and methods, developing analytic skills to create future scenarios and prototypes and critically evaluating their implications for present decision-making and action.
- Analyse the form of a dataset and demonstrate basic skills in producing various representations of these data.
- Engage critically with the fundamentals of theory and practice of data visualisation and representation.
- Engage in constructive critiques of the design and narrative of data representations.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Cairo, A. (2013) The Functional Art. Berkely, Calif.: New Riders
Cairo, A. (2019) How Charts Lie: getting smarter about visual information. New York: Norton.
Candy, S. & Dunagan, J. (2016). Designing an experiential scenario: The People Who Vanished. Futures, 86, 136-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2016.05.006
Dunne, A. & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative Everything. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Godhe, M & Goode, L. (2018). Critical Future Studies: a thematic Introduction. Culture Unbound Journal of Current Cultural Research 10(2):151-162. https://cultureunbound.ep.liu.se/article/view/884
Heer, J., Bostock, M., Ogievetsky V. (2010) A Tour through the Visualization Zoo. ACM Queue, 8(5).
Hemment, D. (2020). Reordering the assemblages of the digital through art and open prototyping. Leonardo 53(5): 529-536. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_01861
Magistretti, S., Ardito, L., and Messeni Petruzzelli, A. (2021). Framing the Microfoundations of Design Thinking as a Dynamic Capability for Innovation: Reconciling Theory and Practice. Journal of Product Innovation Management 38: 645-667. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12586
Munzner, T. (2015) Visualization Analysis and Design. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Tufte, E. (2001) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, Conn: Graphics Press.
van Lente, H. & Peters, P (2022). The future as aesthetic experience: imagination and engagement in future studies. European Journal of Futures Research 10. 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-022-00204-8 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Mindset:
Students will have the ability to make a positive difference to themselves and to shaping the world around them; they will understand how to work positively and ethically with different approaches to knowledge, contributing to addressing some of the world's most complex challenges.
Skills:
Students will develop skills in future studies and design methodologies and data representation; they will be enabled to identify and creatively tackle complex problems; they will develop personal and intellectual autonomy and be able to critically evaluate ideas, evidence and experiences; they will be skilled communicators able to engage effectively with others. |
| Keywords | Futures,Data Visualisation,Data Representation,Ethics,PG,Level 11,EFI Shared Core |
Contacts
| Course organiser | |
Course secretary | |
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