EPN-V2

UNIK4000 Technology, Innovation and Product Development Course description

Course name in Norwegian
Technology, Innovation and Product development
Study programme
Master's Degree Programme in Product Design – Design in Complexity
Weight
10.0 ECTS
Year of study
2017/2018
Programme description
Course history

Required preliminary courses

Admission to the Master's programme.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this course students are able to

  • explain how social, economic and cultural factors interact with technological factors in innovation processes
  • recognise and discuss alternative approaches and strategies involved in technological innovations
  • identify and analyse factors that may promote or threaten the innovation process
  • write a basic business plan for an innovation based start-up or a plan for the implementation of entrepreneurial ideas in existing companies
  • perform communicative skills orally and visually in the presentation of innovative ideas
  • relate well to students of all abilities and from other academic backgrounds in a project

Content

After completing the course, the candidates are expected to have the following knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

Candidates have

  • thorough knowledge of selected important childhood research traditions and their theoretical and methodological aspects
  • balanced knowledge about the rights of children and young people and participation processes in some of the welfare state's professional fields

Skills

Candidates have

  • analytic knowledge about differences between children related to gender, social class, ethnicity, age and physical ability/disability, including how differences are created and interact, and how they are assigned general cultural meaning as well as specialised meanings in relation to how professionals understand and with children
  • a scholarly and systematic basis for designing and conducting studies about and involving children (aged 0-18) who are directly or indirectly influenced by the welfare state system

General competence

Candidates are capable of

  • assessing and identifying new research questions in the field
  • taking part in debates in national and international forums

Teaching and learning methods

The most important teaching and learning methods for this course are individual work, group work, lectures, tutorials and excursions.

The course is organised in three parts with a total of 42 hours of lectures.

Part 1: Theories on technological innovations - 15 hours of lectures.

Part 2: Product development - 12 hours of lectures.

Part 3: Commercialisation and business development - 15 hours of lectures.

In addition to this: Approximately six hours for excursions.

Course requirements

  • One individual presentation.
  • One group presentation.
  • One written assignment.

Assessment

Oral examination in small groups.

The examination result cannot be appealed against.

Permitted exam materials and equipment

At the final oral examinations, the student groups may use power-point presentations, exhibits, prototypes, etc. as they consider fit.

Grading scale

This course addresses children's position in a welfare state context, children's everyday life within Childhood institutions like Kindergarten and School, in families and in encounters with welfare services and state professional's. The course has particular emphasis on academic traditions that contribute to contextualized analyses of the everyday life, upbringing and development of boys and girls; sociocultural theory, intersectional theory and interdisciplinary childhood studies. The rights of children and young people, with particular emphasis on their right to participation, are a topic in the course. Methodological approaches to investigating connections between children's different everyday arenas with their varied relationships, activities and internal connections, are presented. Modes of knowledge compricing children's understanding of themselves and their situation are central  in the course. The reading list for the course includes classic and recent texts from Scandinavian and international childhood research.

Examiners

No prior knowledge requirements