Modules about sustainable futures

How can we ensure that the values of AI are aligned with our own? What ethical principles should we program AI with? How can we ensure that it benefits our lives? And what effects will it have on our lives, both in the workplace and in the home?



What previous students say

"The entire content of the course is fantastic, stimulating and exciting. There is nothing I would change about the content."
"The professor has been one of the most interesting and engaging teachers I have had so far. All lectures, despite being online, have felt like a proper discussion between lecturer and other students."

What will I do in this module?

This module has three key elements:

  1. A set of online learning resources, including weekly videos, readings, and links on Canvas.
  2. A weekly interactive lecture with polls, chat and short activities.
  3. A weekly discussion workshop (for smaller seminar groups) to discuss topics in more depth.

What skills will I develop?

You'll learn how to examine one topic from a variety of angles, thinking about how issues from one area (e.g., computer science) can alter and affect issues from other areas (e.g., politics or art).

This module explores the use and abuse of numbers, and other forms of data, in communications through data-driven storytelling.

The module is built around the four main themes of data-driven storytelling: context, data, narrative and design. Through these themes we investigate areas such as language, colour, numbers, emotion and bias and how they influence data-driven storytelling.



What previous students say

"I feel very good about the skills I’ve built in this course. I can look at a data story and see the different elements to it rather than just take the creator’s word on it."
"My understanding of how to communicate an idea has been increased by this module, since it has taught me that the way you present information is as important if not more so than the information being communicated."

What will I do in this module?

This module has three key elements:

  1. It takes the form of ‘flipped learning’, which means that the lectures and support materials are provided before each timetabled class.
  2. The timetabled sessions are made up of a series of activities aimed at preparing you to create a good-quality data story.
  3. While you'll be assessed as an individual, you'll undertake these activities in groups, and there's a strong expectation that you'll engage with your group in class so that you can all get the most out of our time together.

What skills will I develop?

  • Critical thinking
  • Reflective writing
  • Principles of design
  • Assessment literacy
  • Data literacy
  • Graphicacy
  • Team working
  • Storyboarding and creating presentations for a variety of different audiences.

This module explores the skills required to teach, and what it means to teach and to learn.

We draw on several disciplines to unpick our understanding of the role that humans and technology can play in human learning.



What previous students say

"I thought the content was really interesting. It made me think of new teaching ideas and new concepts which can be linked to education."
"Lots of helpful resources, I really like the content of the lectures and the timing of them. They are not too short or too long, which keeps me more stimulated and [I] can concentrate longer"

What will I do in this module?

The module has three key elements:

  1. Creating a job advertisement for a teacher.
  2. Investigating the broad range of skills that are required to be a teacher.
  3. In light of (1) and (2), considering whether technology can replace human teachers.

What skills will I develop?

  • Academic
  • Discussion
  • Critical thinking
  • Reflective writing
  • Creativity
  • Collaboration

Animals are generally considered to be beings that are sentient, but they also contribute to the world's economy. How can we balance these two ideas?

Why do we recognise animals as sentient beings? How do the relationships we develop with animals impact their treatment?

How do animals contribute to the economy? How do we recognise the rights of animals and the rights of animal owners and what actions can we take to support this?

How has human intervention impacted on ecosystems? How can individuals influence change with respect to how animals are viewed and used?

These questions will all be explored in this module.



What will I do in this module?

The module has three key elements:

  1. Discussions – most weeks there is the opportunity to discuss in detail various topics relating to animal ownership. It is important that you share your own knowledge and experience, everyone can contribute in this module.
  2. Peer assessment groups – the lobby paper has two formative steps, and what you have produced is shared in a support group that provides peer feedback alongside the tutor feedback.
  3. Continuous reflection – there is a weekly reflective activity, and at the end of the trimester, all the pieces of reflection can be combined to make the reflective piece for the second assignment.

What skills will I develop?

  • Digital fluency
  • Critical evaluation
  • Logical and well-reasoned arguments
  • Balancing ethical and economic perspectives

These skills will not only be of value in the rest of your studies, but are also invaluable for employment. You'll consider the impact of other disciplines as well as your own to prepare you for the workplace.

In a world so full of pressures and distractions, it can be difficult to feel a strong connection to the natural environment around us.

This module gives you the opportunity to develop your creative writing and journalling techniques as a way of actively exploring and documenting your relationship to nature, and to consider how such engagement can make a difference to our own psychological health, as well as to the future of the planet.

The body of work you create will expressively communicate your values, ideas and personal perspective while developing key interdisciplinary skills, as well as broadening your awareness of edgelands and other less well-known aspects of the environment.



What will I do in this module?

The module has three key elements:

  1. Exploring, mapping and engaging with your own immediate natural environment.
  2. Writing creatively and reflectively, in a way that combines aspects of ecology and conservation studies with journalling techniques and insights from your own discipline.
  3. Reading and discussing key works of environmentally engaged non-fiction and journalism.

What skills will I develop?

  • Creativity
  • Managing your wellbeing
  • Greater awareness of ecological themes
  • Confidence in expressing your thoughts, values and ideas
  • Interdisciplinary and critical thinking

This problem-solving module provides guidance, support and information to equip you to face current environmental challenges through science-based approaches, legal mechanisms, governmental and economic policies both at national, European and international level.

We'll assess current and future environmental policies alongside environmental problems such as biodiversity loss, water security, climate change and food production, and consider the significant challenges they pose, which admit scientific, economic and administrative responses as readily as legal ones.

Throughout the module, you'll plan and design environmental solutions for stakeholders as part of a ‘live brief’. You'll be part of a collaboration of academics and professionals to look at environmental law, the sharing of different approaches and new ways of thinking about environmental problems, balancing alternative interpretations and conflicting interests and generating new solutions.

By collaborating, you'll build your employability and develop new knowledge on sustainability and understanding of the multiplicity of perspectives from which environmental choices can be addressed.

Sustainability in this context is broadly interpreted as achieving resilience and sustainable relationships between actors to improve the human condition and the natural environment.



What will I do in this module?

The module has two key elements:

  1. The main focus is on the protection of water, land and air to prevent pollution and to secure environmental quality objectives.
  2. The module will conclude by examining some cross-cutting issues, such as enforcement, information access, participation and alternative strategies for environmental protection.

What skills will I develop?

  • Research
  • Communication
  • Critical thinking
  • Ethics
  • Information management
  • Independent work
  • Problem-solving

This module will also:

  • Help you to develop a full understanding of environmental issues to be able to work on professionals’ priority areas, making you more confident to access the labour market.
  • Support your career development by offering practical exercises that will allow you to employ your knowledge effectively.

This module asks, ‘how can we anticipate potential, unintended consequences of introducing new technologies on different groups or individuals?’.

To do this, we'll investigate current and emerging scenarios of technology transformation and its wider impact on society from a socio-economic and ethical-legal perspective.

We'll then apply practical techniques to consider how information technologies could be used in new, near-future situations and anticipate their potential impact in a fictional world.



What previous students say

"Lectures were perfectly organised, run smoothly and clear."

What will I do in this module?

This module has three key elements:

  1. You'll choose an emerging information technology to explore, and a fictional situation to apply this new technology to.
  2. You'll then use methods rooted in science and technology and design and literature to explain anticipated and unanticipated consequences of the technology in this situation.
  3. You'll get experience in reflection, which is an important skill for advancing learning.

What skills will I develop?

  • Self-awareness around technology
  • Critical evaluation of interdisciplinary methods
  • Written communication
  • Academic
  • Ability to reflect
  • Research

This module explores the wide-ranging impact that pandemics have on our global communities.



What will I do in this module?

The module has two key elements:

  1. We'll embark on a journey through the pandemic, exploring a wide range of topics which affected us all, such as public health measures, business, and human behaviour.
  2. Our conversations will be shaped by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will conclude with suggestions on how communities can evolve in an ethical and responsible way to ensure our future is sustainable.

What skills will I develop?

  • Team-working
  • Critical thinking
  • Communication
  • Debating
  • Reflective thinking

In this module we'll explore how your understanding of sustainability develops through both formal and informal education.

Bringing lively discussions into the classroom, together we'll investigate different interpretations of sustainability, drawing on our life experiences and disciplinary backgrounds.

We’ll consider historical and political contexts and the psychology and science of sustainability, as well as financial issues.

This is a unique module that will give you the chance to work not only with students from other disciplines, but with friends and family outside of the module as you shape a vision of the future that draws on diverse and collective ideas and viewpoints.



What will I do in this module?

The module has three key elements:

  1. You'll explore your understanding of sustainability and how this develops through both formal and informal education.
  2. We'll draw on several disciplines to investigate different interpretations of sustainability.
  3. You'll reflect on your own values and experiences to explore what sustainability means to you.

What skills will I develop?

  • Critical reflection
  • Oral communication
  • Academic research

The overwhelming image of the future is one of doom and gloom and many people are worried about what it might hold, but what if we could use our imaginations to think differently about the future?

You'll develop your creative and imaginative thinking skills as we cover a range of topics, from climate change and AI to the importance of creativity and the arts.



What will I do in this module?

The module has three key elements:

  1. Analysing different images of the future.
  2. Building your creative and imaginative skills.
  3. Working in teams to hear what the future looks like from different disciplinary perspectives, from the future of fashion to alternative education systems.

What skills will I develop?

  • Futures thinking
  • Collaboration
  • Critical reflection
  • Research

Fashion has become disposable, but at what cost?

In this module, we'll examine our own personal responsibility towards clothes and explore the real cost of fashion on the environment and on the people who work in the sector.

 We'll use a range of multi-disciplinary tools for this: diaries, reflection, lifecycle assessment, ethics models and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).



What previous students say

"This module has allowed me to evaluate how I am positively and/or negatively, directly and/or indirectly impacting the environment. I have a better understanding of the benefits of actively being sustainable and ethics. Some skills I have learnt from this module are time management, creative thinking, and using my initiative."
"From the get-go, the discussions inspired me to think differently and especially deeper into the elaborate world of the fashion industry. I feel that the vastness in the [online] discussion boards simply reflects not only the ... courses [represented], but the differing cultures, backgrounds, and nationalities that the students represent, which creates a plethora of ideas, which is such a breath of fresh air for the module, significantly positively impacting my learning."

What will I do in this module?

The module has three key elements:

  1. You'll first reflect on your own clothing consumption, before exploring an item of clothing and the brand behind it. You'll critically examine the impact of this item in detail, using the lifecycle assessment tools. You'll also examine the ethics of the clothing brand behind that item, and how they are approaching the SDGs. All this critical analysis will lead to consideration of what could be done differently.
  2. During this journey into our clothes, you'll have the opportunity to work in a group to create a poster to inform others about the real truth behind our clothes.
  3. The final work on the module is to write a report about your journey through your own responsibility as a clothing consumer, the lifecycle of an item in your wardrobe, and an analysis of the brand, finishing the report of with recommendations for the future.

What skills will I develop?

  • Application of sustainability tools and models
  • Critical thinking
  • Ethical thinking
  • Creativity
  • Teamwork
  • Digital literacy