Overview
Social innovation is the development and implementation of innovative, transformative, and sustainable solutions to social problems. The challenges facing our world such as poverty, disease, and climate change are more complex than ever before. Sustainable, effective solutions require interdisciplinary thinking and cross-sector collaboration. This unit will develop your understanding of social empathy and provide you with foundational skills to diagnose structural inequalities that contribute to social problems. You will apply action learning and case study analysis to examine social, environmental and economic sustainability challenges. Finally you will examine some of the solutions that have already been implemented as organisations, communities and individuals consider ways to benefit society and improve lives.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2020
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Have Your Say, Moodle forums, and email correspondence
Students indicated that the change in unit coordinator was disruptive and resulted in differing levels of satisfaction with unit coordination
Avoid changing unit coordinator once the term has commenced
Feedback from Have Your Say, Moodle forums, and email correspondence
Students indicated that PowerPoint slides may not be the best avenue of communicating assessment requirements and tasks
Ensure that there are a number of ways to communicate assessment requirements
Feedback from Have Your Say, Moodle forums, and email correspondence
Students indicated that feedback was late and did not provide enough guidance on where they could improve
Provide adequate and timely feedback that helps students to improve
Feedback from Have Your Say, Moodle forums, and email correspondence
Students indicated that emails, Moodle forum posts and phone messages were not responded to in a timely fashion
Ensure communication channels are open, monitored and provide timely responses to students
- Analyse and describe the contexts for social innovation and identify the changing global environments that drive social change
- Identify and analyse the systems, processes and resources required to diagnose structural inequalities and social disparities
- Apply action learning principals to examine and critique social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges
- Investigate the range of social innovation business models and emerging capitalisation strategies implemented to solve contemporary social challenges.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||
2 - Presentation and Written Assessment - 30% | ||||
3 - Portfolio - 40% |
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
1 - Communication | ||||
2 - Problem Solving | ||||
3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
4 - Information Literacy | ||||
5 - Team Work | ||||
6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
8 - Ethical practice | ||||
9 - Social Innovation | ||||
10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures |
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
1 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||||||
2 - Presentation and Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||||||
3 - Portfolio - 40% |
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
Additional Textbook Information
A free textbook and recommended readings will be specified on the unit Moodle site.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Webcam and headset
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
o.muurlink@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Introduction to social innovation
Chapter
Chapter 1, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Chapter 2, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Module/Topic
The structure of problems
Chapter
Chapter 3, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Module/Topic
What is change and why is change hard?
Chapter
Chapter 4, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Module/Topic
Traditional methods of change
Chapter
Chapter 5, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Module/Topic
Vacation week
Chapter
Vacation week
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation week
Module/Topic
New methods of change
Chapter
Chapter 6, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Submit Assessment 1 at the end of this week (Friday, 12.00 pm).
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Assessment 2 presentations begin.
Analysis of a wicked problem Due: Week 6 Friday (28 Aug 2020) 12:00 pm AEST
Group Presentation of Traditional Versus Social Innovation Interventions Due: Week 6 Monday (24 Aug 2020) 12:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
How to think your way through to a solution
Chapter
Chapter 7, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Assessment 2 presentations continue
Module/Topic
Ideas and where they come from
Chapter
Chapter 8, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Assessment 2 presentations continue
Module/Topic
Why do we socially innovate?
Chapter
Chapter 9, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions:: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Assessment 2 presentations continue
Module/Topic
Business and social innovation
Chapter
Chapter 10, Wicked Problems & Even More Wicked Solutions: An Introduction to the Science, Art and Magic of Social Innovation. This is a free (downloadable) textbook available as part of the unit.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Assessment 2 presentations continue
Module/Topic
Integration
Chapter
Additional readings will be provided on the Moodle Site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Work on developing material for Assessment 3 (portfolio) every week of the term.
Assessment 2 presentations continue
Module/Topic
Revision
Chapter
Additional readings will be provided on the Moodle Site.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 2 and 3 are officially due this week. Assessment 2 presentations conclude this week. Assessment 3 should have been undertaken by the student on a weekly basis, with the final portfolio developed for submission this week.
Portfolio of reflections on social innovation readings and audiovisual material Due: Week 12 Friday (9 Oct 2020) 12:00 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
This assignment is due in Week 6, Friday, midday.
Describe and analyse a 'wicked problem' of either local, national or global relevance. Canvass at least one campaign, policy approach or intervention that has been launched to overcome this problem, evidence the degree to which this succeeded, and identify and provide evidence of at least one unintended consequence of this attempt to address the problem.
The assignment should not exceed 2000 words, and should draw on credible written evidence, including scholarly books and articles, non-scholarly books and book chapters, and credible media sources (a minimum of 10 scholarly references are required). This assignment requires you to show evidence that you understand the term 'wicked problem' and are able to relate that definition to a 'real world' wicked problem, using evidence you've gathered through your own readings of the scholarly or other science literature. You can make use of reputable media sources as part of your case, but a preference should be given to either scholarly (peer-reviewed) papers, scientific reports (e.g. from United Nations bodies or the CSIRO), or reputable government or non-government reports. Unintended consequences of policy solutions are not easy to find, therefore we encourage you to think through what MIGHT be an unintended (negative or positive) consequence to a campaign designed to tackle a wicked problem. Once you have identified a likely candidate for an unintended consequence, you should be able to find some plausible good quality evidence to show that such a consequence may have transpired.
The format of this assignment is a formal essay or report. There is no 'right' structure, but the assessment item should be clearly and logically structured, and can be illustrated with graphs, figures or tables as required. Using sub-headings to help organise your work is encouraged, but not required.
Week 6 Friday (28 Aug 2020) 12:00 pm AEST
Please note that the time for submission is the middle of the day. This provides the opportunity for the unit coordinator and TASAC to assist students who may have difficulties submitting their assignments.
Week 8 Friday (11 Sept 2020)
Every effort will be made to return your assignment BEFORE the date indicated. You will find your mark and feedback through the Feedback Studio portal on Moodle.
1. Critical Insight (15 marks)
- To what degree have you explored the problem and its underlying causes?
- To what degree have you explored the campaign, policy approach or intervention that has been launched to overcome this problem?
- To what degree have you been able to identify a likely or evidenced unintended consequence or consequences?
2. Evidence (10 marks)
- Is this insight linked to evidence drawn from quality sources (as defined in the task description?
- Has a minimum of ten such quality sources been properly used (that is understood, discussed, and referenced)?
- Have you demonstrated the ability to evaluate the quality of the evidence?
3. Presentation and communication (5 marks)
- Have you presented the wicked problem, responses and unintended consequences in a clear way?
- Have you checked your work and ensured it has minimal errors and is consistently and clearly formatted?
- In cases where you have used additional materials (e.g. graphs), do these additional materials add value to your case?
- Does your submission show appropriate and accurate (APA) referencing?
- Analyse and describe the contexts for social innovation and identify the changing global environments that drive social change
- Identify and analyse the systems, processes and resources required to diagnose structural inequalities and social disparities
- Investigate the range of social innovation business models and emerging capitalisation strategies implemented to solve contemporary social challenges.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
2 Presentation and Written Assessment
This is a group assignment, and class presentations associated with this assignment will commence in the second half of the term. The objective of this assignment is to show your emerging understanding of the distinction between traditional and social innovation interventions to wicked problems and to hone your ability to work in a group and present good quality evidence in a public setting.
For this assignment you'll be asked (along with a group of up to three fellow students) to give a ten-minute oral, in-class presentation (for online students this will be via a Zoom meeting organised by the unit coordinator). The presentation will be followed by questions from your lecturer and fellow students. You'll be expected to support your presentation with visual/written aids, preferably PowerPoint. Each student in your group should contribute to the development and delivery of the presentation and the documents uploaded to Moodle. You will be expected to provide a clear overview of which team member contributed which element to the final presentation (not just the oral delivery). In addition, the slides must be accompanied by evidence (for example in the PowerPoint Notes) to expand on the evidence in the slide itself. Each slide note should indicate the identity of the team member who primarily contributed to that slide and the collection of evidence presented in that slide.
The topic will be your choice of a significant social problem, and it should not be a problem which one of your group members is including in their Assignment 1 task. In your group presentation, you will briefly describe, followed by a contrast between a traditional approach and a new, social innovation approach to countering the problem. The social innovation approach (unlike the traditional approach) can be either a hypothetical solution, or one that has been tried. In either case, you'll be expected to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches (traditional and social innovation approach) and why one approach may be more appropriate than the other. You will be expected, as with Assessment 1, to present good quality evidence to back up the statements made on your slides and in your oral presentation.
We recommend that you meet with your group early in the term, break up the tasks fairly between the group members, and then meet regularly to ensure that the final product is a seamless combination of the work you have done. So presentations that show evidence of the team working together to produce a single, well structured 'line of thought' will be marked higher than disorganised and repetitive presentations.
Please consult with your on-campus lecturer to form groups by the end of week 4. Note that presentations begin in week 6 and end in week 12. If you have a preference for the week in which your group presents, please negotiate this early with your lecturer.
Week 6 Monday (24 Aug 2020) 12:00 pm AEST
Ongoing weekly presentations, given in class or via Zoom. Note that presentations begin in week 6 and end in week 12. If you have a preference for the week in which your group presents, please negotiate this early with your on-campus lecturer.
Students will be given verbal feedback in class (or via Zoom) and then marks will be released in Week 12
Analysis (16 marks)
- The ability to analyse wicked problems, and accurately and clearly distinguish between traditional and social innovation approaches to solutions.
- The ability to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches (traditional and social innovation approach).
- Clear explanation of why the traditional or social innovation approach may be a better way to address the wicked problem.
Evidence (7 marks):
- Are the visual and verbal elements of the presentation backed up by good quality evidence?
- Have you demonstrated the ability to evaluate the quality of the evidence?
Presentation quality (7 marks): Presentation quality is assessed on the following factors:
- Clarity and persuasiveness of communication and presentation skills.
- Quality, including clarity of slides. Please check your submission for errors before presenting and uploading.
- Lack of repetition and smooth sequence of argument.
- Where required, are the arguments accompanied by appropriate referencing of sources?
The slides and accompanying notes should be submitted by the group leader through the link provided, with the first slide clearly identifying the group members (including student numbers). Include a page with details on group member participation.
- Identify and analyse the systems, processes and resources required to diagnose structural inequalities and social disparities
- Apply action learning principals to examine and critique social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges
- Investigate the range of social innovation business models and emerging capitalisation strategies implemented to solve contemporary social challenges.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
3 Portfolio
This assignment is due on the Friday of Week 12, at midday. You'll be expected to maintain a weekly reflection on what you have been reading and watching/listening from the materials provided in the (free) unit textbook and supplementary materials on the Moodle site. This portfolio asks you to both be a critical consumer of social innovation material, and to reflect honestly on your reaction to the material. It asks you to both describe and summarise what you have been reading, and to accurately attribute your comments to their original sources. You'll be asked to supplement the material from the text and Moodle materials with some additional independent reading (beyond merely the textbook) which further illuminates the points you have drawn from the Moodle/textbook materials.
The portfolio should be not more than 2500 words in length. Focus on the three topics that most affected you in this unit. You should use at least six good quality references (two per topic) beyond those supplied on the unit Moodle site.
Reflection is when you think critically about an experience or a piece of reading material. This critical thinking allows you to gain an understanding of how theory as well as personal, social and cultural experiences relate to practice or professional knowledge.
By reflecting, you are able to:
- Get to know your own strengths and weaknesses
- Discover your own underlying assumptions – and challenge them
- Make connections between your own experience and what you are learning
- Learn from your mistakes – and thus become a better practitioner.
These four aspects of reflection should be demonstrated in the portfolio.
Week 12 Friday (9 Oct 2020) 12:00 pm AEST
Please note that the time for submission is the middle of the day. This provides the opportunity for the unit coordinator and TASAC to assist students who may have difficulties submitting their assignments.
Exam Week Friday (23 Oct 2020)
Although exam week is indicated here, the results of Assessment Item 3 are formally released on the certification of grades. You will not be able to obtain your mark for this assignment before the certification of grades.
Reflection (20 marks):
- Demonstration of an understanding of own strengths and weaknesses.
- Discovery of own underlying assumptions and how the material in this unit challenged them
- Demonstration of a connection between own experience and what has been learnt
- Understanding of how you have become a better practitioner by learning from your mistakes.
Critical thinking (5 marks):
- The portfolio demonstrates deeper reflection or thinking beyond the surface content of the material that has been read and referenced in the portfolio.
Theory (5 marks):
- Accurate understanding of the theories and concepts presented in this unit.
Evidence (5 marks):
- The reflections are supported by good quality evidence beyond that supplied on the unit Moodle site.
- At least six good quality references beyond those supplied on the unit Moodle site have been used.
Communication (5 marks): The material is:
- Clearly communicated, with evidence that the work has been proofed read.
- Properly referenced (in APA style).
- Organised in a logical, easy-to-understand manner.
- Analyse and describe the contexts for social innovation and identify the changing global environments that drive social change
- Apply action learning principals to examine and critique social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges
- Investigate the range of social innovation business models and emerging capitalisation strategies implemented to solve contemporary social challenges.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.