Modules
In order to complete this course a student must successfully complete all the following CORE modules:
Creative Thinking for Innovation
20 credits
Comfort is your Enemy!
This module provides an introduction to the Masters course and develops techniques in creative thinking. These will be used as a foundation for the development and application of innovation concepts and prototypes. The ability to develop creative ideas also means taking creative risks, in which you are encouraged to explore and expand your thinking, moving out of your comfort zone. This approach is integral to the very concept of innovation. The module will introduce you to a variety of creative thinking models. Through these, you will explore and use divergent and convergent thinking to develop your concepts. By gaining familiarity with the creative thinking models, they will become tools that you will apply throughout the programme in the process of innovation.
Innovation Methodologies and Problem Framing
40 credits
This module will introduce you to the theories that will help you to enable the process of innovation. Examples may include STEAM Thinking, Design Thinking, Action Research and project management approaches such as Agile/Scrum. Based on a broad set of challenges, you will apply these methodologies to evaluate specific narrower problems. Through a user-empathy approach you will demonstrate how you have understood the challenges and begin to apply the creative thinking models from Module 1 to identify solutions.
Innovation and Enterprise Skills
60 credits
This module will build on your previous learning to further develop your practice of innovation. This module will provide you with a range of options to explore innovation within different settings. This may take the form of, but is not exclusive to Open Innovation Labs, work placements, master classes, and field trips. You will take a constructed learning approach to identify and agree your own Learning Plan with reference to suggested learning pathways. At the end of this module there will be a second Open Innovation Lab that will focus on the development of prototypes. Assessment for this module will be a portfolio that demonstrates the learning achieved and a reflection on this, and the team working process.
Major Project
60 credits
The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically informed research project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. It is important that we can support you appropriately, so you will be guided towards choosing a research topic which is relevant to your discipline and in which your lecturers have expertise. The outcome may take the form of a written dissertation or a practical outcome with accompanying reflective, critical and contextual material. The main consideration when choosing your topic is that it must be relevant to your programme and you should consider the relevance of this topic to your future academic or professional development.
