Course syllabus
The course is run by the Entrepreneurship & Strategy Division at the Chalmers Department of Technology Management and Economics and will be conducted in English.
Examiner and Primary Teacher
- Professor Robin Teigland, Entrepreneurship & Strategy, Chalmers University of Technology (robin.teigland@chalmers.se)
Teacher
- Ida Heathcote-Fumador, PhD Candidate Chalmers E&S TME (Ida.mcsey@chalmers.se)
Coastal Data Gap Challenge Assistant Teacher
- Mafalda de Freitas, Ocean Tech Hub Lda Project Leader (mafalda.df@gmail.com)
Purpose and Learning Objectives
Purpose
The purpose of this course is to expand your knowledge of leading and strategic thinking in a global and digital world. The course provides you with an overview of how digitalization and digital technologies have created profound changes in value-creating activities across companies, industries, and society in recent years as well as insights into value creation in the future.
The course will also enable you to develop your understanding and skills related to leading and strategic thinking in a global and digital world through applying the appropriate frameworks, concepts, and methods in groups in an integrated take-home Exam Project and Live Case Project, "The Coastal Data Gap Challenge".
Learning Objectives
Related to knowledge and understanding, you should be able to:
- Understand and account for basic concepts such as digital innovation, digitalization, and digital transformation.
- Understand how digitalization and digital transformation influence organizations and the foundations of competition as well as the structure of society.
Related to skills and abilities, you should be able to:
- Acquire basic information about digital technologies or digital technology solutions and present and argue for a so-called business case around the same.
Related to analytical skills, you should be able to:
- Evaluate and describe how digitalization and digital technologies can influence business models and strategy as well as value creation in society today and in the future.
- Critically evaluate and discuss digital technology and technical systems in relation to organizational characteristics and the structure of society.
Schedule and Attendance
The course starts on March 20. (Please see our initial announcement for more information about the first week.)
Please check Canvas regularly to keep up to date on any schedule or other course changes. The correct course schedule is always here on Canvas as we often need to make some minor changes to the original TimeEdit schedule.
Most Coastal Data Gap Challenge sessions are obligatory and are indicated on the Syllabus and in the Challenge Document (to be uploaded). You can miss two obligatory Challenge class sessions without any makeup assignment. If you miss a third obligatory Challenge class session, you must complete a makeup assignment. If you miss more than three obligatory Challenge class sessions, you cannot pass the course. Please send Ida an email by the start of a session if you cannot attend. (Please note that signing the attendance sheet for another classmate is a breach of the academic honesty code.)
We have also organized several guest lecturers, and we expect you to respect their valuable time by attending and engaging in all guest lectures.
"Office hours": Please do not contact us individually with questions. If you have a general course-related question, ask it while in class or post it on the Discussion section on Canvas. If you have a question related to the Coastal Data Gap Challenge, then you are to post it on the Ocean Data Factory slack channel. You can join the slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/odfsweden/shared_invite/zt-1pr5gfqo7-Thhg6db0_BBId~BOLaQTzA. This way all other students can see both your questions and our answers. Please note that if you send us an email directly with a question, we will only ask you to post on Canvas Discussion or the Slack channel.
If you have a question or issue of a more personal nature, please contact Robin or Ida by email.
Pedagogy
Throughout the course, we will integrate theory with practice in order to encourage critical thinking about real life problems and to enable the ability to work on them, and–as far as possible—to do so together with people outside the classroom.
As such, this is not a traditional course where we teach by specifying everything in detail for you. Rather our approach is to enable learning, i.e., we hope to awaken your curiosity to explore the course’s topics and to develop your skills so that you may better practice lifelong learning.
The course is organized around the following:
1) Lectures: A series of theory-based lectures based on four themes related to Leading in a Digital World:
a) Leadership & People
b) Business & Societal Transformation
c) Exponential Technologies
d) Global Future Outlook.
2) ”The Coastal Data Gap Challenge” consists of lectures by the Challenge sponsors, groupwork, presentations by your groups, labs, and coaching sessions. More information is in the Challenge Overview on Canvas (to be posted soon).
3) Individual Participation and Groupwork: To learn the most from this course, we expect that you individually will come well prepared to each session by completing the readings and assignments before. Being prepared includes being able to discuss the assigned material and relating it to your experience. You or your group may be asked to present in class, particularly in connection with the Challenge. In addition, we expect those students who are not presenting to be prepared with questions and comments and to contribute to the discussion.
We are interested in the quality of your participation. Quality is the extent to which you offer key insights on course topics and readings, relate your comments to the topics at hand, and relate current topics to previous topics or material from other classes. Comments that add value to our conversations possesses one or more of the following attributes:
- Offer a different, unique, and relevant perspective on the issue at hand.
- Contribute to moving the discussion and analysis forward.
- Build on others’ comments. Too often students and managers fail to listen to the comments of others. Good comments might begin with “In agreement with what Jane has just said…” or “I’d like to disagree with Ted’s point….” or “I think we’re all missing a key point here…”
- Transcend the “I feel” syndrome. In other words, a quality comment includes some evidence or analysis of inherent tradeoffs and demonstrates reflective thinking.
Groups: You will self-select your groups of a maximum of six people on Canvas, and these groups will be the same for all activities in the course.
Course Literature
The literature is a mix of articles, reports, and online material and can be found on Canvas under each respective module. To keep the content as timely as possible, some additional material may be presented prior to the session.
We have tried to make the majority of literature freely accessible although you may need to download some articles from Chalmers library databases.
Assignments and Examination
Assignments consist of the following:
1) Preparation for Lectures. For each lecture, there is preparation. The instructions are provided under each assignment on the Syllabus or on the calendar, and the material is under the corresponding Module.
2) Challenge Live Case and Exam Submissions. All Challenge submissions are listed on Canvas under the Assignments and Module sections. The Challenge consists of two integrated parts: 1) a "Live Case" Sensor Instrument (2.5 hp, group) and 2) an "Exam" website (5 hp, group). To pass the course, you must pass each part (Live Case and Exam), submit all assignments, and fulfill the obligatory attendance requirement.
More information is in the Examination Module.
The Live Case relates to the construction of the Coastal Data Gap Sensor Instrument and other Challenge deliverables by your group and is assessed with U/G.
The Exam relates to the Challenge group work and the website that incorporates the Live Case and other deliverables conducted in your groups. The Exam is graded according to the below scale:
- For grades (3) minimum 40%
- For grades (4) minimum 60%
- For grades (5) minimum 80%
Please note that as the course changes each time it is given, there are no exams or guidelines from previous courses to give you.
House Rules
- Be prepared and on time.
- Be active and engage throughout the sessions.
- Be prepared to be cold-called (no heads up) or warm-called (some heads up) to answer questions related to what has been discussed.
- Do not record sessions or guest lecturers without asking for permission first.
- Use your full name when signing in (online).
- Turn on camera and mute microphone unless talking (online).
- Pose any questions you have related to the course in class, on the Discussion on Canvas, or on the Challenge Slack channel. Do not contact us individually with questions.
Academic Honesty
We expect you to follow Chalmers’ guidelines for academic honesty and integrity to their fullest.
Course Representatives
Course summary:
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