Syllabus for IT, Sustainability and Social Responsibility

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course, students shall:​

• be able to discuss and analyse the role of engineers and computing professionals in developing a sustainable society, both orally and in writing.
• be able to critically reason and reflect about the potential effects of technology on the environment and society; and to propose alternative designs which mitigate negative impacts
• be able to reason about sustainability and social responsibility in a context of IT systems
• be able to consider sustainability as an integral part of the design and development process in a systems project

Content

The course contains:

• an overview of current framings for sustainability challenges, goals and initiatives, for example IPCC and UN sustainability goals, planetary boundaries, carbon budgets.
• tools to analyse and reflect on IT sustainability from different perspectives, such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd order effects, systems-thinking, and value-sensitive design
• case studies of IT and sustainability
• sustainability as a core design principle in project work

Instruction

Lectures, seminars

Assessment

Assignments and case studies (4 hp). Seminars (1 hp).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the disability coordinator of the university.