SIAT Concentration Proposals Overview

300-level courses cannot be shared between concentrations.

400-level courses cannot be shared between concentrations.

Concentration retreat (Oct 11, 2023)

Held on October 11 from 10am to 3pm the SIAT UCC concentration retreat included three pieces (listed below). All responses to the concentration retreat have been captured in a digital version of the whiteboards.

1. Proposal review: Each group read through proposals and provided feedback directly to the proposals or on the whiteboards. Each proposal's feedback was digitized and shared with the concentration faculty.
   • AI & Data Science proposal feedback
   • Cross-platform Development proposal feedback
   • Designing Interactions proposal feedback
   • Healthcare Innovation and Design proposal feedback
   • Media Futures proposal feedback
   • VR & Game Design proposal feedback
2. Small group feedback: Each group discussed and posted feedback or bigger questions about the concentrations on the board.
3. Large group discussion: A larger discussion was held to surface cross-curricular questions or concerns about concentrations.

Questions and concerns

Larger questions and concerns that are coming up and some initial responses to them. Please remember that the questions and answers below reflect Andrew Hawryshkewich's (UCC Chair) interpretations and views.

Questions/concerns discussed below:

• "The process has been too fast"
• "This should not silo us more"
• "What is a 'successful' proposal?"
• "What is a 'successful' concentration?"
• "Can we share courses between concentrations?"
• "How do we consider BA/BSc as part of this?"
• "Ethics needs to be woven across our curriculum"
• "These concentrations feel too focused rather than interdisciplinary"
• "Training on teamwork/collaboration needed"
• "What are the competencies that students need?"
• "How many concentrations should we start with?"
• "Where does co-op or industry tie into the concentrations?"
• "Data on student enrolment should help inform where we focus"

"The process has been too fast"

I will address this question in our special school meeting on November 1 (2:30-4:30pm).

"This should not silo us more"

I believe that the concentrations are unlikely to change issues around siloing. We already work on revising courses in small groups often in isolation or without input from the larger school group.

Ideally with a regular curricular retreat there will be much more opportunity to share some of that work, thoughts and experience, as well as to garner feedback on proposed changes.

I believe the larger challenge around siloing is ensuring a collegial and constructive critique of ideas or approaches as well as a willingness to receive critique; particularly from those whom you may not agree with. These are not issues I can solve but I will endeavour to make any concentration or curricular retreat as considerate of these issues as possible.

"What is a 'successful' proposal?"

Outlined in the Proposal for SIAT UG Curriculum Structure & Lifecycle Process is the definition of a concentration:

The criteria for a 'successful' proposal are:

• Clearly defined learning outcomes (LOs)
• Clear definition of current/future market and societal needs
• LOs that prepare students for those current/future market and societal needs

These criteria are more 'administrative' factors as they do not answer details around teaching/learning and assessment in courses (and concentrations). I anticipate that proposals that move forward will consider these in a more pedagogic stage (discussed below).

"What is a 'successful' concentration?"

While we have the definition of what a 'concentration' is (listed above), what is a successful concentration once implemented is less defined. I anticipate part of this success will be pedagogic (how we teach) and part engagement (student's choices).

The next phase of the concentration process and our June (2024) curricular retreat will include much more consideration and sharing of pedagogic concerns, ideally answering questions around:

• What kinds of 'problems' are students solving? (social, technical, physical, digital, etc)
• Who is helping them solve these? (industry, society, instructors, etc)
• What kinds of knowledge or skills are required to help them solve this problem? (hard/soft, breadth/depth, theory/application, etc)

I will provide more definition around the pedagogic 'next phase' in the November 1 special school meeting.

The question of engagement is one that I will have a better answer for and some suggested approaches by the time of our June (2024) curricular retreat.

"Can we share courses between concentrations?"

No. This is not possible due to the limitations of how SFU defines concentrations.

"How do we consider BA/BSc as part of this?"

Given the complexities of revising the concentrations and reconsidering how our BA/BSc division of courses works, the UCC decided that these concerns should be addressed after the concentration process.

Until we address the BA/BSc concerns the UCC will consider and implement ways to ensure that students can still complete their degrees with the new concentrations while not being hindered by the BA/BSc requirements.

"Ethics needs to be woven across our curriculum"

The broader discussions at the concentration retreat suggested that it may be best if we integrate more explicit and implicit teaching of ethics; including (but not limited to) equity, feminism, and decolonialism.

Given how 'core' the discussion suggested this is, I recommend this is something we integrate at the 100/200-level.

"These concentrations feel too focused rather than interdisciplinary"

A reminder that the new concentrations were intended to be more focused in response to the UG student survey completed in May 2022. Students pointed to wanting more ability to specialize, and ideally courses that are better scaffolded to enable more depth in a topic area.

A larger discussion of what is interdisciplinarity and what is a reasonable level of breadth to our program is necessary as when we address 100/200-level courses in subsequent years the consideration of what is 'breadth' will be key.

"Training on teamwork/collaboration needed"

This is a problem that was recognized as part of our UG student survey completed in May 2022. I anticipate this would be addressed as part of the review of 100 and 200-level courses after finishing the concentration proposal process.

"What are the competencies that students need?"

If I define competencies as specific applied skills or knowledge and learning outcomes as the application of that competency — apologies if I have misinterpreted a definition — then our learning outcomes should show what we believe students need to be competent in. The answer to what competencies they need beyond SIAT should be answered by where they end up (industry, grad school, etc).

For example if a concentration is focusing on an industry need for the concentration, the learning outcomes should speak to what we believe the students will need to be able to do in jobs within that space.

Questions around what competencies we believe our students need at large may require a school-wide discussion. We do already have SIAT Educational Goals that can help inform this discussion.

"How many concentrations should we start with?"

There was some good discussion around the number we should start with in the curricular retreat. I tend to agree with the group that putting forward a set of 3-4 concentrations (for Fall 2024) allows us to move forward but keep the number of concerns brought up by others at the university manageable.

"Where does co-op or industry tie into the concentrations?"

I do not have an answer for this one at this time but I do see that this would be part of our next step in the concentrations where we start to share and consider the curricular changes in more detail.

"Data on student enrolment should help inform where we focus"

I would argue it is difficult to have enrolment data inform our concentration focus, mostly because enrolment is influenced by such a wide variety of factors.

For sake of discussion, I have put together an interactive overview of SIAT enrolment data from summer 2018 onwards (linked) as well as embedded below.

Please note the 'caveats' listed in the "Show or hide specific concentrations" category.

300-level courses cannot be shared between concentrations.

400-level courses cannot be shared between concentrations.