95003      Sustainability in an Interconnected World

Assessment 2 Brief

This assessment brief supplements the Subject Outline information to provide detailed guidelines and requirements. Make sure you read both documents carefully when doing this assessment task.

Type:                Individual, Research/Report

Weight:            40%

Digital due:       Sunday 14th  September (before midnight – i.e., 11:59 pm)

Length:             3 pages, including visuals

Purpose:          The purpose of this assessment is to engage with stakeholders from diverse sectors, industries, and disciplines to co-create potential regenerative futures

Interview synthesis: Regenerative futures

In this assessment, you will undertake two interviews with different stakeholders to explore their perspectives on regenerative action. After conducting the interviews, you need to create a 3-page document that draws out the main insights from the stakeholders, synthesises the ideas and highlights potential directions for regenerative action. While this is an individual assessment, the insights you generate will be used to support your group project for Assessment 3.

Requirements

You create a document (3 pages in total) that utilises text and visuals to cover the following:

1.   One page on each stakeholder  (2 pages) – Why did you choose them? What were the main insights from the conversation? What are key quotes that stood out? How do they think, feel, and act in respect to your problem space?

2.   Overview page of the key takeaways (1 page)- What do the insights mean for your  group project? Do they align with your team’s understanding of the problem space? Do they enrich your understanding and give further detail? Does it challenge your assumptions and offer alternative ways of thinking about the problem? Does it suggest some further steps or areas of investigation that you haven’t explored yet with your team?

How to go about it

This assignment will help you gain a real-world understanding of the domain of regenerative action your team is exploring and assist in co-creating regenerative futures with community members.

Step 1 – Develop an interview guide

-      Develop an interview guide with open-ended questions to help you explore the perspectives of different stakeholders on the sustainability problem, potential  regenerative actions and possible imaginaries of the future.

-      We recommend having six to ten open-ended questions for the interview.

-      You should create specific probes that help you to explore responses in greater depth.

-      You should gain feedback from your teammates on the interview guide and questions.

-      We will also conduct a practice interview in class in the seminar activity.

-      After the practice interview, you should reflect on which questions worked well and which were unclear

Step 2 – Reach out to interview participants

-      Identify which ‘types’ of stakeholders you might want to interview by reflecting on the system mapping activities.

-      Brainstorm with your team about potential people that you or your friends, classmates, and family might know who fit these ‘types’.

-      If you do not have contacts with these ‘types’, you may need to contact people directly through LinkedIn or email.

-      When reaching out to potential interviewees, give a simple ‘ask’: For example

o  “My name is X, I am a student at UTS conducting research on Y. Given your work/activities with ABC, I would love to interview you about your perspective on DEF. Please let me know if you would be free for a 30-minute interview between [these dates]. Let me know if you would prefer to do the interview in person or over Zoom. ”

-      Once an interviewee agrees, send a calendar invitation for the interview, including the meeting location or the Zoom link.

Step 3 – Conduct the interviews

-      You should aim to conduct interviews of 20 to 30 minutes.

-      At the start of the interview, introduce yourself and ask permission to record.

-      During the interview, follow your interview guide but try to create a conversational tone.

-      Be sure to probe and maintain control in the interview to keep things on track.

-      Take interpretative notes during and right after the interview to ensure you have captured your initial impressions.

-      After your first interview, reflect on what went well and what you might change for future interviews.

Step 4 – Analyse and synthesise insights from the interviews

-      Re-read your interpretative notes for each interview.

-      Use the in-built transcript. function in Zoom or utilise a speech-to-text service (such as Otter.ai) to transcribe your interview recording to text.

-      Analyse the interview transcripts (either by reading/or reading while listening)

o As you read/listen, highlight any key quotes that shed light on the sustainability problem or potential for regenerative action

-      As you analyse/listen, write/type your own analytical reflections on what you heard.

-      Remember, analysing interviews is more than just summarising what participants

described, you need to interpret their comments with a critical lens and synthesise what the differing perspectives offered from each interviewee.

Note: This is an individual assignment, meaning you should be doing the work independently, but you can get feedback and ideas from your team as you develop your questions and identify participants. Also, note that the interviewees must be unique to each team member (i.e. you can’t interview the same person as someone in your team).

Assessment Criteria

In this task, you will be assessed according to the following criteria:

Submission requirements for Assessment 2

Ensure the following details are included as a footer in your PDF file:

1.   Full name and student ID

2.   Faculty (of your core degree)

Please submit:

1.   One PDF file into the designated Assessment 2 area in Canvas by no later than 11:59 pm on Sunday 14th  September.

2.   Submit the digital PDF copy with the following naming convention:

95003_Surname_Assessment2

Late and incomplete assignments

Assignments submitted after the due time/date will incur late penalties. Work submitted up to 7 days* later than the deadline should have either approval from their Subject Coordinator prior to the due date (with appropriate Doctor’s certificate or equivalent documentation) or a special consideration, otherwise the Subject Coordinator will apply the following penalties:

●    Up to 1 day late (24 hours from the specified deadline): 5% late reduction

●    Up to 2 days late: 10% late reduction

●    Up to 3 days late: 15% late reduction

●    Up to 4 days late: 20% late reduction

●    Up to 5 days late: 25% late reduction

●    Up to 6 days late: 30% late reduction

●    Up to 7 days late: 35% late reduction

●    Over 7 days late: NOT ACCEPTED

●    The 5% per day penalty is applied to the mark that would have been received if the submission had been on time.

●    Any work submitted after 7 days late will need a Special Consideration document to be accepted for assessment.

●    Students cannot expect to receive verbal or written feedback for late work.

* If equipment or software is not available for students to complete a late submission, then the Subject Coordinator may decide to exclude weekends from the number of days late in calculating the penalty.