Course Descriptions - Undergraduate Calendar 2023-2024

General seminar on inter-disciplinary topics and integrative practices of special interest to INTEG students, faculty, and alumni. INTEG students must register every term.

This course introduces students to state-of-the-art scientific research on learning and cognitive adaptability. There are two learning objectives in this course. First, you will learn about how the mind processes information, and will begin developing new habits to facilitate clear and critical thinking in complex, messy, and stressful circumstances. Second, you will learn how to see the social networks you are embedded in, and how they shape what you think, know, and do. You will use this knowledge to identify opportunities and develop strategies for learning, and for the integration and synthesis of different types of knowledge.

A project course in design and problem-solving across various disciplines. Topics include problem-solving methods and issues in design, including ethics, sustainability, and communication in small groups. Applied design projects require group work and draw on the skills of creative and critical thinking.

Collaboration and teamwork are essential for solving complex, real-world problems and are therefore in high demand by employers. Yet students rarely have the opportunity to study and apply the theory and best practices for making collaboration work. In this course, you will learn how to leverage this research to acquire a variety of important skills. These include: effective communication in groups, proactively managing group conflict, identifying biases that hinder creativity, and leveraging diversity to improve outcomes. You will also put those skills into practice throughout the course and reflect on how you can apply them in other situations.

This course examines how knowledge is produced in scientific disciplines, including the nature of inquiry, as well as types of evidence and expertise across different fields. The course features significant input from scientific practitioners in the form of guest lectures.

This course examines social aspects of knowledge, including ways that characteristics of individual knowers and their communities affect the acquisition, interpretation, production, and transfer of knowledge. In addition, we analyze the consequences this has for the objectivity of knowledge. The course features significant input from researchers in the humanities and social sciences in the form of guest lectures.

Introduction to the issues and intent of the Museum Course. Planning and research for the destination. Field trip to study museums, exhibits, audiences, and curatorial practices on-site in a major museum city. For additional information on itinerary and travel costs, contact the Department.

Misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, dishonest political ads, and bullshit (i.e., communication intended to persuade without any concern for truth). It seems it's harder than ever to know what to believe and what makes some claims more credible or trustworthy than others. This course is an introduction to information literacy and the art and science of spotting bullshit and other types of false claims. The course will cover a broad range of issues from a social scientific perspective, including comparisons of different types of deceptive information; the role that cognitive biases and social networks play in shaping our perceptions of truth and reality; the importance of data rights, privacy, and governance models for social media platforms and other digital communications; misrepresentations of science; and how influence campaigns undermine political deliberation and democratic institutions. This course will provide students with knowledge and fundamental skills that are important for countering bullshit, biases, and bad arguments.

An introductory, integrative course in the history, psychology, value and practice of creativity across a variety of domains, from scientific research to the fine and performing arts. Students will learn to identify and explain key ideas and historical figures in the study and practice of creative thinking. They'll also learn to reliably generate novel ideas of value, both solo and collaboratively.

From time to time courses of special study may be added to the program at the second-year level. Students wishing to take such courses should consult the Department's undergraduate officer.

An introduction to the museum, broadly interpreted as the public face of scholarship. Students work in small groups to research an inter-disciplinary topic of personal interest, in-depth, and design a museum exhibit suitable for a particular audience.

An introduction to the museum, broadly interpreted as the public face of scholarship. Students construct and exhibit their designs from INTEG 320, and present public talks on the scholarship and curatorial decisions behind their work.

This course provides an introduction to empirical research design and methods with a focus on applications in the social and information sciences and related fields. You will learn about core issues in research design (e.g., sampling) that transcend specific approaches, and about a variety of techniques for collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. The course will cover both abstract and practical issues related to methodology and decision making in empirical research. You will have the opportunity to develop and workshop proposals that you may wish to pursue in your senior honours thesis. By the end of the course you will be a more informed consumer and have a basic set of skills for designing and implementing your own empirical research projects. Most importantly, you will have a foundation for future learning about research design and methods.

From time to time courses of special study may be added to the program at the third-year level. Students wishing to take such courses should consult the Department's undergraduate officer.

"Interdisciplinary collaboration" is a popular term these days, but what does it mean, exactly, and what makes it successful? In this course, we will examine the nature of interdisciplinarity (such as differences between multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinarity), barriers to collaborating across disciplinary boundaries, and strategies for facilitating more effective collaborations. The course will be taught using collaborative learning techniques that allow students to shape the direction of the course and to work with the instructor to co-create assignments.

Students research and develop a project under the mentorship of a member of the Knowledge Integration Department and in consultation with (or supervised by) faculty in disciplines related to the project (e.g., thesis, design project, or other significant work). The results of this project will be presented as part of a public display appropriate to the disciplinary work, accompanied by written deliverables appropriate to the disciplinary work, and presented as part of a public display.

A continuation of INTEG 420A.

The explosion of digital data is revolutionizing the way we learn about the world. This course focuses on the knowledge and skills necessary for doing high-quality social scientific research with digital data. Students will be introduced to the programming language Python, and will learn to collect and analyze digital data using computational methods.

Every day, nuanced decisions are made at a personal level (what job offer to accept), an organizational level (whether to recall a faulty product), and in the form of public policy (when and where to develop renewable energy). This course introduces decision analytic tools for systematically structuring messy problems to identify trade-offs among different decisions and to explore them intelligibly. For public policy problems, the challenges of values conflicts and "truth decay" (i.e., the political polarization or outright rejection of facts) will be considered. Additional decision contexts that push the limits of traditional analytic approaches will also be addressed (e.g., wicked problems, deep uncertainty).

From time to time, courses of special study may be added to the program at the fourth-year level. Students wishing to take such courses should consult the Department's undergraduate officer.

From time to time, a special study course may be added to the program at the fourth-year level. Students wishing to take this course will need to enroll in INTEG 475B in the following term. Consultation with the instructor is advised prior to enrollment.

A continuation of INTEG 475A.

An independent studies course provides opportunities for students to work one on one with faculty members in an area of interest to the student.

The first part of a two-term independent studies course provides opportunities for students to work closely with faculty members in an area of interest to the student. Students taking this course for the Collaborative Design Experience will work as a design group to address a problem over the course of the two-term sequence with the instructor in an advisory role. Students are encouraged to identify and meet with a real-world client, typically from outside the university, to understand the client's problem and needs. The focus of the first term will be background research (e.g., a comprehensive design brief) and the presentation of one or more proposed solutions for the client's or supervisor's approval.

The culmination of the two-term independent studies course sequence. Students taking this course for the Collaborative Design Experience will continue to develop solutions to meet project or client needs as identified in the first term. The focus of the second term is to continue to prototype, refine, and ultimately implement the solution. In addition to the completed solution, students will present a final complete project brief including an evaluation of the solution together with recommendations for further research or development.