There are two key decisions to make first.
1. Subject matter: What facet of liveability will you focus on?
Here are some facets which teams have focused on in previous years. Feel free to select one of these OR do something different. There are no limitations except that it must be something that makes your environment more (or less) liveable.
· public safety
· affordable student housing
· green spaces
· disaster resilience
· quality education
· mental health support for students
2. Context: Where will you focus on?
Seeing as this COIL Project involves universities based in Melbourne and Tokyo, it would be logical to focus on the situation in one of those cities. You may also consider comparing the two cities.
Your team may decide a different context, but it needs to be somewhere with which at least some of your team members are familiar, so you can draw on personal insights and experiences.
The process of deciding on a topic needs to be collaborative, based on discussion among all team members. Please ensure that all members have the opportunity to express their thoughts and preferences.
When making a decision, we encourage you to consider:
· RELEVANCE: How relevant is the topic to the theme of ‘liveability’? How important is it to your own life?
· INTEREST: How curious are you about the topic? Are you motivated to explore it further?
· FEASIBLITY: How easy will it be to gather information relevant to the topic? Is it too broad, or too narrow? Is it possible to work and make output by December 10?
If you have multiple topics suggested within your team and are struggling to decide through discussion, you could even have each team member provide a rating out of 3 on each of the criteria above (relevance, interest, feasibility) and choose the topic which receives the highest ratings on average across the group.
Find out a bit more about your chosen topic. It may be useful to divide the work among team members. Try to explore the topic using the multi-dimensional approaches to ‘liveability’ suggested in the academic texts you have read.
By this time, your team is ready to fill-in a one-page proposal which is due on November 15, 2024 (Deliverable 1).
Try to identify a PROBLEM in need of attention or improvement. For example, for the topic ‘affordable student housing’ suggested above, your problem might be ‘international students in Melbourne struggle to find affordable housing options that are safe, convenient and appropriate for their living needs’.
Explore the problem further, considering causes and other relevant factors, and begin discussing possible strategies to solve (or at least tackle) the problem. Be sure to consider WHO and HOW, not just WHAT.