InnoPulse: a Tool to Support Collaborative Reflection in Creativity-Driven Engineering Projects

Abstract

To equip students with the practical capability to innovate, academic institutions are promoting industry collaboration projects, where students use creative approaches, such as, design thinking (DT), to solve complex business challenges.In creative team work, the ability to reflect upon and improve team dynamics is vital. However, research on the role of digital technology to support collaborative reflection is still in its infancy. This study presents a digital solution that uses micro surveys as an additional source of information for Educational Data Mining (EDM) analyses to support the collaborative reflection of students working in creativity-driven engineering projects. Using design science research, we identify the design requirements of the InnoPulse tool, implement the corresponding design features and evaluate our digital solution in a real-world educational setting. Our findings pave the way for the potential of ad-hoc data collection strategies to improve the collaborative reflection of students applying DT methods.