Multidimensional Assessment of Creativity in an Introduction to Engineering Design Course

Husted, Silvia; Gutierrez, Judith Virginia; Ramírez‐Corona, Nelly; López‐Malo, Aurelio; Palou, Enrique

doi:10.18260/1-2--22855

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…At the college level, one study [9] compared the CAT with the VALUE rubric used in the present study [10]. The adapted rubric based on CAT measured intellectual skills, knowledge in a field, thinking style, motivation, personality and environmental influences on creativity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The adapted rubric based on CAT measured intellectual skills, knowledge in a field, thinking style, motivation, personality and environmental influences on creativity. Problem solving heuristics were specifically taught in [9], as they are in the course in the current study. The authors of [9] were teaching an Introduction to Design course and found that students tended to achieve an intermediate level of creativity at that point in their education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Problem solving heuristics were specifically taught in [9], as they are in the course in the current study. The authors of [9] were teaching an Introduction to Design course and found that students tended to achieve an intermediate level of creativity at that point in their education. A study by Oman, et al [11] looked at junior level design students and focused on methods to compare the creativity of similar designs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are Creative Capstone Design Projects Successful? Relating Project Creativity to Course Outcomes

Smyser¹,

Gouldstone²

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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In the past ten years, numerous papers have presented techniques for fostering creativity in design courses and in individual engineering students. Creativity is desirable because the ability to combine and synthesize ideas, take risks, and innovate is necessary to address open-ended problems with novel and innovative solutions. However, capstone design students typically earn grades by developing complete, justified solutions, communicating their design process clearly, and satisfying the needs of sponsors and external or internal evaluators. Because of this, creativity is often not explicitly measured in capstone design courses and is only indirectly part of the final measured course outcomes. This study examines the relationship between measures of creativity and course outcomes for a mechanical engineering capstone design course. This work focused on projects that were intended as or could be potentially developed as commercial products. Multiple reviewers using the validated VALUE rubric for creative thinking evaluated eighteen projects. The VALUE rubric assesses works on acquiring competencies, taking risks, solving problems, embracing contradictions, innovative thinking, and connecting, synthesizing and transforming ideas. Scores on individual rubric items as well as the total rubric score were compared to course outcomes including prototype grade and communication grade, as well as project group characteristics. Analysis was performed using Pearson's Product Moment correlation. In addition, alumni jury evaluations of the projects were also examined to see if projects with high creative thinking scores were also perceived as successful by outside observers. Of the VALUE items, the ability to connect, synthesize, and transform ideas was most highly correlated with the total creative thinking score (P<.001, α = .05). Total creative thinking was positively correlated with high prototype scores (P = .048) and in particular the ability to embrace contradictions was highly correlated with high prototype scores (P = 0.007). Having a high creative thinking score was facilitated by having a high number of students on the team with a common native language. As the creativity skills were also strongly correlated with the communication grade, this seems to indicate that improving creativity requires improving communication between group members. As part of their evaluation, jurors are asked to name 'successful' and 'unsuccessful' teams. The average creative thinking score for successful groups (17.7/24) was significantly higher than the average for unsuccessful groups (9/24) at P = 0.001 and α = 0.05. These results demonstrate that creative thinking skills are highly valuable for developing successful projects that are also recognized as such by external evaluators. This validates the need to actively teach creative thinking skills. It also demonstrates that time spent on teaching communication skills within student teams is vital to enhancing creative thinking skills.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Are Creative Capstone Design Projects Successful? Relating Project Creativity to Course Outcomes

Smyser¹,

Gouldstone²

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Multidimensional Assessment of Creativity in an Introduction to Engineering Design Course

Abstract: in Mexico. She teaches design related courses. Her research interests include creative thinking, cognitive processes, and creating effective learning environments.

Cited by 1 publication

References 2 publications

Are Creative Capstone Design Projects Successful? Relating Project Creativity to Course Outcomes

Are Creative Capstone Design Projects Successful? Relating Project Creativity to Course Outcomes

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