Impact of a Creative Design Course on Undergraduate Learners’ Creative Confidence

Abstract

This study was conducted as part of an effort to critically analyze and assess student outcomes in Creative Design, an undergraduate course at [Institution]. Topics covered in the course include, but are not limited to: the design process, technical drawing, working with tools and materials, modeling a product or design, and design elements and principles. While some students (e.g. Technology and Engineering Education majors) are required to take this course, it is also open to students across campus, and is a Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts liberal learning course option. There are typically several sections of the course offered each semester, and it is taught by a variety of instructors. The research aimed to investigate how Creative Design impacted undergraduate students’ creative thinking, creative self-efficacy, and spatial thinking skills. Students were asked to complete instruments to assess each of these areas, both at the beginning and end of a semester in which they were enrolled in the course. Students also completed a demographics survey, which allowed outcomes to be explored further, for example, by major (STEM/non-STEM). The focus of this manuscript is creative self-efficacy, measured by the Short Scale of Creative Self (Karwowski, 2011). Results indicate that Creative Design may raise female students’ creative confidence, resulting in female students feeling nearly as creatively confident as male students by the culmination of the course. While the results of this study are specific to Creative Design, further research could explore the effects of other design, creativity, and technology courses on undergraduate student outcomes.