Fostering Creativity in Seniors and Freshman Students of Engineering

Abstract

This paper devotes to showing an Online Project-Based Learning (PBL) intervention based on the creative process for engineering undergraduate courses. The intervention considers the creative process elements, namely, person, process, product, press, and phases, and the aspects of the PBL alignment model proposed by Kolmos, de Graff, and Du. The goal is to harmonize the elements of the creative process and characteristics of PBL alignment involving creative tools to encourage creative thinking in undergraduate students. The impact evaluation of the PBL intervention considers a pre and post-test of creativity, some deliveries of learning activities, and a questionnaire that focuses on crucial aspects of PBL. The results show an increase of factors as fluency and flexibility into the ‘Person’ element of the creative process, highlighting the importance of fostering creativity in engineering courses.