The impact of multimodal learning environments on the development of creativity

Abstract

This paper seeks insight into the impact of multimodal learning environments on the development of creativity. It draws on a case study of a three-day workshop ‘Creativity and Innovation’ held with first year Master’s students at the Graduate School of Management of Grenoble Alpes University. The goal of the workshop was to accompany students, through the use of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) techniques, in finding creative and innovative solutions in a real-life problem-solving task: to come up with an idea of an efficient system that would allow a longterm cooperation between students and the Sustainable Planning Office (SPO) for enhancing the sustainable planning of the campus. To this end, students were placed in a multimodal learning environment: designed with a wide range of multimodal practices (individual and team-work in small and large groups; rotation of group members; collective intelligence games; brainstorming; role-play; story-telling, etc.); working in multidisciplinary groups (students majoring in different fields); and were asked to provide multimodal productions (posters; oral presentations; ‘product boxes’, etc.). Participants were explicitly asked to use written language in their productions the least possible. Drawing on the analyses of the learning environment and learners’ multimodal productions, the study aims at contributing to the understanding of the impact of multimodal learning environments on the development of learner creativity.