Lince Xavier1, Barman Corentin2, Gobron Stéphane2, Capron Puozzo Isabelle1 1: HEP-VS, University of teacher education, Saint-Maurice, Switzerland
2: University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, HES-SO, HE-Arc, Neuchâtel, Switzerland Contact: xavier.lince@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Creativity, defined as the capacity to generate ideas, is present in every field and is the engine of innovation and creative task effectiveness. Brainstorming is a technique to enhance creativity as it allows idea generation, helps to think differently and find innovative solutions to a problem. In this project, we have developed an online gamified brainstorming software, in accordance with the latest research on brainstorming and creativity. The aim is to track the idea generation process and assess the impact of gamification on the creation process. This article is linked to a twin paper that focuses on the technical and development gamification parts.
KEYWORDS
Digital process; brainstorming; post-it; gamification; creative process; educative innovation.
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CONTEXT
Our project, strongly connected with the fields of digital education and creativity, focuses on online brain-storming sessions to generate ideas (Craft, 2011; Zobrist & Brandes, 2017). These sessions use a traditional design-thinking environment which includes the following steps:
›Generate ideas individually – usually on digital post-its;
›Share group’s ideas – on a board;
›Sort ideas into categories – predefined or emerging;
›Vote with likes – ranking from one to five – on digital post-its;
›Identify an action strategy that prioritizes the most selected ideas.
During these sessions, students are constantly led to the emergence of creative micro-processes such as divergent and convergent thinking, analogical combinatorial or comparative thinking, serendipity, or flexibility (Lubart, 2015; Beckman, 2007).
TARGETED ISSUES
In the context of authentic research, the first aim is (1) to follow the creative process efficiently, (2) analyse it with a non-invasive method and (3) link it to psychometric tasks that measure the determinant variables in a productive idea generation. The second aim is to assess gamification impact on idea generation and enhance it. In fact, in the traditional brainstorming process, gamification is only present at the end with the process of liking the idea generated. The problem is that the initial idea generation phase is crucial to determine the outcome of a successful brainstorming session; gamification should be included at every step of the process to enhance the creative process of participants. Moreover, in traditional brainstorming, it is not possible either to have a complete view of each participant’s actions during the session. The project Spark-it supports the research by creating an export file in CSV of the complete actions of participants, helps to complexify the system of creation and adds gamification to the creative brainstorming process.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Different from a traditional brainstorming session, the spark-it project includes gamification at every stage of the session, from idea generation to final scoring through idea assessment. We aim at analysing the effect gamification has on the creative process in regard to individual differences such as personality. We designed our gamification as a competition, as such, the participants receive in the end of the session several tro-phies for the number of ideas generated and the number of likes these ideas received. All the actions of the participants are registered to track the ideas individually and profile their integration into the global pool of solutions generated. Furthermore, the application promotes, by its methodology and coding, the export of ideas in a file format, making it possible to trace a follow-up of participants and profile the evolution of their ideas over successive brainstorming sessions. Moreover, it also leads to a more global coding of micro-pro-cesses of creativity allowing to compare the ideas of different groups in terms of recurrences and differences.
RELEVANT INNOVATION
The implementation of the application opens new exploratory research on the creative process axes, gami-fication, and its limits. Indeed, gamification in a brainstorming session could lead to better creative process, leading to more productive ideas that would transpose into smarter innovation (Amabile, 2004). It could be interesting to see how different the outcome of a session is with respect to quantity and quality of ideas. To this end, an analysis of the following is currently carried out:
›The outcome of the session in regard to the software used – Spark-it and similar software;
›The impact of gamification on idea generation depending on the quantity and quality of the ideas;
›The impact of the individual factors such as creativity or personality on the outcome of a brainstorming session.
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EDUCA TION
& TRAINING
of the developed application with 32 participants who realized a brainstorming session with our application and with a control software for the scientific report. Beyond the project, we aim at the submission of a sec-ond project with a broader target audience (i.e., companies, schools) as part of a European Horizon 2020 project or an Innosuisse project.
CONCLUSION
The innovative project changes brainstorming radically in the context of education. Spark it: (1) opens the way of the gamification of the brainstorming in education, (2) offers the possibility to analyze the creative process from a research perspective and (3), adds more research-supported gamification opportunities.
PERSPECTIVES & NEEDS
We have developed a gamified web application (or product) and, if our paper is accepted, it will be possible to present the project as well as the results of the experiment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (FNS), “Spark” call funding system, grant entitled “Spark-IT” (2020-2021).
REFERENCES
[1] Amabile, T. M., Schatzel, E. A., Moneta, G. B., & Kramer, S. J. (2004). Leader behaviors and the work environment for creativity: Perceived leader support. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(1), 5–32.
[2] Beckman, S. L., & Barry, M. (2007). Innovation as a learning process: Embedding design thinking. California management review, 50(1), 25-56.
[3] Craft, A. (2011). Creativity and Education Futures: Learning in a Digital Age. London: Trentham Books.
[4] Lubart, T., Mouchiroud, C., Tordjman, S., & Zenasni, F. (2015). Psychologie de la créativité (2 ed.). Paris: Colin.
[5] Zobrist, K., & Brandes, D. (2017). What key competencies are needed in the digital age? The impact of automation on employees, companies and education (pp. 56).