Creative Thinking in Online Design Education

This study examined the creative thinking of interior design graduate students in an online learning community. This study considered potential changes in creative thinking (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration) about design research resulting from peer-led online discussions. It further studied the learner characteristics of personal motivation and domain-relevant skills as predictors of creative thinking in interior design graduate students. This study used 21 students from three interior design graduate programs across the United States. These students participated in online discussions on the Designscholar website for six-weeks during the fall of 2008. Personal motivation was assessed with a standardized instrument, the Work Preference Inventory, and domain-relevant skills were evaluated with a locally developed instrument. The information from these surveys was compared with pre and post-test essay measures that assessed creative thinking and the dimensions of creative thinking; (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration).