Instructional designers are increasingly looking beyond the field's mainstream approaches to achieve desired outcomes. They seek more creative forms of design to help them invent more imaginative experiences that better reflect their vision and ideals. This essay is addressed to designers who are attracted to these expanded visions of their…

Computer-assisted assessment (CAA) is problematic when it comes to fostering creativity, because in educational thinking the essence of creativity is not finding the correct answer but generating novelty. The idea of "functional" creativity provides rubrics that can serve as the basis for forms of CAA leading to either formative or…

This design case (Boling, 2010) includes the challenges, considerations, and decisions associated with the design and development of a learning space/place (Dourish, 2006; Harrison & Dourish, 1996) focused on innovative, creative, and imaginative ways to transform teaching and learning with technology. The T.E.C.H. Playground in the College of…

This article describes initial success in developing an interdisciplinary studio for teaching collaborative creativity and design, with faculty from multiple departments co-teaching and co-mentoring interdisciplinary student groups engaged in social innovation. The rationale for developing this studio has been to prepare students for the kind of…

Imagination is a powerful engine that can drive people to bring their ideas, dreams, and desires to reality. The imagination constructs stories that lead people to create. Combining imagination with engineering knowledge creates inventions which initially might seem fantastic. The authors provide in this article a brief overview of a successful…

Punya Mishra is Professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University, where he directs the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program. He currently chairs the Creativity Special Interest Group at the Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education. He is nationally and internationally recognized…

The digital revolution is transforming the ways in which knowledge and culture are produced, accessed, and, most of all, created and re-created. And as the Internet is nowadays generally acknowledged to be a public or a common good, this leads us to re-think the laws written for the 20th century technology, economy, and culture. Moreover, the…

Profitable creative ideas can emerge from within virtually any phase of the instructional design and development process. However, the design of user interactions is perhaps where learners can most directly experience the benefits of such ideas. In this article, the authors discuss principles of learner interaction as found in the instructional…

This article is the third in a series of four articles that present a new outlook on the methods of instructional design. The authors examine the nature of the process of instructional design, with the goal of stimulating discussion about designer roles. In this article, the authors consider the realization of scientific and educational theory…

This is the first in a series of four articles presenting a new outlook on the process of instructional design. Along with offering an improvement to current practice, the goal is to stimulate discussion about the role of designers, and more importantly, about the nature of the process of instructional design. The authors present in this article a…

"Transmergent learning" is a macro instructional strategy that increases the likelihood of exceptional educational experiences, where creativity and innovation reign. By blending the principles of transformational experiences with evolutionary and emergent properties of complexity theory, instructional designers are able to craft an…

This article discusses a possible approach to the evaluation of virtual community environments (VCE), intended as the integration of members, processes, and technologies characterizing a given community of professionals. In particular, as to the return on investment for VCE, the article supports the idea that tangible returns for the organization…

Discusses creativity and instructional system design (ISD) in light of situated cognition, constructivism, and anchored instruction. Topics include historical background; ISD resulting in boring instruction, ISD evaluation criteria, the creativity criterion, quality, conditions for producing creative instruction, the linearity of the design…

Discusses a redefinition of learning and considers implications for instructional design and educational technology. Topics include creativity; changing performance capability by instruction; preparing students for lifelong learning; interactions with our environment; the role of curiosity and challenge; learning as dialogue; and emotional needs.…

Considers ways to enhance individual creativity and how an individual can help develop a workplace that utilizes creative approaches to instruction and instructional products. Highlights include individual traits and characteristics; abilities and skills; evaluation and reward; competition; and developing individual creativity as an instructional…