A STUDENT-CENTERED APPROACH TO IDEAS GENERATION FOR PROJECTS: IS IT A THREAT TO CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION?

Wida Susanty Haji Suhaili, Jeff Haywood

Abstract

The conceptual framework of the nature of learning in final year undergraduate projects (FYP) has not been clearly defined. Fostering creativity in undergraduate projects, and particularly in their proposals for the projects is challenging. Defining what is viewed by assessors as ‘creative’ can be less precise than other features, such as feasibility and resourcing. This study focused on supports given to students in developing high quality proposals for their FYP in computer science, and the supports for teachers to assess this new feature.  Providing these supports requires development of new approaches, as assessment of the proposal is not a common practice in other universities which offer undergraduate programme of Computer Science. A new assessment rubric for evaluating the proposals was developed for both teachers and students, and material extracted from past project proposals (of differing quality) was mapped to the assessment criteria and presented as an online support system.  Student and teacher feedback was gathered at all stages. The concept of combining and reorganizing existing knowledge to produce creative ideas is discussed, and both the literature review and the research findings from this study may be of value to researchers interested in FYP and teachers wishing to develop such modules.

 

Keywords: final year project, student –centered, creativity, assessment, inquiry-based learning.

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