Acting with creative confidence: Developing a creative agency assessment tool

Abstract

Universities around the world are quickly introducing new earning models aimed at developing creativity and innovation in students. A leading model is the experiential teaching of design thinking as a creative problem solving process aimed at enhancing students' creative confidence. Although these programs exist, little is known about student outcomes. Furthermore, the criteria by which we evaluate student "success" is not well defined because these programs almost uniformly have ambiguously stated learning objectives. This research uses qualitative and quantitative data to capture and categorizes successful outcomes by examining alumni of these programs. Based on these data is a scale that measures creative agency, a fundamental outcome of teaching design thinking.