Word count: 1,500

Collaborative, creative, discovery-based learning

MMCS320 is designed in a way that can best engage your hunger for learning. The particular conditions for learning involve you being able to select your own pathway through the topics, small group work in flipped seminars, and peer-assisted learning opportunities that are designed to engage, inspire and enthuse you by creating conditions in which you will want to learn.

The seminars, the essay assignment, the group creativity presentation task and ultimately the final research essay are built on open-ended questions that will enable you to learn by reasoning, conversation and collaboration, because "extraordinary learning can take place when students choose what they want to learn, and when the school environment is one of adventure and discovery rather than stricture” (Robinson, 2015: 154-155).

Creativity lies at the core of the assessment design for MMCS320 Managing Creativity. This design is informed by the belief that students such as yourself should be educated in ways that will enable you to adapt to change and be creative in generating new ideas. To this end, the assessment tasks are designed to cultivate the immense diversity of undergraduate arts industries and management students’ talents and interests, and to dissolve the divisions between academic, peer-reviewed research, and project-based learning activities.

The reading list for this unit is designed to be used in a non-chronological way. The topics are not designed to be understood week-by-week, but to spark the intrinsic motivation that you will need to achieve a certain depth of learning across the semester: it is up to you to pick any two topics* to engage with throughout the unit.

*Please note that you are not limited to these topics.

Tip: When reviewing literature for your essays you do not have to read every single article.

Follow these steps:

1. Choose two topics that interest you the most.
2. Choose the readings under the topic headings that interest you the most and engage with them in an in-depth way.
3. Formulate your own essay question on the basis of the two topics you have chosen. Reflect on how the two topics you have chosen resonate with the realities of the creative and cultural industries.
4. You can then simply in-text cite the other readings in each topic to add density, breadth and depth to your essay. This may just involve reading the abstract for the articles and chapters that are not the focus of your essay. For an example of how to do this, check out the writing example that is available via the unit iLearn site. Also read the instructions below for this assessment task carefully.

Curiosity: This assessment task is designed to spark your curiosity by enabling you to engage with the two topics covered on the unit that interest you the most. The intention here is for you use this task to lay the foundation for combining interdisciplinary studies with project-based and collaborative challenges of the kind that you are going to face once you graduate from University. The design for this particular task prioritises depth of knowledge over breadth of knowledge. 

Criticism: This task is also designed to develop your ability to analyse ideas and information and to form reasoned judgements and arguments.

Creativity: By engaging with the content you are most interested in early on in this unit, this assessment task maximises the time you have to lay a foundation in the knowledge to generate new ideas and to apply these ideas in practice through using them in your group creativity task as well as the final task for this unit. By allowing for maximum customisation in this unit, the goal here is to create powerful educational experiences that are of real value to each of you. In the seminars for this unit we will take a personalised and community-driven approach that will involve an allocation of time for you to work on this task.

A writing example is available via the unit iLearn site. Check out how the author has used the readings and in doing so, has produced a ‘dense’ piece of writing that surveys many readings while also picking up on key themes. Note how the different texts are put ‘in conversation’ with each other. This is what you should aim to do for in your essay. This assessment task is designed to ignite your innate drive for learning, to maximise the choices you have about what you desire to learn, and how and when you want to learn.

Please see 'Writing Example' on the unit iLearn site for more information regarding this task.

Marking criteria:

• Demonstrated ability to locate and understand the arguments put forth in the readings so far using academic language
• Display an ability to put the different author's into conversation with each other
• Demonstrated ability to describe and discuss how key theories are framed within disciplinary contexts
• Demonstrate an ability to ask questions about your chosen topics concerning how the creative and cultural industries work
• Demonstrate an ability to analyse ideas and information and to form reasoned judgements and arguments Cited works should be referenced using an established system
• Clarity of expression in line with expected academic standards

Part 1

This assessment task involves peer-assisted and project-based learning. By way of its design, this assessment task will enable you to integrate multiple topics covered on the unit by teaching the other students in your group about the two topics you chose for your first essay. Using the knowledge acquired through the individual essay assignment, you are required to collaborate in groups of 3 or 4 to combine your ideas to produce a play (either live performance or a video) that brings some of the ideas from your first essays to life. You are required to collaborate to produce engaging content. How are you going to tell the story? How are you going to select which story to tell? How are you going to engage your audience? Be experimental, use theatre sports if you'd like. You can include music, dance, visual art, performance art, etc as part of the presentation.

Part 2 - Individual essay

800 words.

50% of the grade for this task will be allocated to this component.

Students are required to use a participant observer* method of research to critically analyse how their group produced their project. Students are required to engage with theoretical material covered on the unit when writing these individual essays. 

*Some research methods (such as questionnaires) stress the importance of the researcher not becoming "personally involved" with the respondent, in the sense that the researcher maintains both a personal and a social distance between themselves and the people they are researching. Participant observation, however, is a form of subjective sociology, not because the researcher aims to impose their beliefs on the respondent (this would simply produce invalid data), but because the aim is to understand the social world from the subject's point-of-view. Participant-observation is organised so as to produce a type of writing called ‘ethnography’; which is a qualitative research method designed for learning and understanding cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group. Data collection is often done through participant observation, interviews, and questionnaires. A key principle of the method of participant observation is that one may not merely observe, but must find a role within the group observed, from which they can participate in some manner, even if only as "outside observer." This method involves the researcher "getting to know" the people they're studying by entering their world and participating in that world. This means you put yourself "in the shoes" of the people you're studying in an attempt to experience events in the way they experience them (adapted from http://www.sociology.org.uk/ Accessed 14.2.12).

Thus with regard to your group seminar presentation, you’re a participant and an observer and you therefore need to employ this methodology to write this essay. 

Marking Criteria for part 1: 

In order to pass this assessment task, students will need to:

• Develop a presentation that appraises key debates, theories, and perspectives covered on the unit, and which the group values, in an attempt to create original work.
• Design, assemble and formulate a unique idea that can be presented as a group. 
• Interpret and evaluate various case studies in order to generate ideas pertaining to group creativity and apply these through this assessment task.
• Apply professional and personal judgment and initiative regarding the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, leadership and team building through this ‘hands on’ assessment task.

Marking criteria for part 2: 

For this assessment task, students will need to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of research methodologies such as the participant observer method that is required for this assessment task.
• Examine and test how key ideas concerning the management of both individual and group creativity worked in practice.
• Demonstrate an ability to clearly and articulately structure an argument using academic language.
• Construct and defend an argument concerning the success or failure of your group's creative endeavour. Provide evidence of analysis and 
• Demonstrate an ability to design and develop a research project that appropriately critiques academic sources.

In addition, the following criteria applies:

• Relevance of sources.
• Credibility of sources.
• Clear identification of assignment aims (and whether these are achieved).
• Detailed analysis of key texts and further readings.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent wider research.
• Cited works should be referenced using an established system.
• Clarity of expression in line with expected academic standards.

Prompt for final projects:

“There are various myths about creativity. One is that only special people are creative, another is that creativity is only about the arts, a third is that creativity cannot be taught, and a fourth is that its all to do with uninhibited “self-expression.” None of these is true. Creativity draws on many powers that we all have by virtue of being human. Creativity is possible in all areas of human life, in science, the arts, mathematics, technology, cuisine, teaching, politics, business, you name it. And like many human capacities, our creative powers can be cultivated and refined. Doing that involves an increasing mastery of skills, knowledge and ideas” (Robinson, 2015: 119).

Using this quote as a prompt, there are 2 options for this task:

Option 1 - Research Essay:

Word count: 2500

If you choose option 1, you have the option of drawing from your initial essay for this unit (you can include parts of this in your final essay) in order to develop a research question that relates to either:

(a) the two topics you chose for the first assessment tasks for this unit

(b) or to new topics in which you are interested.

You are encouraged to collaborate with other students to develop your research question (and with the unit convenor). By designing your own self-directed research project, you will be able to use theories and methodologies concerning the management of creativity in order to attempt to create original work. In order to assist in the development of your own self-directed research project, a list featuring research question ideas will be distributed during the second half of the semester. By way of its design, this unit will enable you to generate moments of insight on an ongoing basis and therefore this list of question ideas will be a record of these moments of insight. You will then be able to play with these ideas by combining them and by using them as prompts to engage in conceptual elaboration, metaphorical thinking, and conceptual combination. By contributing to, and drawing from, the group brainstorming sessions you will be able to crowdsource ideas from the student body and then collaboratively generate the essay question and topic that you would like to research.    

Option 2 - Creative Practice Project with Written Component:

Word count for written component: 1250

This option is a project-based learning one. MMCS320 not only facilitates students’ questions and wonderings about the world, it is also designed to cultivate our natural human desire to create and do. This option is therefore designed to help launch the inventors, artists, entrepreneurs and change-makers who will act boldly and courageously in the face of the changing world (Robinson, 2015). To this end, if you choose this option, you can submit a ‘Creative Practice Project’ that includes a 1250 word written component  (you can include parts of your first essay for this unit in the written component if you'd like).

A Creative Practice Project (Project) – which comprises both a creative component and a written component – must remain compatible with this overarching definition. Consequently, the Project should:

1. make a distinct contribution to knowledge in the area with which it deals.
2. afford evidence of originality shown either by the discovery of new facts or by the exercise of independent critical power.
3. demonstrate a clear link between the written and creative components.
4. contain material suitable for publication, public promotion and/or performance.

In addition, the creative component should proficiently handle the chosen medium and afford evidence of some originality in conception and/or execution. It should conform to the standards of presentation as determined by conventional practice in the chosen medium of expression.

Weighting of Components

The creative and written components are considered to be equal in weight. This means that an underlying principle of all Projects is that the two components are equal in significance. Different expressive mediums will require different production formats and different modes of investigation and thus an overarching stipulation of format is difficult. Nonetheless, the equality of both segments implies the following:

1. the written component will be half the length of the essays options one and two above;
2. the time spent on both components is similar;
3. shortcomings in one component reflect an overall weakness in the whole of the Project.

Integration, Nature and Significance of the Two Components

The two components must form a coherent whole in which modes of understanding and ways of experiencing are consistently linked. The written component must include a clear statement that clarifies for the reader/viewer/ audience how the two components are interrelated. Amongst other things, the written component must critically explore the theoretical literature that is relevant to the project (you can reuse sections of the initial essay task if you would like). In addition, it may outline and discuss other exemplary creative works that have influenced the production in some way. Together the two components should demonstrate that the research undertaken is innovative and that Project contributes new knowledge and is therefore a work of research as well as a creative product.

Areas of Creative Practice

There are a variety of expressive mediums that MMCS320 students may use. The following are some examples:

• Music: the creative component could be a written score; a compositional folio containing a number of pieces which might be in different forms; software; video; audio recording(s); 
• Writing: the creative component could be a short story; a journalistic piece; biography; a collection of shorter pieces;
• Screen Media: the creative component could be a short film; a script; a documentary; a treatment;
• Audio Media: the creative component could be a radio documentary
• Digital media: the creative component could be a specialized blog or a specialized website; 
• Students may also choose to integrate the creative and the critical components, as for example in ficto-critical writing or essay films.

Marking criteria: For this assessment task, students will need to:

• Demonstrate an ability to create their own research question
• Produce original work by drawing connections between, and combining, ideas covered on the unit in new ways
• Justify a stand or decision relating to the literature covered on the unit by designing and then assembling a critical and analytical research essay 
• Provide evidence of analysis and understanding of key creativity research demonstrated in a sophisticated application of these theories, or theory, to everyday practice and life
• Identify areas for further creativity research 

In addition, the following criteria applies:

• Relevance of sources
• Credibility of sources
• Clear identification of assignment aims (and whether these are achieved)
• Detailed analysis of key texts and further readings
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent wider research
• Cited works should be referenced using an established system
• Clarity of expression in line with expected academic standards

Essay grades: 

Obviously at the base level there is referencing. This needs to be in order. There is a referencing guide available on the unit iLearn site. Grades above P as a general rule have to be referenced well.   

After this, there is the issue of writing style. Essays above P have to be written clearly and appropriately. You need to employ a formal/academic writing style and you need to substantiate claims you make with evidence. Your topic sentences need to flow together and your paragraphs need to be tight and punchy. For example, a paragraph typically consists of the following sentences:   

Topic Sentence 

Statement of Position 

Evidence/quote 

Summary   

If your paragraphs are constructed in this way, you will avoid the common pitfalls relating to paragraph length: when paragraphs are too short, this signifies to the marker that you most likely have not substantiated the assertions you have made with evidence; when paragraphs are too long, the marker will often lose the thread of your argument because long paragraphs are fatiguing to read. 

Essays using a colloquial/conversational and/or journalistic writing style will be viewed unfavourably. Don't use rhetorical questions and don't write in the first person unless you have justified writing in this way by way of your research methodology (for e.g. if you have stated that you are using a participant observer methodology then obviously at some point you may need to write in the first person). You also need to use numerous references in order to contextualise your essay within the surrounding discourse. Remember, you are making a contribution to knowledge. There is academic freedom, not freedom of expression. These are different. Academics are only free to make points that they can prove. Your opinions cannot be based on thin air. Essays that will receive grades higher than CR will need to have a certain density to them. Academic writing often involves big words and concepts. In this way, academic writing is a form of short hand (for e.g. relativism and essentialism are words that signify larger paradigms of thought) and therefore good academic writing is able to say more using less words. Authors who demonstrate that they are fluent in this shorthand will be viewed favourably. The amount of extra-curricular research conducted and the originality of each individual research initiative will also be considered.

Reference

Robinson, K (2015) Creative schools: The grassroots revolution that’s transforming education, New York: Penguin Books, pp.26-53.