Course Wayne State University College of Lifelong Learning Interdisciplinary Studies Program Creativity: Building the New, ISP 5660, 3 cr  Section 981 or    4 cr Section 982.	Instructor
	David R. Bowen 2311 A/AB Wayne State University Detroit, MI 48202 Schedule (link not working yet)	Daytime tel: (313) 577-1498 Evening tel: (248) 549-8518 At Ford: 313-390-2155 FAX: (313) 577-8585 Home Page:     http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen Email: d.r.bowen@wayne.edu

Last updated: 1/24/02
Link back to course Welcome

Syllabus, ISP 5660
Creativity: Building the New

ISP 5660 for Winter 2002 is an on-line course on Creativity, taught using the course web site for handouts, a computer conference for class discussions, and email for submitting and returning assignments.

Contents:

• Content and Overall Schedule
• Instructor and Office Hours
• Grading
• Grading Scale
• On-line Grade Reports
• Course Passwords
• Important Dates
• Assignment Schedules
• Assignment Descriptions

Content and Overall Schedule. For detailed assignments and schedules, see the "Assignments" page on the course web site.

Four credit course:

1. Week 1. What do we mean by Creativity?
   1. There is an initial class meeting to demonstrate the web site and computer conference, and to go over the assignments and content of the course.
   2. There is an initial description offered in the web page, "What is Creativity?" (see the link from the course "jump page"). This is a common although not universal description. There is no black-and-white definition of creativity that everyone agrees to.
   3. Students develop their own working description, and describe at least one creative person they know, both through postings in the computer conference.
2. Weeks 2 - 4. Corporate Creativity, or creativity in the business world.
   1. In their book Corporate Creativity, the authors Robinson and Stern give many case studies of creativity and innovation in the business world. The Creativity here ranges from minor innovations ("little c" creativity) to the creation of whole new industries ("big C" creativity), in contrast to Gardner's focus on "big C" creativity. While the conclusions are often startling from a business perspective, they are generally consistent with Gardner's conclusions from his case study approach.
3. Weeks 5 - 7. A survey of Creativity
   1. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in Creativity, reports on a study of ninety-one twentieth-century creators. the study is based on in-depth interviews. This technique allows a more uniform analysis than one based, for example, on historical sources, or on autobiographical writings, which are not uniform for person to person. On the other hand, the sample cannot be as selective as a case-study approach, and we cannot be as sure of the judgment of history about the creativity of the participants. However, the uniform interview approach and the large sample size allow firm conclusions to be drawn about common elements. Csikszentmihalyi also breaks the sample down into broad domains of creative activity, and finds that while there are common elements across fields, there are also consistent differences.
   2. Csikszentmihalyi also adopts what he calls a Systems View of creativity. This recognizes a dilemma for creativity researchers; they often cannot independently understand what it is about a particular development that makes it creative, particularly in a field that is far from their own area of expertise. Therefore, they must rely on people in that field to evaluate the creative nature of a development. In some fields, such as Physics, there is a relatively precise, numerical standard for which creative theory explains facts better. Hence it is easier to measure what is a change, and which changes are successful. Csikszentmihalyi remarks that in his own field, Psychology, there are no such clear metrics, and different schools of thought will not agree. So, the nature of the field influences how changes can be evaluated, or even detected or perceived.
   3. Also, Creativity applies its conclusions as to how we can make our own lives more creative, and even why we might want to.
   4. At the beginning of this period, students should have an approved choice of a fourth text on Creativity. The choice of this third text, along with the choice of a topic for Essay 4, will let students tailor this course to their personal interests. Students will also choose a draft topic for Essay 4.
4. Weeks 8 - 11: Methods in Creativity, and a study of highly creative people, people who changed our culture
   1. Howard Gardner, in Creating Minds, starts out with a survey of methods that have been applied to the study of Creativity. Whatever method of study a researcher uses, s/he usually relies on experts in that field of work to assess the creativity of specific people and products.
   2. The largest part of Creating Minds is a series of case studies of creative individuals of the modern era. Gardner also draws conclusions from these case studies about the general nature of creating and creativity. Again, these conclusions are common within the field, although not universal. Elsewhere, Gardner writes that were he to choose a second rank of creative individuals, or to focus more on individual works instead of careers, there would be disagreements over how creative his choices really were.
5. Weeks 12 - 15. Work on personal interests in the area of Creativity
   1. During this period, students will read their choice for the fourth book.
   2. A final topic for Essay 4 is due.
   3. At the end of classes for the semester, Essay 4 is due.

Three credit course:

1. Week 1. What do we mean by Creativity?
   1. There is an initial class meeting to demonstrate the web site and computer conference, and to go over the assignments and content of the course.
   2. There is an initial description offered in the web page, "What is Creativity?" (see the link from the course "jump page"). This is a common although not universal description. There is no black-and-white definition of creativity that everyone agrees to.
   3. Students develop their own working description, and describe at least one creative person they know, both through postings in the computer conference.
2. Weeks 2 - 5. Corporate Creativity, or creativity in the business world.
   1. In their book Corporate Creativity, the authors Robinson and Stern give many case studies of creativity and innovation in the business world. The Creativity here ranges from minor innovations ("little c" creativity) to the creation of whole new industries ("big C" creativity), in contrast to Gardner's focus on "big C" creativity. While the conclusions are often startling from a business perspective, they are generally consistent with Gardner's conclusions from his case study approach.
3. Weeks 6 - 9. A survey of Creativity
   1. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in Creativity, reports on a study of ninety-one twentieth-century creators. the study is based on in-depth interviews. This technique allows a more uniform analysis than one based, for example, on historical sources, or on autobiographical writings, which are not uniform for person to person. On the other hand, the sample cannot be as selective as a case-study approach, and we cannot be as sure of the judgment of history about the creativity of the participants. However, the uniform interview approach and the large sample size allow firm conclusions to be drawn about common elements. Csikszentmihalyi also breaks the sample down into broad domains of creative activity, and finds that while there are common elements across fields, there are also consistent differences.
   2. Csikszentmihalyi also adopts what he calls a Systems View of creativity. This recognizes a dilemma for creativity researchers; they often cannot independently understand what it is about a particular development that makes it creative, particularly in a field that is far from their own area of expertise. Therefore, they must rely on people in that field to evaluate the creative nature of a development. In some fields, such as Physics, there is a relatively precise, numerical standard for which creative theory explains facts better. Hence it is easier to measure what is a change, and which changes are successful. Csikszentmihalyi remarks that in his own field, Psychology, there are no such clear metrics, and different schools of thought will not agree. So, the nature of the field influences how changes can be evaluated, or even detected or perceived.
   3. Also, Creativity applies its conclusions as to how we can make our own lives more creative, and even why we might want to.
4. Weeks 10 - 15: Methods in Creativity, and a study of highly creative people, people who changed our culture
   1. Howard Gardner, in Creating Minds, starts out with a survey of methods that have been applied to the study of Creativity. Whatever method of study a researcher uses, s/he usually relies on experts in that field of work to assess the creativity of specific people and products.
   2. The largest part of Creating Minds is a series of case studies of creative individuals of the modern era. Gardner also draws conclusions from these case studies about the general nature of creating and creativity. Again, these conclusions are common within the field, although not universal. Elsewhere, Gardner writes that were he to choose a second rank of creative individuals, or to focus more on individual works instead of careers, there would be disagreements over how creative his choices really were.

Textbooks

All textbooks are required, and the first three are all in at the WSU Barnes and Noble Campus Bookstore.

1. Alan G. Robinson & Sam Stern, Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen, pub. Berrett-Koehler Publishers (San Francisco) 1997 (paperback if available). ISBN (hardbound) 1-57675-009-4
2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity (paper), Harper Perennial / Harper Collins, New York NY, 1997. ISBN 0-06-092820-4
3. Howard Gardner, Creating Minds, pub. Basic Books 1993 (paperback). ISBN 0-465-01454-2
4. For the four credit course only, students will choose a fourth textbook, subject to the Instructor's approval.

Pre-approved choices for fourth book for four-credit course. You can choose any of the books in the list below as your fourth book on Creativity, and just inform the Instructor of your choice. If you choose a book not on the list below, you must get the Instructor's approval first.

1. The HP Way. Hewlett Packard has been very successful, a market leader, and consistently innovative.
2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Peter Drucker is one of the foremost business "gurus." Here, he speaks forcefully for the need for innovation, gives many case histories, and describes methods for innovation. He argues against the idea of innovators as risk-takers. "Big C" creativity, he argues, the type that creates a whole new product, is unreliable for business purposes.
3. The Nature of Creativity. A survey of academic approaches to creativity. In some approaches, the creative person seems almost an afterthought. The contributions of society are analyzed.
4. John Kao, Jamming. pub. HarperCollins, 1996. A quick tour of management and business techniques to foster creativity and innovation. Makes use of analogy to "jamming" by jazz musicians.
5. Daniel Goleman et al., The Creative Spirit, pub. by Dutton and Penguin USA 1992. Companion to a PBS series on creativity. A survey of creativity in art and culture, children and business.
6. Rollo May, The Courage to Create, pub W.W. Norton & Co 1994 (first published in 1975). Rollo May is a psychoanalyst who is also an artist, and here he describes artistic and cultural creativity from both perspectives. The A large part of the courage here is making a full commitment to a domain of endeavor.
7. Tom Peters, Liberation Management, pub Fawcett Columbine 1992. I haven't read this one yet, but Tom Peters is another business "guru." The book advocates "Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties" (the quote here is the subtitle). Something like this was implemented by Chrysler to develop the Viper supercar in record time.
8. Robert Lutz, Guts pub Wiley 1998. A Chrysler VP given a lot of credit for innovation and creativity in the automobile industry, tells what he did and how he did it. An iconoclastic and passionate presentation.
9. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow pub. Basic Books 1997. A detailed experimental study of how people find meaning in everyday lives. Also, how to increase the level of creativity or "flow" in your own life. An excellent choice if you want to pursue your personal creativity.
10. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow pub. Harper and Row 1990. I haven't read this one yet, but it is on my list. Presents Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" as optimal experience. Based on extensive research on everyday lives of a large number of people.
11. Ed Frank Barron et al., Creators on Creating pub. Tarcher/Putnam 1997. Individual creators, classical to contemporary, tell their own stories of how they create. Also has an extensive introduction on the nature of creativity and creativity research.
12. Ed. Margaret A. Boden, Dimensions of Creativity, pub MIT Press 1994. A cognitive approach, seeking to understand the creative process in some detail.
13. Ed. Steven M. Smith, Thomas B. Ward and Ronald A. Finke, The Creative Cognition Approach, pub MIT Press 1995. Also takes a cognitive approach.

Instructor and Office Hours

The Instructor is David Bowen / Interdisciplinary Studies Program / Science and Technology Division.

Grading

The course grade will be calculated as follows:

Grading Scale

The "-" range for a grade is the lower three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, A- is 90 to 92 and gets averaged as 91. The "+" for a grade is the top three points, and gets averaged at the middle. For example, B+ is 87 to 89 and gets averaged as 88. A grade of 100 is an A+. Note that the highest grade recognized by the University is A.

NOTE 1: If you want to drop a course, you should withdraw officially using an official Drop/Add form. If you simply stop attending, you are supposed to receive a grade of "X", or possibly "I" if you have completed most of the work. You cannot graduate with these grades on your records, so you will have to retake the courses.

NOTE 2: I will allow you to redo assignments and turn in missing work after the course is over. Such work will not appear in your regular grade, but it will be taken into account in a Change of Grade, and it will eventually appear on your official transcript. The University will allow me to file a Change of Grade up to one calendar year after the end of the semester in which you took the course. For this course, that is through the end of the Winter 2000 semester. I will not accept major assignments during the last month of this period. If you are redoing an assignment, the original assignment with my comments and grades must be turned in along with the redone assignment.

On-line Grade Reports

There will be a link on the course web site for on-line grade reports. These reports will let you look at your line in my grade book. This feature has been very popular with most students, and is the earliest way that you can find out about your grades for assignments and for the course. If you want to have this available to you, for the on-line information form:

• Choose "yes" for the item on-line grade reports
• In the associated text box, enter a password for your grade reports.

To get an on-line grade report, you will enter your first and last names, and this password.

Course passwords

You will have several IDs and passwords for this course:

1. Your UserID and password for your Internet Service Provider
2. Your UserID and password for the computer conference
3. Your password for on-line grade reports, if enabled

It can be a problem to keep all of these straight. Be aware that you can choose #2 and #3 to match #1, if you want. Ask me for details.

Important Dates

Dates of major assignments and evaluations, four credit course:

Dates of major assignments and evaluations, three credit course:

NOTE: Near the end of the semester, in the event that some of your work is incomplete, or appears to be incomplete, it is important that I can get in touch with you. Make sure that my information for your telephone number(s) and email address are up to date!

Other important dates:

• Monday January 7: Classes begin, last day to file certificate or degree applications
• Monday January 7 through Friday January 18: Late open registration, $70 late fee
• Friday January 18: Last day to register/add. Last day for tuition cancellation for dropped classes.
• Monday January 21: Martin Luther King Day observance - University holiday, no classes.
• Tuesday January 22 through Friday February 1: Courses officially dropped through this period will not appear on your academic record. If you withdraw from all classes, your academic record will bear the notation "Complete Withdrawal". You are contractually liable for the tuition for courses dropped.
• Monday, February 4: After this date, the Instructor's signature is required to drop a course. A grade of "W" is assigned for dropped courses.
• Monday March 11 through Saturday March 16: Spring recess. No classes.
• Monday, April 22. Last day of classes.
• Tuesday, April 23. Study day. Last day to drop courses.
• Wednesday April 24 through Tuesday April 30: Final examination period.
• Thursday May 2: Commencement.

Assignment Schedules:

Assignment descriptions:

Essays. Essays are to be four to six pages, double-spaced, 10- or 12-point font, top and bottom margins one inch, right and left margins one-and-one-half inch, or the equivalent. Essay topics will be posted on a separate web page. There will be approximately five topic choices for each essay; choose one. A creative work is also acceptable for the Essay 4. In this case, a preliminary description is also required. A contribution to the web site for this course is also an acceptable alternative. Call or email the Instructor to work out a project.

The essays should be written for a general reader, say a magazine reader or a newspaper reader. Specifically, the essay should not be written "to" the Instructor. A general reader will not be interested in whether or not the essay was written for a particular course, or to fill a particular assignment, so these aspects of the assignment should not be mentioned in the essay. If you cannot get interested in your Essay, pretend that you are.

The essay should have the following parts, in this order:

• Header, a separate page, not counted in the four to six pages, containing
  • Your name
  • Assignment (which essay this is)
  • Topic (both the number and statement of the topic)
• A descriptive Title; that is, a title that describes the specific contents of the essay. "Creativity Essay" is not descriptive in this sense, because it is general and does not describe the specific content.
• An Introduction that describes what the reader should expect in the essay; a road map for the essay. Snappy titles should not count extra, but they do make life more interesting for me, and I am often grateful for that.
• A Body that contains the information in the essay and addresses the specific points above. The Body should contain detail to support the general points. References to readings can be made "in line", for example "as Howard Gardner states on Pg 37 of Creating Minds". Titles of books should be underlined; other sources, including conference postings, should be in quotation marks.
• A Conclusion that summarizes the main points of the essay as a whole. New material should not be introduced in the conclusion; the conclusion should be a summary of material presented earlier. New material in the Conclusion is a signal that you have not finished thinking about your Essay. The 

A cover page is not necessary, but the header is necessary.

Essays will be graded on the following basis:

• Content. 40%. Content includes the ideas, arguments, concepts, and references to the readings and the computer conference discussion.
• Form 40%. Form includes the presence of the parts Header, Title, Introduction, Body, Conclusion and Bibliography, and the organization of the essay in a logical and progressive manner. The essay should flow well or naturally from one topic and part to the next. The essay should have a consistent voice (first person, second person, etc.) and tense (past, present, future) throughout.
• Mechanics 20%. This includes grammar, spelling, punctuation, and other mechanical aspects of writing. It also includes having the header described above, and the correct file name.

NOTE: The essay form counts for a major part of the essay grade. You should read the description of the form carefully, and clear up any questions or doubts you may have about it, before starting to write an essay. The requirements for the Introduction and Conclusion mean that you should have written a draft or an outline or at least thought through your content before you begin to write the final version.

Naming your Essay files

In this course, you will turn your Essays in as word-processing files attached to email messages. If two people use the same file name, then the file that is turned in second will replace the file that is turned in first. Also, as the Instructor, I want the file name to tell me about the person and the assignment. Therefore, make up the names for your homework files with the following parts, in order:

• Your three initials. If you do not have a middle initial, use the underline or understroke character _, <shift>hyphen on the keyboard.
• The Essay number (1, 2, 3 or 4)
• "cw2" to indicate Creativity, Winter 2002
• Normal extension for your word processor. (Note: Macs do not use file extensions, so Mac files would not have extensions.)

So for example, since my middle initial is "R" and I use Microsoft Word, the file name for my Essay 2 would be drb2cw2.doc

When I grade the assignments, I will add a "g" to the end of the filename and return it as an email attachment. So I would return my graded Essay with the file name drbacw0g.doc

Computer Conference assignments

• For ISP 5500, contribute a minimum of five lines, on the average of twice a week for a total for the semester of 33 (actually this is a bit more than two per week). These contributions must be substantive, concerning the readings or other points from the conference. For example, "Gee, I thought that was right on" is not substantive -- it does not make a contribution. As an alternative, you can agree with another comment, and then explain it further, extend or go beyond it, or apply it in a new way. The following special postings are included within the 33 total:
  • A self-introduction under the topic "Intorduce Yourself"
  • A description of "What about Creativity is most interesting" to you. That posting must be under the appropriate topic.
  • "Creative people we know," a description of someone whom you think is creative (this person can certainly be you). Describe the person, describe how they relate to other people, and describe what they do that is creative. That posting must be under the appropriate topic
  • Post a minimum of nine times by the date in the table above
  • For students in the four-credit course, post a draft topic for Essay 4 by the date in the table above. That posting must be under the appropriate topic.
  • By the date given in the table above, go back and read your "Creative people we know" description, and say how you would change it as a result of your work in the course
  • Periodically, the Instructor will post reading questions. You must post a response to each of these questions.  These postings must be under the appropriate topic.

NOTE 1: This does NOT mean that you have to log on to the computer conference twice a week. You can make multiple postings during a single session.

NOTE 2: "Under the appropriate topic" means that you must be able to find an existing message on the left-hand (yellow) side, pull up the message, and respond to it, either as "Reply" or "Reply/Quote"

NOTE 3: Postings for the Creativity class will not be counted if they are under another conference such as "The General Conference" or "Nissani 2030 Chat Room".

NOTE 4: Postings must make use of the following techniques for helping your readers establish a context:

• If you are responding to an earlier posting, editing the title to indicate that this is a response and not the original positing
• If you are responding to an earlier posting, using "Reply/Quote" but editing out parts of the original posting that you are not responding to

Course information form

Fill out the Course Information Form on the course web site by Thursday January 17. If last semester is any guide, this may be the only information I get about your registration for the course, so accuracy in important. If you say that you are registered for the three credit version, when in fact you are registered for the four credit version, or vice versa, that will create problems for you and me at the end of the semester. The telephone numbers should be current and valid. The email address you give should be for an account that you check regularly. If you do not yet have an email account, put "none" for the address, and email me when you do have an account set up.

You will need an email account for this course. If you do not have one, you can go to any of the following world wide web locations and sign up for a free email account:

• www.hotmail.com
• www.yahoo.com
• http://home.netscape.com/

Comments on specific email and Internet Service Providers:

• America On Line (aol.com) is the most popular Internet Service Provider. It also provides email, that does handle attachments. The last I knew, it allows you attach a maximum of one file per message, and to receive a maximum of one file per message. That should be adequate for this course but you should be aware of the limitation.
• Wayne State University provides free Internet access and email accounts for all WSU students and staff. The Internet service is good -- it is what I use, and I am willing to pay money -- but some people say the service is slow. Activating your email account is a hassle, and attaching and receiving files is very difficult from a WSU computer lab (although you can use the mailman email program that is a link off of the course Welcome page.

You will also need world wide web access to take this course. This can be from a home computer, a WSU lab computer, a computer at your local library, or any other site with world wide web access.

Weekly Course Reports

Each week, you will send me a Course Report, describing your status and progress in this course. I will post a format and method for these reports on the course web site. These are the way that I will keep in touch with how you feel the course is working out for you, and whether or not we need to discuss how things are going. These reports will not be optional; filing one each week is part of your grade for the course. "There are many valid excuses for being late with an assignment, but there is no acceptable excuse for missing a weekly class report."

Class Meeting Signins

Every week that we meet in the classroom, during the class, go to the course web site, follow the link to the signing form, fill out the form and send in your signin. This is equivalent to a signin sheet.

PLAGIARISM

Putting this topic at the end does not imply that I do not think it is important, but instead that I think it applies to everything in this course. In academic work, plagiarism is treated as a serious breaking of the rules. Plagiarism basically means passing off someone else's work as your own. It does not matter whether this is done on purpose or by accident, by commission or omission, from one source or from many sources; it is still plagiarism, and it is still serious. The most obvious form of plagiarism is "copying" - using another author's words, without a hint that they are not yours. Changing one or two words in a sentence still results in plagiarism. On the other hand, using quotation marks and a reference to the source is OK, since you are not passing off the work as yours. Such references can even add to an impression that you have read the assignments!  References to opinions can also be used to strengthen your arguments, since a reference makes clear that someone else feels the same way that you do.

In this course, work that contains any plagiarism will be ignored, as if it were never turned in. In order to receive credit for the assignment, another topic must be chosen, and the work completely rewritten. The assignment will also be counted as late. Note that at the end of the course, there may not be enough time to redo the work, or even to notify you, before grades are due. Therefore, plagiarism near the end of the semester can have a particularly serious effect on your grade.

If you have any doubt about what plagiarism is, make sure to ask the instructor. To be safe, make sure that you give credit to any authors you borrow from.