Analysis of usage for two digital format ideation templates

To establish whether students (in a voluntary setting) are more likely to use a website or PDF version of an idea generation template (similar in layout and content), when provided with the option to use either, or both. This will help to establish whether it is worthwhile to expend resources developing website-based versions in the interest of encouraging student usage of the learning resources in a voluntary setting, instead of PDF versions that generally take fewer resources to construct than website versions. It has been reported that current teaching methods may lead to a significant decrease in students’ creativity skills over the four years taken to complete an engineering degree. One reported approach of increasing creativity performance is exposure to suitable idea generation heuristics (Belski, Hourani, Valentine, & Belski, 2014). Research has demonstrated that students are able to apply suitable idea generation heuristics equally effectively using either a pen-and-paper or computer based approach, and that learning the heuristic using either platform leads to measurable enhancements in long-term performance (Valentine, Belski, & Hamilton, 2016). Website-based idea generation activities would requiring web browser software for usage, and the potential for enhanced interactivity, which can enhance engagement. But even simple websites generally take more time, effort and resources to make than other digital formats, such as Portable Document Format (PDF) files.