Question

Creativity innovation and design assignment :

Assignment 3: Reflective paper

Word Count: 1000 word (+/- 10%), excludes reference list

Format: Professionally presented using Times New Roman 12 point font, justified

References: 3-5 scholarly work, referenced according to the Harvard style

Assessment Task

Assessment 3 is an individual reflection. In this Assessment we ask you to look back on your learning and experiences in this course and provide a reflection of your initial expectations and any changes in these expectations, what you learned from the course and how you have both used and will use this learning in the future , how did creativity innovation and design subject help you in the future and what did you get out of it . The reflection must also be backed by a theoretical foundation and scholarly work.

Requirements of the reflective paper

1. The reflective piece should provide reflection on what your initial expectations of the course were and how (if at all) they have changed over the semester.

2. The reflective piece must highlight your learning outcomes, and explain how you will use these learning outcomes in your job in the future. Areas such as the creative process, team formation and creativity, strategy formulation and completing Assessments etc can be discussed and considered as part of the learning.

3. The reflective piece must provide one example from your life during the semester where you used the learning and skills gained from this course to creatively (i.e., novel and useful ideas) and effectively solve a problem/task you were facing.

4. You must always support these experiences with a theoretical foundation.

Answer 1

When I first joined the Creative Thinking for Unique Approaches course, I must admit I was a bit apprehensive regarding the results. I wasn't really hopeful that the course would help me in enhancing my creativity in thinking innovative approaches to the existing problems. During the initial days, I thought I was correct in my assessment. the course didn't provide anything useful which I hadn't already known. and I thought I was wasting my time in pursuing the course instead of using my time elsewhere cultivating my creativity.

but I was proven wrong. and how. The course gradually started to deepen the approaches and processes to enhance creativity. Unique problems were given and we were asked to find solutions completely out of the box. It made us all rummage through the deep recesses of our minds to come up with something unique and different from other students. the end result was unique solutions completely unheard of, innovative approaches and methods of solving problems. I was astounded with the way creativity can be enhanced when we are thrown into the deep end.

For example, once our professor put a dot on the blackboard and asked us to come up with a unique problem and also its solution based on the dot. It was hard to imagine coming up with anything substantial and worthy of the course. I was at first absolutely clueless. But when you have no way of going back, you move forward. and that's what I did. I wrote on piece assuming the dot to be the first speck of pollution and how slowly mankind has turned the small dot into a rolling stone which doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

My solution to the problem was again based on the dot. I asked the readers to evaluate how can they contribute towards bringing down the rolling stone back to the dot. the essay also provided unique approaches and tips on the basic reduce, reuse, recycle. This piece was considered to be one of my best and my professor applauded my efforts.

It was truly an overwhelming moment for me. I realized that from the time when I thought I couldn't write anything useful on the dot to being applauded for my piece, I was able to perform, first because I didn't give up and tried to complete the essay. and secondly, because I was given nothing which helped me in coming up with something so creative as my piece.

this led me to believe that I can do anything if only I believe in my self. I learned not to doubt my abilities, and to trust my skills and my creativity. I knew that the first hurdle to any failure was my inability to trust myself and my lower self-confidence. The course helped me learning this vital point which will help me in my future. I have learned that the imagination of a human is beyond comprehension and all it needs is a small step, an effort to create a masterpiece.

The course also helped me learn so much about my surroundings and about people. The same problem was solved by unique solutions by the students which showed how much our life's experiences impact our creativity and innovative thinking. I got to learn about people, their experiences, what makes their work a unique piece of art and why they were driven to the creativity and designing world.

The other lesson was extensive teamwork. sometimes, we would be given a problem and we would discuss the problem with our team and everyone had to come up with a solution. then the best solution was chosen to represent our team's response. this helped me in coordinating efforts and working along with a team to achieve success. Sometimes, my solution woud be chosen and sometimes not, but the overall goal was to become the team with the best solution. This will definitly help me in adapting to any orgnazation and involving in teamwork because I was able to learn, through this course, the importance of teamwork and the necessaity to hold the team's goals as the top priority rather than perosnal achievements being set as targets.

Overall, I think my experience with the course was life-changing and I wouldn't be the same person without the course. I can't stop myself from raving about the effectiveness of the course's approaches and how it has helped me in giving a proper shape, form, and channel to my creativity. I hope more people can take help from such a course which can be the next game changer in educational learning. I hope more and more educational programs take lessons from this course in imparting valuable life lessons, relevant work assemenet skills which will help people in achieving greater heights and helping the society to become a better place by working towards unique approaches and solution for the problems of the world.