Abstract:

Many studies examined the personal, social, motivational, and cognitive factors related to individual creativity. Genius was seen as residing in the individual (Guilford, 1967). The process of new product development often requires diverse knowledge and skills. The organisations are becoming increasingly ‘‘team’’ based and employees are spending more time working as a member of a group. Working in teams and collective creativity skills are becoming more important than job-related knowledge. (Goncalo, J. et al. 2009), (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).

One of the key objectives pursued by higher education institutions is to develop team creativity skills necessary for the innovation development. This is well in line with the creative characteristics of a new type of entrepreneur - the concept currently dominant in political and educational discourses around the globe (21st Century Skills, Education&Competitiveness, 2008).

Up to now the predominant focus of the higher education institutions has been on individual creativity skills development. Traditional educational methods such as lectures, seminars, etc. are not efficient enough for collective creativity skills development. Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach suits more for the collective creativity skills development, however, this method has its own shortcomings as this method was not targeted for creativity skills development (Haghparast et al., 2007). Based on the PBL method the Collective Creativity Training Model (CCTM) was developed, which was targeted for the collective creativity skills development. The CCTM model consists of four stages: creative task formulation; group composition/preparation; task execution; evaluation and feedback (Strazdas et al., 2013).

In order to increase the efficiency of the collective creativity skills development the CCTM model was improved by introducing blended learning approach (Staker & Horn, 2012). The authors of the article have developed a web based platform for the collective creativity process management. The developed web based platform enables students’ teams to structure and to manage the collective creativity process more efficiency. This platform also enables a teacher to monitor the students’ collective creativity process in real time and to give a feedback and assistance to them. The web based platform for the collective creativity process management and relationship with CCTM model is described in the article.

Keywords:

Collective creativity, Blended learning, Creativity skills, Learning model.