Silent game as Model for Examining Student Online Creativity - Preliminary Results from an Experiment

The ERASMUS+ project “OnCreate” aims at improving online mediated creative collaboration among students. But what are the differences between collaboration online and in a face-to-face setting in terms of creative processes? Theories on media richness and collaborative creativity can provide a starting point for the analysis, but empirical studies are necessary. To inform the OnCreate project empirically, an experiment in creative collaboration among students was conducted at Aalborg University. 28 MSc. students were asked to collaborate on a creative assignment. The experiment examined how the creative dialogues developed through a very constrained communicative environment. The participants could only communicate their creative ideas by placing standard LEGO bricks on a plate. No talking or any other communication was allowed. The game used in the experiment is an adoption of the so-called “Silent game” (Habraken & Gross, 1988). But where Habraken et al.’s research in design games focussed on how professional architects and designers collaborate, we examine the potential of Silent game as model for researching online creative collaboration among students. This paper presents the results of the experiment and a tentative analysis. The aim is to discuss the possibilities in using Silent game as a model for examining and improving online creativity.