Welcome back.

Today we're going to talk about processes.

And I've got a question for Daryl.

Do you think creativity can be described as a process, or not?

>> Well, I absolutely do, and it's, it's what you and I do.

All the time with our students-

>> Hm-mm.

>> We go through a problem solving method.

You know, it's one of the myths, and you talk about these myths?

>> Yes.

>> One of these myths, that you have to

throw away all the structure in order to be creative.

>> Right.

>> And it's also a myth that, that some of us have that ability, and some don't.

>> Hm-mm.

>> But people who are creative, that I see

are creative, usually have a process that they go through.

In our case we work through something like the scientific method.

>> Mm-hm.

>> We both learned in third grade but we didn't really understand it.

>> That is right.

>> And the problem solving methods has what.

You define a clear problem.

>> Mm-hm.

>> You look at the background.

You form an educated guest about what's going to happen.

>> Mm-hm.

>> You run your experiments, or do the work,

and then you report on the results and conclude.

>> Mm-hm.

>> And those steps form the same basis for

how my students do their research at the PhD level.

>> Mm-hm.

>> That's how we can solve problems, really, really, at any level.

Let me give you an example.

>> Okay.

>> In this MOOC, we have had to solve a number of problems.

And one of them, as you know, we struggled with early

on was how are we going to get this course in

place, form a syllabus, a structure of course, of, of lessons,

so that we could finish it in time to start this course?

>> That's right.

>> And we went through a number of items, that we were not successful at.

And then we brought an [UNKNOWN] method on board.

>> That's right.

>> Who said, you know, I think the project might serve as a nice spine for this.

>> Mm-hm.

>> And, then we started putting the pieces off of it.

So we defined a problem, by con, by making it smaller, by breaking it down.

>> Mm-hm.

>> Instead of just saying, how are we going to get this course done.

We said how are we going to fit the pieces off

of the spine of the, of the project in the course.

So we, we narrowed the problem and made it clear.

>> That's right.

>> Asking good questions is the hardest part that I

see even for my students in chemical engineering, PhD students.

>> Mm-hm.

>> It's, it's so hard to ask a good question.

The next thing we did is look at the background.

What were some of the other MOOCs doing?

We wanted to find what were the best practices.

It's a relatively new area.

But we want to define the best practices, and pull them in

to what we were doing, so that we could move forward.

>> Mm-hm.

>> At that point, we were down to the part

where, where now we're doing a lot of the work.

We're writing the concise scripts.

We're making the videos so that, so that they

present the information and the content that we want.

Both the, the knowledge content, then the emotional content.

>> Mm-hm.

>> And so, we went down through this process,

as we went, and that's how we created this course.

>> Mm-hm.

And, do you think that it's an effective process?

>> Well I think it is an effective process.

And, and the scientific method can be applied across many spectra.

And it's not the only problem solving method.

>> No.

No.

>> And you probably accustom to a number

of other method yourself in their own work.

>> There, there are probably dozens of models for the problem solving process.

>> Yes.

>> Two of my other favorites including in addition to scientific method.

There is one called the creative problem solving process.

That was invented by the folks at the creative

education foundation interestingly by one of the people who invented

brainstorming a fella named Alex Osborne, and it has

very similar stages to the ones that you're talking about.

There's also something called design thinking, which is also, well

known in the design world, and in the engineering world.

Design thinking has a lot to do with Jack's intelligent fast failure.

>> Yeah.

>> There's a prototyping stage, in that testing stage.

It's used at places like SAP, the software company.

>> Yes.

>> And IDEO, the design company, so there are, there are many examples of those.

Problem solving processes with very similar stages.

>> Yeah, and, and with these stages sometimes you have

to iterate back after you go through and you, you

run some experiments often times you need to go back

you have a prototype you need to feed it back.

>> That's right.

>> Well now I think it's the students turn.

Start with a problem or a project in your corner of the world.

And in that, define one or two good questions.

Break it down into one or two good questions.

Then you can use one of the problem solving techniques we just discussed.

You can use the problem solving technique that I described at the beginning of this

lesson, or you can use one of

the problem solving techniques that Catherine described earlier.

That's it for today.

Thank you for joining us.

Critical Problem Solving Process

Creativity, Innovation, and Change

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