Analysis of the factorial structure of graphic creativity of engineering students through digital manufacturing techniques

Abstract

The development of creativity must be an axis in engineering training, and maker spaces are presented as ideal environment to achieve it. Specifically, in engineering degrees, creativity is considered among the generic competences included in the Tuning project and in the Engineering White Papers that regulate the university degrees of engineer in Spain. The measurement of creativity has been and is a focus of interest in literature, as well as to find out what factors it is divided into. Above all, graphic creativity is one of the factors of creativity, essential for engineers. The objective of this paper is to explore how digital manufacturing experiences influence the different variables of graphic creativity and to explore the factorial structure before and after them. For this, two maker workshops with different approach based on creativity theories have been carried out at the University of La Laguna during the academic year 2016/17. The sample consists of 100 engineering students from two different degrees. Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Kruskal-Wallis and exploratory factor analysis were carried out. Both maker workshops have increased graphic creativity with statistical significance in 36.96 (p=0.002) and 37.68 (p>0.001) points respectively, which were measured withTAECtest. Meanwhile, the creativity of students who did not attend to any workshop increased by less than two points without statistical significance (p = 0.875). The distribution of variables and the percentage of explanation of the tool has varied depending on the level of graphic creativity (pre-test and post-test). Moreover, relations between maker workshop design and the development of different variables of graphic creativity are discussed. © 2020 Tempus Publications. All rights reserved.