Boosting Creativity

Course Description
● A basic course in human creative cognition

○ This course is aimed at anyone who wants to understand what we actually know
(as opposed to perceiving we know) about human creativity, and how to use this
knowledge to think differently and productively about business challenges.
Because it is about creativity as a cognitive function, it does not matter what your
background is, what industry you come from / want to go to.

○ As a result of this course, past students have reported having a set of strategies
allowing them to tackle business problems with a fresh perspective.

● A content relevant for entrepreneurship

○ Considerable research shows the importance of understanding creativity for

entrepreneurship. Successful contemporary business rests upon business
people’s ability to identify problems (a.k.a., opportunities) clearly, get unique
insights on the market and develop solutions unseen and unimagined by
competitors. Current research in experimental psychology suggests that
creativity can be developed and refined, albeit with effort and practice. A goal of
this course is to provide a variety of experiences and activities with the specific
focus of fostering each student’s own creative abilities.

○ A second goal of this course is to understand the importance of creativity from a

consumer perspective. Considerable research demonstrates that consumers are
both increasingly offered the opportunity to customize their products and
services, and increasingly seeking to express their creativity through
consumption. As entrepreneurs, we have the ability to shape the consumption
environment in ways that help consumers enhance their own creative abilities,
and develop a unique relationship with consumers as a result
Course Goals and Objectives

At the end of the course, you should have become more conscious of the ways of
thinking that you typically use, and have observed how other ways of thinking can
make you more productive.

For this reason, engagement in all of the creativity exercises is critical to benefit from
the course. Students who took this course recommend to follow the videos in a quiet
environment — this is not a commuter course! This is a course, the success of which
relies upon and requires your full participation. You are expected to engage fully in
the activities and exercises, in addition to completing all assigned readings,
assignments, and exercises. The more you engage, the more you will get out of it for
the long-run.

When you successfully completed this course, you should be able to:

1. Actively use a number of techniques to take fresh perspectives on problems you are
trying to solve.

2. Come up with impactful marketing plans more flexibly.

3. Manage yourself, your management team, and your customers more effectively.

Note that a key aspect of this course involves having you work on creative ideas. To
assess creativity, we cannot simply rely on your own assessment of it, or on a single
instructor’s assessment. Therefore, to simulate a proxy for a market response to your
idea, your creative performance on the course exercises will be assessed using peer
evaluations. This means that other students taking the class will assess your creative
work throughout the course; and you will assess theirs. It is important to take those
two roles — the creator’s and the market’s — to fully appreciate what creative
experience is about, since, as business leaders, you won’t be creating value in a
vacuum, but for others.

Textbook and Readings

There is no required textbook for this course. Listed below are some suggested free online
textbooks that provide additional material on the topics of this course.

Specific readings for each module from these texts are listed with direct links on the
Readings page for each module.
Course Outline

The course consists of four modules that focus on key areas of creative thinking.

Module 1: What is creativity? If it is a notion increasingly invoked in the media, its

Introduction and definition remains elusive, and its reach often misunderstood. This
anatomy of module aims at clearly identifying what we refer to when we talk about
creativity creativity, as well as the issues raised by a number of misconceptions of
the topic.

Learning outcomes: you will know what is precisely known about

creativity, and what remains unknown. As a result, you will be able to
more critically process the flurry of literature and press on a topic that is
recurrent in business discussions.

Module 2: A critical antecedent of creativity is the enjoyment of the creative

The importance process. This module will dive into the active monitoring of emotions
of feeling right during the creative process, as it is often the best predictor of the quality
for thinking of one’s creative output.
creatively
Learning outcomes: learn to pay more attention to your feelings rather
than simply thoughts during the creative process, and use techniques
aimed at boosting the emotional experience that best works for you.

Module 3: In this module, we will do exercises and learn techniques to get a sense
Fostering of what environmental aspects one can actively shape to get to their
optimal creative experience. It varies from one individual to the next, and
creativity using
this module takes you on a journey helping you to figure out how your
our most creative self gets more easily accessed.
surroundings:
Shaping your Learning Outcomes: you should better understand the key variables
environment that push you away from how you think by default when you approach
problems, to adopt more productive approaches.

Module 4: In this module, we will cover in more detail one environmental variable
Introducing you that has been shown to dramatically and beneficially alter your creative
 to step-by-step processing: step-by-step instructions harnessing your creative
instructions experience. The module covers and has you directly use two such
creativity techniques.

Learning Outcomes: realize that different step-by-step instructions

present the benefit to break the typically fixed way in which you consider
multi-solution, complex creative problems. Consider creative concepts as
more flexible targets than they are considered by default. And come up
with more novel and useful ones.

Learning Activities of This Course

The course is comprised of the following elements:

● Lecture videos. In each module the concepts you need to know will be presented
through a collection of short video lectures. You may stream these videos for playback
within the browser by clicking on their titles or download the videos. You may also
download the slides that go along with the videos.
● Graded Quizzes. Each module will include 1 graded quiz. You will be allowed three
attempts per every eight hours at each quiz. There is no time limit on how long you take
to complete each attempt at the quiz. Each attempt may present a different selection of
questions to you. Your highest score will be used when calculating your final score in
the class.
● Peer Reviewed Assignments. Each module may include one or more peer reviewed
assignment(s). You will read a short prompt, then answer several questions about the
information provided. You will then be required to review three of your peers'
submissions. At the same time, other students taking the course will evaluate your
creative work. It is important for you to seriously do this part of the course, as the peer
evaluations will be part of the final grade of the students you are grading, and it is
important practice as evaluating other people’s creative ideas will most likely be part of
your career.
Note that for peer review assessments, you will be asked to grade students’ creativity
using scales ranging from 50% (not at all creative) to 100% (extremely creative). This
means that all students by definition pass peer-review assessments. What will be
informative is where you fall in the 50-100% range with your creative work. Therefore,
please rate the creativity of your peers as sincerely as you can, using this 50%-100%
axis.

● Discussion Prompts. Each module may include one discussion prompt. You will see
the discussion prompt alongside other items in the lesson. Each prompt provides a
 space for you to respond. After responding, you can see and comment on your peers'
responses. All prompts and responses are also accessible from the general discussion
forum and the module discussion forum.
● Readings. Each module may include several suggested readings. They are good
supplementary materials for you to further understand the course topics.

How to Pass This Course

To qualify for a Course Certificate, simply start verifying your coursework at the beginning of the
course and pay the fee. Coursera Financial Aid is available to offset the registration cost for
learners with demonstrated economic needs. If you have questions about Course Certificates,
please see the help topics here.

Also note that this course is the first in the Creativity and Innovation Specialization offered
by HEC Paris. By earning a Course Certificate in this course, you are on your way toward
earning a Specialization Certificate in Creativity and Innovation topic.

The following table explains the breakdown for what is required in order to pass the class and
qualify for a Course Certificate. You must pass each and every required activity in order to pass
this course.

Activity Required? Number Estimated %

per time per required
module module to pass

Lecture Videos Yes 8-11 1-2 hours N/A

Practice Quizzes No 1 1 hour N/A

Graded (Module) Yes 1 0.5 hours 50%

Quizzes

Peer Reviewed Yes 1-3 1 - 1:30 hours 50%

Assignments
Getting and Giving Help
● Use the Learner Help Center to find information regarding specific technical problems.
For example, technical problems would include error messages, difficulty submitting
assignments, or problems with video playback. If you cannot find an answer in the
documentation, you can also report your problem to the Coursera staff by clicking on
the Contact Us! link available on each topic's page within the Learner Help Center.
● Use the Content Issues forum to report errors in lecture video content, assignment
questions and answers, assignment grading, text and links on course pages, or the
content of other course materials. HEC Paris's staff and Community Mentors will
monitor this forum and respond to issues.