Presentation Description Creativity is necessary in today's world as never before; to solve problems, to engage students and workers in learning, generate prosperity, build a viable ecology, and adapt to rapidly changing technology, society, and culture. Repetitive labor has been minimized due to efficiencies in technology, so that a greater number of jobs depend on creative problem-solving skills. (Pink, 2009) While the need is great, Kim (as cited in Bronson and Merryman, 2010) has documented steady declines in student creativity scores since 1990. Although educators focus on teaching knowledge in specific disciplines, we must also better facilitate creativity in our students. To that end, our multi-year research study applies psychological creativity research and educational theory to a specific course design that will enhance creative problem-solving skills. Participants will learn creativity skills such as problem finding and solving, ambiguity tolerance, and risk-taking as well as cross-discipline approaches to problems within a discipline. We hypothesize that proposed course design changes would spark increased creativity, learning, motivation, and retention. Our investigation experimentally examines the efficacy of course design implementation that enhances creativity skills. An online course module has been designed that increases creativity across the disciplines. The 3-hour online Moodle/SCORM interactive module covers the environmental influences, thought processes, and personality factors that increase creativity. As a metacognitive exercise, a focus on creativity should promote learning, motivation, and retention in any type of course. A faculty pair will teach two beginning writing courses that include the module and measure and compare student creativity from a course with and without the module. Data from student self-reports and problem-solving project assessments will be collected and comparisons made across years, courses, and faculty pairs. Further, student retention rates will be compared from course to course. Central Research Question Our central research question is whether a creativity-enhancing course design and module will increase student creativity more than traditional course designs. A secondary question will be whether an emphasis on creativity helps to increase learning motivation and student retention. Methods The creativity-enhancing course design will be implemented and assessed using an interrupted time series design with a time-lagged control group. Two sections of Writing 150 Composition will provide data for this project. The instructors of the course will work closely to equate course content, syllabi, assignments, exams, textbook, and lecture content. The use of two instructor pairs who collaborate to provide equivalent student experiences across different sections of the same course will maintain the control and consistency necessary to meaningfully assess the experiment's effect. Prior to implementing the proposed project, baseline student creativity and performance levels will be assessed in all course sections. During the first year of the proposed project (Summer 2011 to Winter 2012), one section of the writing course and one section of the psychology course will institute the creative course design. The other sections will continue to teach the courses without change. During the second year of the proposed project, the second sections of two courses will institute the creative course design. In the third year of the proposed course, all sections will continue to implement the creative course design. We have additional faculty offering to pilot courses, such as Integrative Studies Capstone 402 and Management Information Systems 546. Conclusion and interpretation By April 2012, we will have the first set of results comparing baseline online courses to online courses with a design that emphasizes creativity through it's assignments, instructor practices, and the 3-hour online module. This research will provide statistical evidence for applying constructivist and creativity theories to develop a more complete pedagogy that enhances creative problem solving. Short-term measurable objectives will be to enhance creative problem-solving skills in college students as demonstrated in one semester's course work. Survey instruments will offer student perceptions of their own learning. Outside expert assessors will judge specific criteria of creativity improvements as seen in early and later course assignments. The pedagogical innovations can be applied across majors and for both in-class and online courses. Another long-term goal of this project is to have students acquire creative problem solving skills that will enhance their educational motivation and retention until graduation. After data is collected and if found to have a positive result, then we will be offering the module and course design to other instructors in various disciplines. We have had interest from faculty at the Lilly North Conference, Traverse City, MI Sept. 2011 as well as numerous faculty in business, science, and engineering at Oakland University.