The 100 Idea Challenge, Part 2

A few months ago I wrote about an ideation strategy I was using, the 100 Idea Challenge, with the hopes of instilling the creative habit of collecting ideas. Well, I'm back with an update, but first, here is some background.

I teach a few different classes as part of the four-person visual art department, but I needed the 100 Idea challenge especially for one class: Studio. It’s a course I created, a completely choice-based class, so finding ways to support students as they build the capacity to find ideas independently has been critical over the two years I've taught the class.

I thought the best way to teach ideation would be to start with Explorations of available materials but I noticed that many students would finish an Exploration and not have ideas about what to do next. In fact, I spent lots of time daily coaching students through finding ideas.

I realized what I had been doing did not work for all students and that I needed to directly teach ideation. I decided on a different approach for the Spring semester and planned to start the course with a focus on teaching collecting ideas as an artistic habit.

The difference has been night and day. I started the class with the 100 Idea Challenge for the first four days. On each of these days, I introduced a theme or topic and asked students to generate 10 ideas around it. I had planned to do this for ten days in a row, but after a few days students had these amazing lists of 40 ideas that they really wanted to use all of the class time to work on, so I decided to revisit the Challenge on Mondays, picking themes to introduce based on what I learned about the class as I got to know them.

It's been a success so far, beyond what I’d hoped for. I could count on one hand the number of times a student has told me they don't have an idea, compared to daily with my first-semester class. When someone is stuck, directing them to their list has been the only support they need. This has given me more time to work with individuals and small groups and has resulted in much more happy art-making for students.

Here is the sideshow I've been adding to, linked on the image. 🙂