Innovation Unleashed: A Qualitative Study on Nurturing Creativity through Virtual Reality and Integrated Engineering and Visual Arts Education

This research category full paper is about a study that investigates the integration of virtual reality (VR) technology to enhance creativity in a multidisciplinary design context, merging engineering and visual arts education. By immersing students in a VR learning environment, it explores how this approach positively influences creativity, breaking down traditional educational silos and providing a blueprint for incorporating A (art) into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education - STEAM. Addressing the global imperative for creativity for problem-solving, the study systematically integrates teaching creativity into education using VR technology and blended curricula. The research investigates factors contributing to embodiment, flow state, and intrinsic motivation experienced during multidisciplinary VR learning. Methodologically, a fully immersive VR environment guided by constructivist learning theory was developed, and 7 undergraduate students from civil, mechanical, and multidisciplinary engineering participated in (virtual) hands-on activities focused on building kinetic sculptures in the developed VR environment using HTC Vive. Based on the participants' experiences, preliminary findings from qualitative interviews indicated positive influences on creative performance, with heightened embodiment, flow, and intrinsic motivation observed among participants. Beneficial outcomes included knowledge gain, enhanced creativity expression through active project-based learning, and recognition of connections between engineering and art fields. Despite challenges like equipment learning curves and stress impact, these findings lay the groundwork for innovative STEAM and VR pedagogy, offering insights for further quantitative/ qualitative studies and advancing creativity development in engineering education.