A comparison of web and paper based approaches for idea generation

Seven tutorial classes of first year students participated in the study. In the experiment, students were allocated into one of two groups: a web based group or a paper based group. Students were asked two 7-point Likert scale questions in a pre-experiment questionnaire regarding the extent they use electronic and paper materials while studying. Students from each group were then given an introduction to the Su-Field Analysis methodology via a 15 minute instructional video. Participants were presented with an engineering related problem and were provided with 16 minutes of time to independently produce as many solution ideas as possible. Three assessors (the authors) individually reviewed and counted the number of ideas generated by students. The average number of ideas generated within each group was used to determine which group was most effective at idea generation. The mean values of the Likert scale questions from the pre-experiment questionnaire were compared. The difference between the values suggested that the engineering students perceive that they utilise electronic materials to a greater extent than paper based materials whilst studying. A Wilcoxon Singed Ranks Test was performed to determine whether the difference between means was statistically significant. The results of the test established that there was statistical significance between the mean values. Participants from the paper based group generated 10.5 ideas on average, while participants of the web based group generated an average of 7.9 ideas. The distribution of the number of generated ideas for each group was checked for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk method. It was determined that the distribution of the paper based group was not normally distributed. Accordingly, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney Test method was used to determine the statistical significance between the groups. The test showed that there was no statistical significance between the web and paper based groups