THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL LEARNING MODULE TO IMPROVE CREATIVITY IN DRAWING AMONG HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS

Abstract

Drawing is an important element of education and community growth as it acts as a language of communication, helps develop ideas and thoughts and expresses feelings and creativity. Creativity is one of the elements of drawing that has been used for centuries in many cultures, and art education serves to increase awareness and understanding of our community and other cultures. However, the level of creativity in drawing among students still needs improvement. As such, to solve this problem, the use of technology in art education could increase and enhance knowledge acquisition and contribute to the cognitive growth of art students. Although there is remarkable progress in e-learning in Saudi Arabia, there is still a significant lack of creativity among students. This study aimed to design and develop a digital module to increase creativity in drawing among female students in the Department of Art Education. This study used a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design involving two groups, the experimental and the control groups. Sixty-eight female students from the Department of Art Education at Taibah University in Madinah were randomly selected and divided into the control and experimental groups. Each group consisted of 34 female students, and different statistical methods were employed in the data analysis. The experimental group used the digital learning module through an electronic learning blog for three months. The results of the study showed a remarkable difference in average performance between the control and experimental groups, where the experimental group achieved better results. In particular, using the Torrance test in the posttest, the experimental group obtained a mean score of 80.36, while the control group achieved a mean score of 57.56. In addition, the experimental group showed a mean score of 44.96 on the drawing skills assessment posttest, surpassing the control group's mean score of 24.04. These results are consistent with the research objectives, which aimed to improve female students' drawing skills and creativity. Dominant elements contributing to improving drawing skills are elaboration and originality for geometric shapes, while cooperation, effort, and perseverance are needed for organic shapes. The statistically significant differences in the performance results indicated that the digital learning module positively impacted the female students' drawing skills and creative thinking. This unequivocally confirms the effectiveness of employing a digital module to elevate the creativity level, providing new techniques that proved instrumental in fostering the development of creative skills among the students. Considering the results, the researcher suggested the importance of using digital modules in the teaching of painting and different subjects in art education because the use of modern methods such as digital modules contributes to increasing student creativity compared to traditional education methods. In addition, arts education teachers are urged to use electronic blogs to teach different art education subjects as they contribute to increasing students' creativity and social interaction