Creative Waves - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 46

Figure 1. The Omnium Five-Stage Online Col-
laborative & Creative (OCC) Process

produced and implemented to the commu-
nities that a project is aiming to assist.

The Omnium five-stage OCC process, de-
scribed above, is not intended to be totally linear
in progression, and would often be applied in
different depths depending upon time available
for a project. It would be recommended that
participants using this process always reflect
both individually and collaboratively on each
stage and use a reiterative process en route. Each
stage is designed to include both individual and
collaborative components; contributions which
steadily progress each student from a valued indi-
vidual contributor with elements of collaborative
discussion (stage 1), through to a fully interactive
collaborative contributor who is still required to
make individual contributions in terms of messag-
ing, debate reflection and critique (stage 5).
On reflection, Omnium five-stage online
collaborative creativity process shares many
ideologies with previously identified charac-
teristics of more traditionally defined creativity
and creative interaction. Graham Wallas (1926)
describes a four-phase process for creative
thinking : preparation, incubation, illumination,
and verification. This too was derived from his
own introspection and observations, rather than
systematic empirical observations, although has
since become widely accepted by theorists of
creativity. Catherine Patrick (1937) proceeded to
confirm Wallas' process through a more system-
atic and psychological research study. Analysing
her findings, she confirmed Wallas' four-phases
although added revision to accompany the final
verification stage.
The way in which Omnium's own five-stage
OCC process is applied through a learning context
also closely mirrors established models for learn-
ing within online environments. Perhaps the most
notable of these is the Five Stage Model offered
by Prof. Gilly Salmon (2000) in which a suggested
progression for online learning is illustrated and
described from both a facilitators and learners

perspective. Salmon's Five Stage Model, describ-
ing processes of access and motivation , online
socialisation, information exchange, knowledge
construction, and development, also views the
online learning process from both an e-moderating
and technically supported perspective.
Throughout the entirety of the Omnium's
OCC process, a project and its participants are
supported by a series of specifically written
lectures or readings, online activities to support
those lectures and constant feedback from fellow
students, project coordinators, roaming mentors
and the invited special guests. It is the incredible
amount of interactivity between participants in
both social and working discussions that make
Omnium's online studios consistently reported
as highly social communities and free of the
scourge of isolation reported by many e-learning
or distance education offerings.