This past spring semester I taught (with Nicole Oster and Lindsey McCaleb) a masters/doctoral seminar on Human Creativity x AI in Education. I had wanted to write this post after our last class meeting over a month and a half ago—but travel and life kept getting in the way. But better late than never—particularly since the class ended up being quite an amazing experience overall, and one that I believe ought to be documented.  

When Nicole, Lindsey and I set out to design the class, we knew we were venturing into relatively uncharted territory. The initial announcement promised an exploration of “the dynamic interplay between human creativity and Generative Artificial Intelligence,” but putting words in a syllabus is quite different from actually making something happen.

A typographical design for the word “Creativity” incorporating AI

We knew, before we started, that we were committed to examining creativity through a transdisciplinary lens and further, exploring how GenAI could work as a creative collaborator in this space. The transdisciplinary creativity framework was grounded in the 13 thinking tools listed in Robert and Michelle Root-Bernstein’s book “Sparks of Genius.” Danah Henriksen and I had further synthesized these 13 into a more manageable seven: perceiving, patterning, abstracting, embodied thinking, modeling, play, and synthesis. These seven skills, we argued, could be the foundation for transdisciplinary creativity in education (as we have described in our TechTrends series and in a book that emerged from those articles).

The two key texts we read during the semester as well as the 7 transdisciplinary skills for creativity that guided our explorations.

The goal was to create a collaborative space for pushing boundaries and challenging assumptions. There were three foundational principles that were key to the design of the course:.

• First, radical transparency: following Lee Shulman’s insight that learning is most powerful when it becomes shared and communal, we made almost everything we did in the class visible, internally and externally. From our weekly sessions in the open atrium of the Creativity Commons to student blog posts shared with the world to the final showcase itself—very little of the class happened behind closed doors or website authentication.
• Second, open-ended assignments with extensive student control: rather than prescriptive tasks, students chose their own bot designs, shaped class activities, and ultimately took ownership of designing the entire final event (more on that later).
• Third, deep connection to foundational ideas: our explorations were grounded in serious scholarship, moving from disciplinary to multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary and finally to transdisciplinary approaches that transcend conventional boundaries entirely.

Visualizing Shulman’s quote (© punyamishra)

The success and failure of a class like this depends, in large part, on the students. It was here that we struck gold. The 20 student participants in the class came from programs and colleges across ASU: from MLFC to computer science, from UX design to journalism (and there was even a graduate student with an undeclared major). The students brought a wide range of perspectives, histories, and interests to the class—something ideal for a course on creativity. It should be noted that no prior experience of having worked with AI was expected or required, and not surprisingly, the student-participants differed greatly in their knowledge of AI as well. Some had been coding and creating apps for a while, while others had used ChatGPT or others such tools quite sparingly.

During the semester, students engaged in a rich blend of readings and discussions, reflective blog posts that made their thinking public, and hands-on explorations of AI tools ranging from ChatGPT to Claude to specialized platforms like Midjourney and Adobe Creative Suite. Lectures were kept at a minimum, short and sweet, and often emergent from something that would strike my fancy late Sunday night as I was preparing for class (which met Monday morning). Finally, as a culmination activity, the students designed and orchestrated a final public event, open to the entire ASU community, that would allow others to experience what we had been exploring over the semester.

Some of the blog posts written by student-teams, all of which were publicly shared (with attribution) on my website.

What began as an experimental course exploring the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence transformed into something far more profound than any of us anticipated. What we discovered was that our students didn’t just engage with these ideas—they embodied them, becoming creative practitioners, critical thinkers, and ultimately, educators in their own right.

Each week, they designed activities around the seven transdisciplinary skills: finding letters in unexpected architectural features for perceiving; creating “next token” predictions and specialized poetry for patterning; developing tangible and intangible symbols for life events in abstracting; drawing tactilely while AI analyzed emotions for embodied thinking; building apps and games through “Vibe Coding” for modeling; and crafting speculative fiction worlds set in 2035 for play.

For instance, let’s dig into our “Vibe Coding” sessions—creative programming challenges where teams were given seemingly random, unrelated elements and asked to build functional apps or games, using AI, that somehow incorporated them all. One team received the bizarre combination of “fire, banana, robots” along with the goal of helping someone “get a date.” Rather than seeing this as impossible, they created a scheduling app for a futuristic restaurant that serves date-fruit desserts, complete with robot waitstaff and flambé displays. Another group, tasked with integrating “cowboy hat, tuba, cotton candy” while achieving the goal of “getting an A in Punya’s class,” designed an adventure game where players navigate ASU’s campus as a cowboy, play musical instruments to defeat the Sandman, and earn cotton candy rewards—all while learning course concepts. These exercises pushed students to think beyond conventional problem-solving, demonstrating how creativity thrives when we embrace constraints and apparent contradictions.

A few examples from our Vibe coding activity

This was not all. Over the 15 weeks of the course, students created an astonishing array of custom GPTs that pushed creative boundaries—from Karina Luna’s “Media Mentor” combining critical thinking with media literacy, to “That Annoying Guy Bot” by Kshitij Agrawal, that frustrates users into brilliance, to Poorva Kulkarni’s “TaalViz” that transforms rhythmic inputs into dynamic visual patterns. The bots ranged from practical tools like Priyal Vasanwala’s “Pantry Wizard” for fusion cooking to imaginative experiences like Vaibhav Doifode’s “Time Traveler’s Classroom,” Kofi Wood’s “The Sandman GPT” for crafting magical bedtime stories, and Bret Hovell’s “Impossible Scenarios” bot that challenges users to think creatively about a wild problem. (A complete list of bots designed by the students can be found at the end of this post.)

From the beginning, our course was designed to culminate in a public showcase—not just for assessment, but as a genuine contribution to the broader conversation about creativity and AI in education. We envisioned this as more than a typical student presentation; we wanted to create an immersive, interactive experience that would allow visitors to engage directly with the concepts and tools we’d been exploring.

The event logo itself embodied our collaborative spirit—a typographical play on “human creativity” with strategic letters missing, enclosed in parentheses and elevated by a superscript “ai.” Born from group discussion rather than individual design, this visual captures both the promise and the provocation of our inquiry: human creativity to the power of AI, while subtly questioning what might be lost—or transformed—when artificial intelligence enters this creative space. The missing letters suggest gaps, possibilities, or perhaps the incomplete nature of our understanding, while the mathematical notation hints at both augmentation and uncertainty. Like everything else in our course, this logo emerged through collective creativity, becoming a perfect emblem for the questions we were exploring together.

In creating this event, along the way, our learning community evolved into something unprecedented: an educational event design collective. Students naturally stepped into roles as project managers, designers, and curators, designing six distinct interactive stations, creating custom t-shirts, and developing a comprehensive website that documented their entire journey.

As it happened, April 21 (the day of the event) was World Creativity and Innovation Day—a serendipitous alignment that felt perfectly apt for a demonstration of “empowering people to use new ideas, make new decisions, and make the world a better place.” The showcase wasn’t just the culmination of a semester’s learning; it was proof that when we create spaces where “both critical thinking and wonder can co-exist” through radical transparency, student agency, and deep intellectual grounding, learners will surprise us by transforming from participants into pedagogical innovators, from individual contributors into a true creative community.

The final event was a huge success with over 150 highly engaged visitors, ranging from high school students from ASU Prep Digital to faculty, staff, and students from across ASU. Visitors experienced firsthand what it means to think and create at the intersection of human and artificial intelligence. Most importantly the event validated for the students all that they had learned through the semester.

Images from the class and the final event

Perhaps nothing captured the spirit of what emerged better than their post-event gratitude board, where students thanked each other for specific contributions: Individuals were recognized for “stellar organization and communication,” for design leadership with “mind blowing, intimidating design and production values,” for “amazing timelines and coordination,” and for creating “an elegant and effective website under tight time constraints.” As one student reflected, “It’s beautiful when a group of people can come together and become more than the sum of ourselves. We did that and more.” As another noted, “This class helped me feel more in control” in a world that seemed to be “spinning around a little too quickly,” while another declared it “the class we will be telling our grandkids about for years.”

That may or may not be true – but I have to admit it was one of the greatest and most fun classes I have had the privilege of leading in a long time.

Screenshot of Gratitude Padlet, from the last day of class

Finally, teaching this course also gave me the freedom to practice some AI-partnered creativity of my own. During the course of the semester I found myself playing, exploring and learning alongside my students. Among other things I created a heavy metal version of a Ghalib ghazal, a set of incorrect scientific simulations that actually enhance misconceptions; logos for each of the groups in class, a simulation of Indian Tabla rhythms, a beautiful multimedia simulation of the sine/cosine curves and their relationship to the Pythagorean theorem; and engaged in a creative collaborative partnership with Claude around my typographical experiments. The radical transparency and experimental spirit we fostered in the classroom extended to my own creative practice, reminding me that teaching at its best is always a form of collaborative discovery, as long as we are willing to take the leap.

There are many people to thank for making this happen – and they are mentioned in the final slide-deck created by the students for the event. A special thanks to Nicole Oster and Lindsey McCaleb for all their help and support through the semester. We made a great team – as captured by this image (created by one of the students in the class).

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Some key links

• The first course announcement on my website
• Blog posts written by the students in the class: Post 1; Post 2; Post 3; Post 4; Post 5; Post 6 & Post 7.
• Announcement of end of semester event on my website
• My experiments with creativity:
  • A heavy metal version of a Ghalib ghazal (and one student’s response)
  • A set of incorrect scientific simulations that actually enhance misconceptions;
  • Logos for each of the groups in class,
  • A simulation of Indian Tabla rhythms,
  • A beautiful multimedia simulation of the sine/cosine curves and their relationship to the Pythagorean theorem;
  • A creative collaborative partnership with Claude around my typographical experiments.
• Final slide deck created by the students for the event – this gives an overview of the class, thanks all the people who helped make it a success and other fun stuff.
• News story on ASU Enterprise Technology website about the final event: ASU grad students showcase human creativity in AI
• End of semester Gratitude board
• Message from the students to the instructors: PDF document

List of all the Bots/GPT’s developed by the students

Category: Creativity
That Annoying Guy Bot by Kshitij Agrawal
That Annoying Bot is a maddeningly clever AI that sidesteps every question with snarky detours, fake confusion, and twisted logic—frustrating you into brilliance one irritating reply at a time.
 
The Sandman GPT by Kofi Wood
The Sandman GPT allows enables users to crafts magical bedtime stories using a child’s name, day of the week, & favorite color for dreamy adventures

Impossible Scenarios by Bret Hovell
Impossible Scenarios is a game that challenges you to think creatively about a wild problem. For example, you might get asked to design a city in a world in which the wheel hasn’t been invented — and never will! What would you do?

Your Everyday Comic by Gaurav Singh
The Custom AI Bot captures your daily experiences, moods, and key moments, generating a comic image of your day.

Ideaweaver by Tanmay Vikhankhar
IdeaWeaver GPT is a creative thinking assistant that helps you explore abstract ideas—like shapes, letters, or sounds—by making real-world connections, offering imaginative prompts, and encouraging deeper exploration. It’s your creative partner for turning sparks of inspiration into meaningful concepts.

OtakuMate, Your Personal Anime Recommendation by Dhawal Waykole
OtakuMate is your senpai-approved guide to anime nirvana. Whether you’re chasing tearjerkers, power-ups, or underrated gems, this bot tailors recs to your vibe, mood, and watch history. Skip the endless scrolling—OtakuMate knows exactly what to queue next.

Bardy Buddy by Neelakshi Tewari
Bardy Buddy is your drama queen of data—where every answer is dressed in literary flair and pop culture fire. It’s not just information—it’s a performance. One part encyclopedia, one part drag show, all delivered with the sass of Oscar Wilde and the timing of Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Mood Doodle by Kit Kough
Mood Doodle invites you to draw your day based on your present mood. Answer a brief prompt and Mood Doodle will offer suggestions for how you might represent it on paper or other media via step-by-step collaboration.

Case Study Builder by Vincent Chen
Case Study Builder guides users through creating case studies by organizing their project details into a structured format (e.g., problem statement, solution, and results). This feature can streamline portfolio preparation.

TaalViz by Poorva Kulkarni
TaalViz is a chatbot that transforms rhythmic inputs into dynamic, real-time visual patterns. Inspired by classical and global rhythms, it bridges sound and sight, offering an engaging way to explore rhythm through generative visuals for creativity, learning, or performance.

Category: Food
What Should I Get For The Dinner by Cathy Chen
Tired of the eternal dinner dilemma? This bot ends the scroll struggle and feeds your cravings with style. From budget bites to bougie eats, it serves up tailored food picks based on your mood, fridge contents, or pure chaos. Because “I don’t know, what do you want?” is so last season.

Pantry Wizard by Priyal Vasanwala
This is an AI-powered culinary assistant specializing in creative, delicious, and easy-to-follow recipes based on random ingredients provided by users. It excels in fusion cuisine, seamlessly blending flavors, techniques, and ingredients from diverse culinary traditions. Its goal is to make cooking fun, accessible, and inspiring, while also accommodating dietary preferences and skill levels.

Category: Trivia
Bar Fight by Kellie Kreiser
A chatbot game that takes place in a university bar, where everyone fights with what they know.

Category: Mystery
Conspiracy Theory Bot by Arpita Mandal
This bot uncovers hidden truths in everyday questions. Fueled by paranoia and mystery,it sees connections where others see coincidence slowly drawing you into a web of secrets, cover-ups, and cryptic warnings.

Category: Study
Course Companion by Fredrick Ayirah
Summarize course materials, track weekly assignments, and organize tasks for different student groups. 

Category: Puzzle
Interdisciplinary Puzzle GPT by Yuktha Veeranki
This GPT generates interdisciplinary puzzles, mysteries, and logic challenges across psychology, philosophy, AI, history, and more, tailoring difficulty and offering hints as needed.

 

Category: Language
LinguaTwist
LinguaTwist, a friendly, fun and knowledgeable language chatbot designed to help users translate idioms and slang between different languages while exploring their cultural significance.
Annie Cheng
 

Category: Media
Media Mentor – Beta
Reflecting the transdisciplinary nature of this course, the Media Mentor AI assistant combines a critical and creative thinking strategy (commonly used in STEM education) with media literacy. It guides users through the analysis of textual media addressing concepts like persuasion, bias, neutrality, sensationalism, fact-checking, framing, and misinformation.
Karina Luna
 

Category: History
Time Traveler’s Classroom
The Time Traveler’s Classroom AI guides users through educational history and the future, helping them navigate eras, meet key figures, and shape the timeline after activating a faulty time machine.
Vaibhav Doifode 

Category: Wellness
Serene
Serene is your AI friend and activity companion—here to support your well-being, boost confidence, and keep you engaged. Whether you need to talk, find something fun to do, or just take a breather, Serene is always here to help—privately and thoughtfully.
Pornima Lokhande
 

Serene
An AI companion to boost confidence, well-being, and offer friendly conversation.
Poonima Lokhande