Abstract
Comprehensive universities in an emerging tertiary education context require effective teaching
strategies and projects to enhance optimal output that is benchmarked on an international level of
excellence. This paper reports on a collaborative project applied in an undergraduate fashion design
and business (entrepreneurship) programme at a comprehensive university in Johannesburg, South
Africa. The purpose of this study was to enhance programme outcomes through a creative
collaborative project in order to enhance the quality of business planning through an action learning
approach.
Relevant principles were applied to the collaborative project relate to theory on collective creativity as
well as action learning. Empirical data collected during the project was predominantly qualitative in
nature involving: student reflections during and post-project (probed by means of a developed tool),
minutes of students’ action-oriented meetings, video recordings of final presentations, as well as
evaluation of the final business plans proposing a workable business concept for the competitive and
creative fashion industry. Data were analysed by means of content analysis of student journals,
lecturers’ observations of video material were documented and an analytic rubric was implemented to
evaluate the quality of the business plans.
Findings suggest the advantages for the lecturers of the programme pertained to using the allocated
time for the project optimally as they could only facilitate the process and simply explain the principles
of the project and business planning instead of formally teaching the relevant theory relating to the
business plan. Other critical cross outcomes were also obtained, such as enhancing communication
skills in meetings and through social media, promoting cultural and students’ self-awareness. The
findings culminates in a framework which aims to aid collective creativity through action learning in a
context of in applying a higher level of designer-like thinking to business planning.