Abstract

This study examined an instructional model that combined interactive learning with design thinking in an undergraduate residential interior design course. Twenty-five third-year Environmental Design students at a Chinese university participated during the first semester of the 2025–2026 academic year. Using a single-group repeated-measures design, the study tracked performance at five assessment points overall (pre-test, Tests 1–3, and post-test). Creative design ability was assessed with a five-dimensional, 15-indicator analytic rubric scored independently by two trained raters; inter-rater reliability was excellent (ICC, two-way mixed, absolute agreement; mean ICC = .993). Mean scores rose from 51.25 (SD = 8.33) at pre-test to 81.97 (SD = 6.13) at post-test. Descriptive results across the full five-point sequence showed steady improvement. For the within-intervention repeated-measures analysis across Test 1, Test 2, Test 3, and post-test, a Greenhouse-Geisser corrected ANOVA showed a significant time effect, F(2.18, 52.35) = 1564.89, p < .001, η²p = .985. Post-test performance exceeded the 75-point criterion, t(24) = 5.683, p < .001, d = 1.137, and 96% of students reached the good level (70/100 or above). A 34-item course satisfaction questionnaire (31 Likert items and 3 open-ended questions) administered at the end of the course also indicated high overall satisfaction (M = 4.30/5, SD = 0.41); the questionnaire showed strong overall internal consistency in the try-out phase (Cronbach’s α = .95). Qualitative findings pointed to three generative mechanisms: evidence-based problem framing, critique-driven iteration, and collaborative knowledge building, while also identifying uneven reflective development as an ongoing constraint. Together, these findings show how staged, rubric-based assessment linked process evidence to improvements in final design quality.

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