Brad Hokanson

Brad Hokanson

Brad Hokanson is a professor of Design at the University of Minnesota. He has a diverse academic record, including degrees in art (Carleton), architecture (Minnesota), urban design (Harvard), and received his PhD in Instructional Technology from the University of Minnesota. He served as President (2016, 2020) of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT ), the leading professional organization for instructional design and educational technology, with a membership over 2000 and international affiliates in 14 countries.

Dr. Hokanson’s scholarship has led the instructional design community on topics of design thinking, design processes, the design of learning experiences, role-based design, and specifically on the importance of creativity in the training of instructional designers, for the development of curriculum, and for the academic achievement of learners. He has recently completed research on the relationship between creativity and achievement in school children, comparing measured creativity with standardized achievement scores. He is now running his fourth massive online course on creativity for the University of Minnesota with an enrollment of over 212,000. Two previous courses each enrolled over 52,000 learners.

He teaches in the area of Creative Problem Solving, Innovation Theory and Analysis, Graphic Design Research, Visual and Critical Thinking, and publishes research in the fields of creativity and educational technology. He won his college’s awards for outstanding teaching in 2002 and 2008, and served as the Mertie Buckman Professor of Design Education from 2016–2021. His most recent book on the development of creativity is Developing Creative Thinking in Learners. He is currently the Director of Graduate Studies.