Case Study: Illinois Institute of Technology surfaces 16x more project ideas with Balloon

Illinois Institute of Technology surfaces 16x more project ideas

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), a private Ph.D.-granting university in Chicago, needed a better way to generate capstone project ideas for its Digital Design course. Before using Balloon, students shared ideas by email or in class, resulting in only 10–12 ideas from a 70-person class, with production blocking, evaluation apprehension, and limited student buy-in.

Balloon’s Insight Mobility platform gave IIT a digital brainstorming and selection process that let students submit, build on, rank, and select project ideas in one guided workflow. The results were dramatic: idea volume increased from 10–12 to 160, participation rose from 7% to 99%, and the selection process dropped from two class sessions to about 30 minutes, improving engagement, commitment, and course outcomes.

Illinois Institute of Technology

Martin Schray

Adjunct Professor of Information Technology & Management