Creative education in online spaces
Description
Our session seeks to explore hybridisation of physical and digital elements, specifically in art and design higher education. Our session will look in greater depth at three areas where this is particularly relevant in art and design learning and teaching.
It is drawn from the activities of the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD) in the UK over lockdown. CHEAD is the representative body for the art and design higher education sector in the UK. CHEAD has 67 members which include all types of higher education institutions from small-specialist Schools of Art to art and design departments in multi-faculty universities.
Timetable
Our thirty minute session will be divided into three elements. A five minute introduction outlining CHEAD’s role representing art and design higher education institutional members across the UK and how it has responded to the COVID-19 impact on those members including a half day session co-organised with UAL to discuss innovation in designing for digital delivery. A twenty minute discussion with two of the presenters from the original event would then follow to explore three of the themes (see abstract) raised in the event around the hybridisation of physical and digital teaching, learning and practice. The final five minutes will focus on discussing what they key challenges will be for art and design higher education institutions in the coming year.
Takeaway
The focus of this session is around three key areas for creative education that have been impacted by the challenge of moving into online spaces. The discussion of these areas will inform delegates practices as we head into a complex autumn.
If appropriate, we see an opportunity for a member led online resource to explore these themes further.
Abstract
This session seeks to use a recent CHEAD and UAL co-organised event – the Transposition to Digital: Creative education in online spaces: https://chead.ac.uk/events/transposition-to-digital/ – as a starting point to discuss ideas around the hybridisation of physical and digital learning and practice.
In this session we would like to focus on three areas:
Language How important is the language we use to describe a new learning environment for creative education in changing the way students and staff approach their learning in this new environment? Have creative education students and staff already found a different language to accurately describe the new space they inhabit (for example, roundtable, sounding board) and if so, how will that shape the creative education environment in the future?
Co-production of knowledge Online learning and teaching has great potential to effect a more collaborative way of working. What can we learn from those already championing ‘digital collectives’ as an equitable, efficient project based work model? How do we ensure creative education students are actively engaged in reflecting critically on their disciplines and future learning environments?
Blended or hybrid What are the choices moving forward for creative education students in shaping and individualising their learning? If some students learn better in real life (IRL) whilst others flourish in an online environment and what are the implications for art and design higher education institutions to meet this possible demand for personalised learning?