The Visual Gone Virtual: Art Education During a Pandemic

Video Presentation

Author:

Timea Tihanyi, School of Art + Art History + Design, UW Seattle

Abstract:

Moving to remote learning has caused insurmountable challenges for visual art education. This presentation will discuss ways to advance student learning in online learning environments in the Arts by looking at specific methodologies and assignments from a variety of interdisciplinary studio classes taught during the Covid pandemic.

We will compare the regular face-to-face curriculum with remote learning, and see which types of classroom assignments, digital platforms, and learning tools has worked best for improving student engagement and learning. We will discuss viable virtual alternatives to traditional art practices, such as the online gallery exhibition, a co-authored class publication using Pressbooks, and class projects designed for Zoom and led by the students. We will see how the distance learning environment can facilitate a shift away from the finished product towards prioritizing experimentation and exploration, while also increasing opportunities for the students to reflect on their own creative journey. We conclude that the benefit of working through remote learning can be a form of education that is better tailored to the individual student's needs, and that students actually welcome the opportunity for increased accountability for their own progress, and for moving each other and the entire class forward.

We will focus on specific issues like tips and tricks to create and maintain a creative community online using Zoom, Discord, Whiteboard apps, and Google tools; to improvise meaningful solutions for individual hands-on learning practices despite makeshift home-studios and inadequate material and equipment situations; to transfer making skills via screen-based interactions; and to present and critique artworks in absence of physical work. While this presentation addresses issues arising primaliry in praxis-based courses, especially those in the arts, our conclusions will be applicable to most instructors intending to create intellectually stimulating, emotionally rewarding, and a socially connected experiences in their virtual classrooms.

Poster PDF

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Comments

The presenter for this poster will be available to respond to comments during Poster Session 1 on April 20, 2:00-2:50 p.m.