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Creative Education Online

A smiling woman looking at her phone. She has long black hair and is wearing a pair of over ear headphone.
A smiling woman looking at her phone. She has long black hair and is wearing a pair of over ear headphone.
Student studying on the move | Photograph: Ben Hunter

Research and events exploring fully online creative education.

UAL Online

We have launched UAL Online (opens in a new tab) to expand the university’s offerings of fully online education and to innovate in the emerging field of Creative Education Online.

Find out more about UAL Online’s research and research-related activity.

Contact us

For more information, you can contact:

David White (Dean of Academic Strategy – Online)  
david.white@arts.ac.uk

Dr Ian Truelove (Research and Innovation Coordinator) 
i.truelove@arts.ac.uk

Events

Conversational seminars

In 2024 and 2025, UAL Online hosted a programme of seminars exploring contemporary themes in online and creative education.

Dr Natasha Bonnelame

Digital Learning Producer, London College of Fashion, UAL

Dr Ben Hall

Senior Lecturer in Illustration at Leeds Beckett University and Open College of the Arts

Dr Mary Jacob

Lecturer in Teaching and Learning – Aberystwyth University

Christian Lloyd

Director of Learning at the Open College of the Arts

Tobias Revell

Design Futures Lead at Arup University's Foresight team and former Programme Director, Graphic Design Communication at London College of Communication, UAL

Barnaby Lickens-Richards and Sara Feio

Barnaby Lickens-Richards, Course Leader, Falmouth University

Sara Feio, Unit lead and alumni, Falmouth University

Peter Bryant

Peter Bryant, Associate Dean and Professor of Business Education at The University of Sydney

Georgia Steele

Georgia Steele, Head of Design and Development for UAL Online.

Upcoming events

To book a place on an upcoming event, please book your ticket on Eventbrite (opens in a new tab).

Creating creativity online: a micro conference exploring the confluence of Learning Design, Fully Online Provision and Art School Education

Dates: 1-2 May 2025

Event details

Building from the ‘CEO’ seminars the conference is open to staff working in, or adjacent to, higher education.

1 May 2025, 10am – 4pm BST – Day 1, location-based event in London.

Join us in central London at UAL’s High Holborn building for a day of discussions and activities that will help you develop a deeper understanding of the challenges of creating and delivering online creative education.

Confirmed speakers for day 1: Dr Natasha Bonnelame, Programme Director Digital Learning at London College of Fashion; Josie Cockram, Course Lead of MA Fine Art Online at Falmouth University; Professor Lawrie Phipps, Senior Research Lead at Jisc; and Amy Sampson, Associate Director of Greenwich Online at University of Greenwich.

2 May 2025, 10am – 4pm BST – Day 2, online.

A day of asynchronous online activities and live online synchronous discussions.

Confirmed speaker for day 2: Professor Susan Orr, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education and Equalities at De Montfort University.

CEO Seminar series 3 (online): Creativity for education with Daniel Mitelpunkt, Director of Digital Media Lab at Imperial College London

Date: 16 May 2025, 12 noon  BST

Event details

Daniel will discuss creativity FOR education, including online; creative industries’ role and untapped potential for addressing real opportunities in (digital) education and how HE should adapt to stop missing tricks there; and how going back to fundamentals of learning design, teaching and learning can both lead to greater innovation and improve bang-for-buck for universities.

Current research projects

Exploring traditional art pedagogies in online learning

Research project aim: An investigation into the intersection of traditional art school pedagogies and prevalent online learning production models.

This research aims to develop new theories relating to the intersection of traditional studio-based art-school pedagogies and the prevalent models used to create online-only courses.

The study uses a constructivist grounded theory research method to draw out information from face-to-face interviews. This aims to build theories that are grounded in the realities of the interviewees.

Scalable assessment

The research aims to develop methods of streamlining and enhancing assessment practices. This can be incorporated into the fully online creative education. It is operating across multiple strands:

  • Design
  • Methods and Practices
  • Technologies (AI).

Research outputs

Post-COVID-19 experiment on sustainable online creative education

The UAL Online Action Research explored effective effective online learning and teaching for creative subjects outside our of crisis situations. It focused on UAL teaching methods such as material practices, dialogue, co-creation, studio and reflection. The research built on extensive research in online learning and the university's deep expertise.

The activities involved over 300 learners across 15 UAL subjects. They aimed to recreate an authentic curriculum while serving as true experiments. What we have learned about online learners, our organisational culture and our readiness as an institution is highly valuable.

Read the Creative Education Online - action research report (opens in a new tab)

  • Disclaimer: The PDF may not be fully accessible. If you require an accessible version of the PDF, please contact Ian Truelove at i.truelove@arts.ac.uk

Teaching the creative arts online

Research project aim: Teaching the creative arts online: using pedagogic motivation as a bridge between residential and online pedagogies

Courses