Creative Education Online
UAL Online
We have launched UAL Online (opens in 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.
Natasha Bonnelame
Digital Learning Producer, London College of Fashion, UAL
Ben Hall
Senior Lecturer in Illustration at Leeds Beckett University and Open College of the Arts
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
Unit lead and alumni, Falmouth University
Peter Bryant
Associate Dean and Professor of Business Education at The University of Sydney
Georgia Steele
Head of Design and Development for UAL Online.
Daniel Mitelpunkt
Director of Digital Media Lab at Imperial College London.
Emma Drye
Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Painting and BA (Hons) Drawing at the Open College of the Arts at the Open University.
Nic Whitton
Professor of Digital Learning and Play at Northumbria University.
Kirsty Nevett
Course Leader for MA Fashion Business and MA Fashion Marketing (Online) at London College of Fashion.
Mark Pavey
Programme Leader for MA Illustration Online at Arts University Bournemouth.
Monty King
Learning Design Manager for UAL Online.
Jonathan Kearney
Course Leader for MA Fine Art Digital at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Peter Ainsworth
Course Leader for MA Photography and Digital Practices Online at London College of Communications, University of the Arts London.
Upcoming events
To book a place on an upcoming event, please book your ticket on Eventbrite (opens in new tab).
UALO CEO Seminar series 5 (Online)
Josie Cockram in conversation with Dave White.
Friday 20 February 2026, 12–1pm, Online via Teams.
Josie is the Course Leader of Falmouth University’s MA Fine Art Online, which launched in 2021. In 2025, she co-founded the online research group ‘Decentring through Digitality’ in Falmouth’s Centre for Pedagogy Futures in partnership with The Glasgow School of Art. She is currently working on a pedagogical research secondment with Falmouth's Centre for Blended Realities, to develop a new online short course for artists entitled 'The Centre of the Real: a phenomenological exploration of the artist’s home’. We'll talk about this research project and her 'phone phenomenology' experiments with students.
Tickets are free but booking is required:
Book your online seminar ticket on Eventbrite (opens in new tab).
Martin Newth in conversation with Dave White.
Friday 6 March 2026, 12–1pm, Online via Teams.
Martin is the Head of the School of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art. In February 2021, Martin and Dave had a conversation about the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead as creative education emerged from the pandemic. In this seminar we will revisit that conversation and consider what transpired as supposed, and what could never have been anticipated. Has online creative education been permanently tainted by its pandemic crisis mode or have we got past the Covid 'snap-back'?
Tickets are free but booking is required:
Book your online seminar ticket on Eventbrite (opens in new tab).
Dave Cormier in conversation with Dave White.
Friday 20 March 2026, 12–1pm, Online via Teams.
Dave Cormier is the Director of Curriculum Development and Delivery, Open Learning at Thompson Rivers University, Canada. What does the guy who wrote Learning in a Time of Abundance and invented the term 'MOOC' think about contemporary online learning and the general state of technology today? What do the learning theory of 'connectivism' and online arts education have in common? We will find out in this conversation with Dave Cormier, a doyenne of online education and someone with an uncanny ability to accurately 'read' what's happening with tech and learning.
Tickets are free but booking is required:
Book your online seminar ticket on Eventbrite (opens in new tab).
UALO CEO Symposium 2026 – Making Playtime: an offline symposium about creative education online (In person)
Tuesday 24 March 2026, 10.30am–4.30pm, Central Saint Martins, King’s Cross, London, N1C 4AA.
Join us at Central Saint Martins in central London for a day of talking, making and thinking about online creative education. Guest speakers include: Nic Whitton, Professor of Play at Northumbria University; Justin Spooner, Director of Unthinkable; Martin Newth, Head of the School of Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art; and Georgia Steele, Head of Design and Development for UAL Online.
Tickets are free but booking is required:
Book your symposium ticket on Eventbrite (opens in new tab).
Refreshments and lunch will be provided.
Conferences and Symposia
UALO CEO Symposium 2026
Tuesday 24 March 2026, Central Saint Martins, King’s Cross, London, N1C 4AA. See 'Upcoming events' section above for further information and booking details.
UALO Creative Education Online Micro-conference 2025
On Thursday 1 and Friday 2 May 2025, 57 experts in the field of online creative education gathered at UAL’s High Holborn building and online to explore the intersections between Learning Design, Fully Online Provision and Art School Education.
Keynote conversations were facilitated by Dave White (Dean of Academic Strategy for UAL Online) with:
- 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)
- Amy Sampson (Associate Director of Greenwich Online at University of Greenwich)
- Professor Susan Orr (Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education and Equalities at De Montfort University).
Key themes that emerged from the discussions and activities included:
- the importance of softness, flexibility and care in online spaces
- sources and resources of hope in a challenging world
- role of presence in online learning: showing up, connecting and playing
- dynamics of trust between educators and students
- potential and challenges relating to student agency
- how the notion of a ‘sticky’ curriculum might apply to online learning, and its relevance to student identity
- issues with assessment, including the impact of AI
- lumpiness of scalability
- knotty issues of community and belonging
- online as something other than a ‘place’
- the point where synchronous becomes asynchronous – temporal ponderings
- affordances of online-only learning
- online learning environment as a mechanism to build in-demand remote working skills
- insufficient imagination, not technologies, as a limiting factor
- false dichotomy of Learning Design and flexibility.
A deeper analysis of participants’ contributions to this year's micro-conference will inform the development of themes for next year's conference.
Research
Current research projects
RE:PLAY – a playful learning research project
The RE:PLAY project (Researching the Effectiveness of Playful Learning in Higher Education) is the first large-scale, systematic study into the effectiveness of the playful learning approach. It will develop a deep understanding of the types of playful learning that are effective in different contexts, and why.
The project will examine how universities can improve the way experiential and interactive skills are taught, enhancing student learning and providing graduates with the skills they need to tackle the complex challenges faced by future societies.
This ESRC-funded research will be carried out by academics, learning designers and researchers at Northumbria University, Durham University, Anglia Ruskin University, University of Sussex, Coventry University, and here at the University of the Arts London. Dave White, Dean of Academic Strategy (Online), is the RE:PLAY Co-investigator for UAL.
Find out more about about RE:PLAY on the project website (opens in new tab).
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
This research project is developing methods of streamlining and enhancing assessment practices that can be incorporated into fully online creative education. It is operating across multiple strands:
- assessment design
- methods and practices
- technologies (AI).
Read the Scalable Assessment interim report (PDF 2.0MB) (opens in new tab)
Research outputs
Dave White's keynote lecture at the European Conference for Information Literacy, 24 September 2025
In this talk, titled 'What is even real anymore?', Dave White, Dean of Academic Strategy Online, makes the case for personal agency being at the forefront of what it means to be literate.
Watch a recording of Dave's keynote (opens in a new tab).
Creative education online: action research report
The UAL Online Action Research explored 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 (PDF 4.4MB) (opens in 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
To investigate how teaching in creative arts subjects could be successfully undertaken online, Rob Clarke and Georgia Steele conducted qualitative interviews with UAL teaching staff to better understand the approaches they took in their teaching practice. The findings reveal that the 'pedagogic motivations' that underpin approaches to residential teaching can be used to bridge these apparent tensions. Here, Rob and Georgia discuss the research and findings in a short podcast, available with a visual poster overview of their findings.
- GLAD 2024 Podcast and poster (opens in new tab). Rob Clarke (Learning Designer, UALO) and Georgia Steele (Head of Education Design and Development, UALO).
Courses
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Books and magazines at Imprint Exhibition, 2016, London College of Communication, UAL | Photograph: Lewis Bush
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Lauri Sallantaus, 2021 MA Strategic Fashion Marketing, London College of Fashion, UAL | Photograph: Alys Tomlinson
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Fashion Means Business 19 by Fashion Innovation Agency at Spitalfields Market