Teaching tertiary visual arts education in a purely on-line learning environment

One of the major new developments in higher education is the growth of virtual universities and eLearning. eLearning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching but typically requires students to access media and communication with the aide of a computer and the Internet. While this development has definite practical benefits, such as, freedom from constraints of time and geography, there are also disparities that arise between real world and virtual technology-led teaching. Some creative ICT solutions in different disciplines or domains have proved to be successful, however, tertiary visual arts educators still face significant challenges in this new learning environment. Removing face-to-face interaction has implications for creating spaces where pre-service teachers can develop their art practice and knowledge of art pedagogies. This paper explores the specific issues that relate to off campus e-learning in the visual arts domain and presents findings from a study that investigated the attitudes of a group of tertiary students (enrolled in a primary creative arts education undergraduate unit) towards e-learning.