Assessing the Image: Creative Practice in an Online Learning Environment

Abstract

Academics who work in the field of online art education are frequently asked the question, ‘How do you assess art online?’ The view that art cannot be assessed through a digital interface stems in part from a Kantian perception of art as a product that is aesthetically evaluated via the senses in a physical space. In this presentation, we will establish that assessing art in an online learning environment requires an understanding of the multiple roles the digital image assumes. This will be illustrated through a consideration of the digital image as a repository of data that must visually promote doing and thinking. In the context of art online, doing and thinking ‘are acts (and forms) of critique’ by which the assessor can evaluate competence of skill and judgment. As evidence of experimentation, reflection and interpretation of creative practice, the image acts as proof of the existence of the work and the authenticity of the author. Under the colloquium’s theme of ‘Images in the Service of Learning’, the digital image will be positioned as a vital contemporary tool which has the power to shift and enhance how we see, experience and contextualize art in an eLearning environment.