Abstract:

At the centre of recent education policy debate at both national and EU levels are issues related to ways of better adapting European education and training systems to the needs of modern society (UN 2015, UNESCO 2017, UNECE 2012, Tawil & Cougoureux 2013). The sudden disruption of normal classes caused by COVID-19 and the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in Higher Education brought into focus the challenges as well as the opportunities afforded through distance learning-teaching to offer high-quality educational experiences (Azorín 2020, Harris 2020, Hodges et al 2020, Rapanta et al 2020, UNESCO, 2020). The new situation opened the door for imagining new possibilities and developing meaningful online experiences for learners despite the lack of physical contact. In the field of arts education, several disciplines entailing hands-on and experimental practices needed further adaptation to virtual environments. In fact, translating these practicalities and interactions into digital media became a key challenge for many educators.

In online courses, endeavours to enhance social participation and build a sense of community are crucial to making learning sustainable. This presentation explores teaching strategies to encourage interaction with and among students in distance arts education. It stems from a study carried out as part of the European-funded project Critical ARts Education for Sustainable Societies (CARE/SS). In the first stage of the project, twenty-five arts teachers from five different countries (Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Malta and Poland) were interviewed to explain, among other issues, how they shape communication with students online. Their responses mostly pointed to setting clear rules for involvement, providing constant feedback during the assessment of work and engagement, taking care of students’ psychological needs and emotional states through individual tutoring, or stimulating interactions by using ICT tools and pre-planned activities.

Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the interviewees had to deal with a decreased level of students’ engagement and lowered group energy. This situation was faced by diversifying teaching methods to strengthen interactions, such as teamwork in small groups, the use of gamification, the introduction of new technology, or the development of personalized relations. Thus, promoting a meaningful engagement with the course contents was as important as making students establish bonds among themselves. In other words, forming and feeling part of a learning community is seen as deeply linked to the very quality of distance arts education.

Keywords:

Teaching strategies, sustainable pedagogies, learning community, communication, distance arts education.