AAUT & UniSA Breakfast Series: 11 Sept
3 September, 2025
Broadcasting dust: Innovative online learning experiences and process-based assessment in the creative arts
Dr William (Bill) Platz (Griffith University) Recipient of 2024 AAUT Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning
8.00 – 9.00 AM (ACST) Thursday 11TH September 2025
Hosted by UniSA’s Teaching Innovation Unit
Register [HERE]
ABSTRACT: Art schools are idiosyncratic institutions, and they provide dynamic testing grounds for innovative learning and assessment strategies. I have worked to develop an approach that integrates online experiences with the dusty and dynamic environment of the art studio so that students experience learning that is equitable and future-focused. My purpose, in these circumstances, is to be sensitive, responsive and to maintain an aesthetics of learning and an academic rigour commensurate with centuries of art education.
It is a massive challenge, crystallised by COVID-19 lockdowns, to reconcile conventional art studio teaching modes (specialised environments, co-presence, expert demonstrations, materiality, peer learning, aesthetics) with online Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). Conventional wisdom asserts that studio teaching is incompatible with the VLE. I have heard too many colleagues say it is impossible to foster communities of trust, transformation, participation, self-reliance, stewardship, adaptability and growth in an online teaching environment. With the brilliant participation of my students, however, I have created methods that are scalable, effective and popular, and I actively defy this conclusion. Art students have their learning experiences complicated by difficult economic (and policy-led) demands, new technologies, mandates for ‘flexible’ learning and discordant systems implemented by large host universities. My purpose is to engage and inspire art students by successfully integrating studio learning and the VLE.
My teaching philosophy combines the prescient Deweyan pedagogies of Black Mountain College (1933-57) — community learning, critical reflection, self-directed work, peer assessment and ambiguous creative experiences — with responsive practice, servant-teaching and process-based learning. I have developed this model and tested it through years of evaluative coursework, peer review, scholarship and a strong industry partnership with the QLD Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).
The strategies contained in this work are inherently resistant to AI-taint and conducive to alternative delivery systems such as distance learning and low-residency. This presentation will include outlines of authentic low-residency online delivery, transformative process-based pedagogy, and dynamic assessable ePortfolios. These have combined to deliver exceptional student experiences, graduate outcomes and industry engagement; and have significant implications for the future of creative studio education.
BIO: Dr William (Bill) Platz is an American-Australian artist, teacher and researcher with a disciplinary focus on drawing and research concentrations in life drawing, portraiture and pedagogies of drawing — including curriculum development and learning design. Dr Platz completed his BFA (Pratt) and MA (USNY) in New York before migrating to Australia to complete his PhD. Dr Platz is currently Head of Drawing at Queensland College of Art and Design (Griffith University) in Brisbane. He has previously served as Deputy Head of School, Director of Research and Postgraduate Studies; Program Director of Fine Art; Foundations Coordinator for Fine Art and Photography; and Higher Degree Research Convenor. His most recent solo show was the exhibition School of the Living and the Dead (2023) at Grafton Regional Gallery (NSW) featuring works created by hybrid studio puppets called draughtspuppets.
Looking forward to seeing you all there.