Online learning is transforming modern teacher education and opening doors to a career in teaching for those who once found tertiary study out of reach. However, this shift brings unique challenges, especially in practical fields like the creative arts. As teacher educators in the creative arts who are tasked with online delivery, we are often asked, “how can you possibly teach the arts online?”. Our own efforts to innovate in this domain has led to our research with 94 teacher educators from around the world. As part of this project, we wanted to understand their technology acceptance in teaching online using the Technology Acceptance Model. This is important because educators' perceptions and willingness to embrace technology directly impact the effectiveness of online learning environments, influencing student engagement and the overall quality of education.

We found that most teacher educators generally have a positive attitude towards using technology in online arts education. They recognise its potential to enhance learning experiences and broaden access. There are, however, pockets of resistance. Some express a preference for traditional, face-to-face teaching methods and feel that online platforms cannot adequately replicate the hands-on, experiential learning that is crucial in the creative arts. This was especially so for those teaching the performing arts, such as dance and drama. Other barriers include a lack of confidence in using digital tools, and challenges caused by technical difficulties, which can increase resistance to the technology. Regardless of teacher educator attitudes towards online delivery of creative arts learning, significant challenges are encountered, including technical difficulties and lack of adequate training. Despite these hurdles, many are willing to adopt digital tools and innovative teaching methods, provided they receive sufficient support and resources.

Overall, our study found that teacher educators’ perceptions of the usefulness of online learning was the most significant predictor of their willingness to adopt online teaching in the creative arts. This finding aligns with wider literature in broader domains of higher education. However, a new contribution our study makes to the existing literature is the importance that institutional support plays in fostering perceptions of the usefulness of online learning for arts educators. Our findings suggest that adequate resources and supportive policies are essential for an environment conducive to online creative arts education. They also show that longer teaching experience and prior online teaching experience translate into perceptions that online learning is more achievable. Together, these things indicate that familiarity with online tools can reduce barriers to teaching creative arts online. A concern, however, is that higher educators both in the arts and wider domains report insufficient workload allocation for gaining the necessary skills. With the rapid growth in popularity of online teacher education programs, higher education institutions should prioritise improving higher educators’ perceptions of the usefulness of online platforms. Positive framing and targeted support can alter perceptions and promote effective pedagogical processes.  Additionally, these initiatives should always be facilitated with adequate time provisions that recognise the time investment required of educators.

Blog Contributors:

• Dr Katie Burke
• Professor Victoria Pavlou at Frederick University

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References:

This post primarily draws on work from Pavlou, V., & Burke, K. (2025). Understanding technology acceptance towards online creative arts learning in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, (162) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105085.