Rethinking Digital Arts Pedagogy in Higher Education: Assessing the Process of Creation

It is recognised that assessing creative outputs is often viewed as a subjective practice, and although skills-based assessment is more objective, it can easily devalue creative education to simply training. In order to be successful in the creative industries, particularly digital arts, graduates need to demonstrate that they are able to express creatively and can provide innovative solutions to problems. Whilst knowledge in industry-standard applications is required, this alone is not sufficient to succeed in a creative career. Creative courses often include elements of reflection and critical evaluation, however, the process leading to the end result is often overlooked. This paper is concerned with the way in which focus on the process of creation and experimentation, rather than the final artefact, can be integrated into the curriculum. In particular, it discusses the pedagogical methodology that can be adopted within digital arts undergraduate project assessments to place emphasis on the process of product development, whilst providing a way to enhance the learning experience and aid professional skills development.