Lessons learned: art teachers’ experiences of online teaching during the pandemic became teaching patterns
When art lessons moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers had to find ways to teach this practical subject through a screen. Antonina Korepanova, who defended her doctoral thesis at Tallinn University, examined which solutions worked well based on teachers’ experiences and summarised them as teaching patterns. With a few adjustments where necessary, other teachers can use them too.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, online art lessons were regarded as a poor substitute for studio-based teaching. Despite this, art teachers learnt a lot about how to teach art effectively through a computer screen while schools were closed. However, the solutions that helped teachers cope with the difficulties associated with distance learning were generally not shared between them. Antonina Korepanova’s research helps ensure that more art teachers can benefit from good practices in conducting art lessons online.
What is a teaching pattern?
As part of her research, Korepanova interviewed 24 university art teachers from the United States, Europe and China. All of them had conducted both face-to-face and online lessons. In addition, she organised a group discussion with seven teachers on the topic of generative artificial intelligence and compared the findings with 48 published studies.
Korepanova’s study highlighted 15 problems that art teachers encounter online and divided them into six categories. Some of the problems are specific to the visual arts and require unique solutions. Teachers used three main strategies to deal with these problems, each of which involves its own set of teaching patterns. Each teaching model briefly describes a teaching problem and the solutions that proved effective, based on the teachers’ experiences. “If we draw a parallel with cooking, teaching patterns are a bit like a recipe,” explains Korepanova. The doctoral thesis examines both patterns characteristic of online teaching and art, and those involving the use of artificial intelligence image-processing tools.
Design thinking alone is not enough
Design thinking – an approach to problem-solving commonly used in the creative fields – is often regarded as the foundation of art education. However, the study shows that this covers only part of the teaching profession.
“Art teachers do not just help pupils come up with ideas and create objects,” says Antonina Korepanova. "They also contribute to supporting pupils’ personal and professional development.” For this reason, the doctoral thesis links teaching patterns to learning objectives that teachers aim to achieve. This helps them choose the right approach for a particular lesson.
A prototype web tool for sharing experiences
The doctoral thesis shows that online art education presents specific, yet surmountable, challenges. To enable teachers to share their experiences, Korepanova created a prototype of an open web tool that presents teaching patterns through data visualisation. Besides online lessons, many of the solutions offered are also suitable for use in the classroom.
Thesis defence
Antonina Korepanova defended her doctoral thesis at the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School at Tallinn University on 13 October 2026.
Her doctoral thesis is entitled Teaching Patterns in a Digitally Mediated Art School.
The supervisors for the doctoral thesis are Kai Pata, Professor of Adult Education and Non-Formal Learning at Tallinn University, and Maximilian Günther Schich, Professor of Cultural Data Analysis at Tallinn University.
The opponents are Juuso Tervo, Associate Professor at Aalto University, and Maka Eradze, associate professor at the University of L’Aquila.
Read the doctoral thesis in the ETERA digital environment of the Tallinn University Academic Library.
