Kickstarting creative collaboration: placing authentic feedback at the heart of online digital media education

Despite unprecedented demand for digital media skills many digital media graduates struggle to transition into employment because of the gap between university pedagogy and real-world professional practice. Traditionally, studio-based learning has been used to give students authentic experiences of the non-linear, interactive cycle of feedback, reflection and integration that occurs in creative professional practice; however, this approach is hard to implement in asynchronous, online environments and subsequently students miss out on the experience of creative collaboration that can help them to succeed in their future workplace. This study documents a pedagogical alternative where an online digital media capstone project course was redesigned around a formative feedback process using Padlet to facilitate 'work-in-progress' discussions to mirror the cycle of creative collaboration in the workplace. Students' experiences of the formative feedback suggested that it developed both their content knowledge and their collaborative capabilities, with the timely and personal nature of the feedback, coupled with the industry-derived knowledge of the feedback providers, and the use of authentic, workplace relevant-technology, supporting students' confidence to collaborate creatively. The findings can assist researchers, educators and academic developers looking to use authentic, formative feedback as a way of supporting students' creativity, experimentation and collaborative capabilities.