This case study follows on previous presentations to several international conferences (i.e. ConnectED 07, ISOTL 07, EPDE 08 and 09, International Sociology Association 08, IEEE CSCWD 09) and describes the progress and some of the Australian findings relating to an international industrial design studio project extending over four years between universities in Australia and the Americas. Primarily the project was run from the third year Industrial Design Studio 4 unit at UWS, the last creative design studio before students enter either Honours, Coursework or leave to become Design and Technology teachers. Later it benchmarked students with counterparts elsewhere in Canada and Chile.

This Case Study relates to the creation and implementation of career-focussed courses in Creative Media for film, television, animation, broadcast and web contexts. The paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of co-teaching, and how different professional and academic backgrounds and disciplines can productively inform curriculum design and delivery in the academic/professional context. The authors, as co-creators and co-lecturers, have developed a number of courses which represent current working models for intermediate to advanced level academic/professional study, and attract students from across the creative disciplines; including theatre, media, visual arts and music. These courses are structured to develop in students a wide range of aesthetic and technical skills, as well as their ability to apply those skills professionally within and across the creative media industries. Issues regarding the balance between academic rigour, practical hands-on skill development, assessment, logistics, resources, teamwork and other issues, are examined in the paper.rn

Art Studio Practice is a year 12 subject accredited in December 2008. The course sits alongside art production and art appreciation. Students must have art production or equivalent to gain access. Art Studio Practice filled a gap in Tertiary entrance scoring for those students serious about a future in the visual arts. Significantly it provides students with a new pre-tertiary visual art subject and the opportunity to continue their visual arts studies into year 12 through the consolidation of their studio practice. It has been designed to enable students to develop meaningful conceptual knowledge through research and studio practice. It challenges students to engage in reflective and critical analysis to refine, evaluate and articulate their ideas. The course provides for practical and authentic art investigations that ensure a student learns from their local art community as well as contemporary, historical, national and international art resources. Students learn to develop a proposal encompassing the production of a body of work that is more substantial in quantity and resolution than their year 11 art production. The year culminates in an exhibition and interview. rn

Collabor8 (C8) 2008 built on Collabor8 Projects (2003 to 2005) developed by Ian McArthur while working as Program Director of Graphic Design at LDHU (Donghua University) and Head Teacher of Art and Design NCI (TAFENSW). Collabor8 2008 formed a pilot study examining the online interactions of ninety-four graphic design and visual communications students from universities and colleges in Australia and China to examine the relationship between cultural background, cognition and media types in collaborative online design education. rnrnThe data gathered revealed a complex interplay of internal and external dynamics suggesting that a disjuncture in many students understanding of was expected of them regardless of media used to deliver the lectures and briefs in the project. Language, divergent student expectations, different levels and styles of knowledge production, and outside forces such as the Sichuan earthquake, are important areas of focus in this study exposing what might be described as multiple realities within the project.rn

Keywords: interdisciplinary, creative arts, core courses, third year
This case study describes the role of a number of core courses in the third year of a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree at the University of Southern Queensland. In a major restructure of the Bachelor of Creative Arts degree, the disciplines of Music, Creative Media, Theatre and Visual Arts are linked into a single degree program and students have the opportunity to choose courses and majors across disciplines in consultation with program staff. The core third year courses described in this case study provide opportunities for students to work with peers across disciplines and to explore pathways into the profession. A strategy for encouraging hybridity through cross-disciplinary collaboration in the production of arts for public consumption is the focus of this innovative curriculum design.

Porosity Studio is a special interdisciplinary course for undergraduate and postgraduate students in Fine Art, Design, Media Studies, Architecture, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture, Planning and Engineering. This intensive studio centres on a critical investigation of contemporary urban space and the intersections of public and private space, and begins with the need for architecture to be porous in relation to pubic space, hence the name 'Porosity.' Often held in overseas locations, with the collaboration of local institutions, the course places student artists, architects, designers and engineers into a collaborative studio on a level plane to develop collaborative art and design interventions rethinking the nature of public space and architecture in the city.rnStudents are encouraged to bring their developing modes of practice, and spatial intelligence, into the studio and test them at another scale within the city.

Over the course of an intensive workshop week at the Tasmanian School of Art (TSAH), each team of 3to 5 school students from across 16 state and private schools, worked collaboratively to develop sculptures under the instruction of John Vella (Head of Sculpture), technicians Ian Munday and Stuart Houghton, and a team of TSAH student volunteers. The sculptures were exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) in response to the 2009 City of Hobart Art Prize theme (sculpture).GREENMACHINES is not a prize, or a competition, as everyone - schools, staff and students - will win through the experience. A full colour catalogue is currently being produced and will be distributed as a future learning aid.GREENMACHINES is the inaugural ART SUP PORT* initiative of the Department of Education, Tasmanian Catholic Education Office, Hobart City Council, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Tasmanian School of Art.SUP-PORT: Schools Universities and Professionals creating a new place for learning together. Programs are designed to bring practising artists/professionals, university lecturers and school students/staff together as a way of stimulating a new ways of learning.

CSTR (pronounced sister) is a compulsory part of study in the third year studios of E-Media, Furniture, Graphic Design, Painting, Printmaking, Photography and Sculpture. CSTR is not a stand alone unit but a component that interfaces with all third year minor/major studio units.Through providing a platform through which to develop context, methodology and conceptual approach, CSTR is designed to complement students studio practice. This case study will focus on the development and delivery of the semester 1 CSTR program and reference some key points related to the semester 2 program (currently in progress).In semester 1, CSTR lectures cover a broad spectrum of art/design practice and research. Each lecture is followed by either a panel discussion (Big CSTR) or a workshop session (Little CSTRs) that involves undertaking set tasks leading to two assessable outcomes. The semester 1 CSTR program was first delivered in semester 1 2009 and is divided into 3 key areas: Developing a working proposal2. Understanding and articulating the context of your practicern3. Presenting and evaluating your studio outcomesIt is worth noting that in semester 2 the CSTR Lecture Program focuses on professional practice. A series of guest speakers provide information on: avenues for the support, promotion and presentation of your work; potential career pathways; and relevant postgraduate study for emerging artists and designers. In semester 2 the Little CSTR�s will run Cross Media Group Critique Sessions where students expand their capacity to articulate ideas to a broader audience and gain valuable feedback on the resolution and presentation of their studio project/s.