From Platform Adoption to Pedagogical Design: Interaction, Feedback, and Access in Online Advertising Design Education

Abstract

Research on online learning has not fully explained how studio disciplines can preserve iterative critique, peer visibility, and creative risk-taking online. This qualitative case study examined undergraduate Advertising Design teaching across two higher education settings in Gansu Province, China. Data comprised interviews with five lecturers, six focus groups with 30 students, five class observations, and course documents collected during one academic term in 2024. Theory-informed thematic analysis drew on constructivism, transactional distance theory, and Universal Design for Learning. Four findings were developed. Flexibility supported learning only when deadlines, checkpoints, and feedback loops were explicit. Interaction depended on task orchestration rather than platform presence. Multimodal feedback and process documentation were necessary to sustain iteration because product-only submission concealed design reasoning and encouraged cautious work. Access was both infrastructural and affective, involving connectivity, platform load, participation options, recognition, and belonging. The resulting framework connects a pedagogical foundation, task-aligned digital environment, staged activities, formative feedback loop, and cross-cutting learning support. The study does not establish causal effects or platform superiority; it shows how online studio quality depends on aligning tools with the relational and iterative practices through which design judgment develops.