TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The paper aims to study the effects of the combination of synchronous Web-based teaching with visually creative teaching on art students’ creativity. The twenty-first century is the society of information technology and knowledge-based economy. To cope with the information society, teaching methods would be changed. Traditional chalk and talk can no longer adapt to the changing society. In addition to passing down the tradition, new ideas should also be introduced. In the informational age, the internet becomes an essential living element and synchronous Web-based teaching breaks through the obstacle of space, provides instant and multiple communication channels and creates alternative creativity learning environment.Design/methodology/approach With experimental design, totally, 208 students in Fujian University of Technology, as the research objects, were led to a 15-week (3 hours per week for total 45 hours) experimental teaching. The study uses analysis of variance for discussing the effect of synchronous Web-based teaching on art students’ creativity and further understanding the effect of the combination of synchronous Web-based teaching with visually creative teaching on art students’ creativity.Findings The research results show significant effects of synchronous Web-based teaching on creativity, visually creative teaching on creativity and the combination of synchronous Web-based teaching with visually creative teaching on the promotion of creativity.Research limitations/implications First, the sample size taken in this study was not large enough to fully reflect the results of the study. The survey sample didn’t cover all the major cities in China, which had a small coverage and couldn’t reflect the research situation of the whole country. Second, the evaluation criteria for artistic students’ creativity were too broad. More specific evaluation rules should be set and the creativity standards should be graded to better guide the implementation of art courses and the cultivation of students’ creativity.Practical implications The synchronous Web-based learning environment provides favorable individual thinking space to effectively reduce disturbance among classmates. Synchronous Web-based teaching shares sound, pictures and even films with each other to enrich the learning media. What is more, teachers would be more convenient and fast to deal with materials or handouts or rapidly updating materials and avoiding the loss of handouts.Originality/value This paper studied the effects of the combination of synchronous Web-based teaching with visually creative teaching on art students’ creativity, which was a meaningful and innovative topic. And this study can provide more enlightenment and reference for future education. VL - 37 IS - 5 SN - 0264-0473 DO - 10.1108/EL-02-2019-0023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-02-2019-0023 AU - Li Ruan PY - 2019 Y1 - 2019/01/01 TI - Effect of synchronous web-based teaching combined with visually creative teaching under the background of information science T2 - The Electronic Library PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 830 EP - 841 Y2 - 2024/04/20 ER -