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Abstract
Higher education media arts educators are challenged to prepare future media arts professionals for an industry that is continuously changing. Because media arts programs are also challenged with student learning and retention, it is imperative that faculty assess and identify early incoming students to determine their abilities to succeed in both the media arts programs and the media arts professions. The purpose of this study is to examine the imagery ability of students in a college media arts program to determine its role in their academic achievement. Four hypotheses were posed that examined the value of using the OSIVQ as a measure for assessing these student’s potential for success.
Results from the study confirmed previous studies that indicated students with different majors score differently on the three dimensions of the OSIVQ: verbal, object, and spatial visualization. Media arts, as hypothesized, scored high on the object dimension of the instrument, which best reflects students’ visual imagery abilities.
Contrary to the research expectations, overall satisfaction of students with their academic programs appeared to decrease over time. This research contributes to the limited literature for higher education regarding media arts programs regarding assessing students’ compatibility in media arts art of instruction. The findings also have implications for teaching pedagogy and student retention in media arts and other academic programs.
