Online Education

For over 16 years, art and design students from over 130 countries have earned their accredited, online art and design degrees from Academy of Art University. We are groundbreakers in online education—creating visual, engaging, effective and life-filled online courses that are an educational benchmark. We also create our own online tools specific to the needs of art and design students.

Learn Online

Our revolutionary online courses provide the same rigorous education that we offer on campus with greater flexibility. Our online programs are purpose-built to deliver art and design courses. Study on your own time, at your own pace. Combine online and on-site classes.

What Sets Us Apart

Custom Content

Created in-house by industry experts and exclusive to the Academy, the classes are a mix of lecture content, video, written content, recorded audio, interactive slideshows, and hands-on work. We built this from the ground-up and geared specifically towards art and design. We’re constantly innovating our curriculum created by instructional designers and industry professionals, as well as building new courses, reworking old ones, and adding features to our LMS based on student feedback.

Dedicated Support

Over 100 Academy of Art employees create and support online programs, dedicating more resources into production than any other. They work 24 hours a day to offer 900+ online courses spanning 35 online majors, using 1,500 instructional videos per semester to teach students from 50+ countries.

Community Support

AAUHOO, a student-run Facebook group, has more than 6,000 members and welcomes you to join this thriving online community. Other channels and venues for student socialization and interaction include online social media & blogs; online library, music library, learning tutorials; career advice, support & mentor chats, one-on-one sessions with your director, on-demand demonstration videos, town hall meetings, VIP guest speaker series and archives, director Q&A, VIP guest speakers, live-streamed events & presentations, workshops, support, digital portfolio showcase, and much more.

How it Works

The Academy uses a number of formats to teach online courses—including beautifully produced videos, narrated slideshows, digital documents, interviews with experts, livestreams, and more. Simply upload complete assignments to the Academy’s custom-designed Learning Management System (LMS) where your instructor can provide visual markups, video, written, and recorded feedback

Your Info Hub

Visual, interactive, and dynamic. You will find all your classes, profiles, news, assignments, grades, ESL support, and more in the LMS. All tailored to make your online education rich and engaging.

Your Collaborative Space

Freely exchange thoughts, post work, and provide or receive constructive feedback—just like you would in a campus environment. You and your peers support and push each other, creating long-lasting connections that live beyond the course. You may not be on campus, but you’re not alone.

Your Studio & Gallery

Submit your artwork for evaluation, and if you’d like, include audio, video, and/or written descriptions of the work, and instructors can provide detailed feedback in the same way.

Degrees Available Online

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Animation & Visual Effects

AA BFA Certificate MA MFA

Fashion Product Development

AA BFA MFA

Photography

AA BFA Certificate MA MFA

Game Programming

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Minimum System Requirements

Your computer system must meet these minimum requirements:

Platform	Requirements
Mac	Operating System: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher Processor: 64-bit Intel CPU Memory: 4GB of RAM minimum, 8GB or more recommended
PC	Operating System: Windows 8 or later Processor: 1GHz or faster 64-bit processor Memory: 4GB of RAM minimum, 8GB or more recommended

Individual courses may have specific hardware requirements. To be adequately prepared for your program, please contact your department for specific program hardware/software details.

Chromebooks are not supported. Most course content is accessible via mobile device, but you may not be able to complete all of your assignments or view all types of media on a mobile device.

We encourage all students to access their classes on their Mac or PC to get the most out of their online class experience. For the best mobile experience, we recommend installing the Academy of Art Classes app, available for both iOS (Apple) and Android.

Enrollment is Now Open

Next semester is just around the corner.

Apply Now