Development of a Digital Transformation Management Model for Art Education in Undergraduate Higher Education Institutions in Hubei Province

Digital transformation has reshaped art education worldwide while posing systemic challenges to how it is managed. This study investigated the current status, key influencing factors, and underlying mechanisms of digital transformation management in undergraduate art education in Hubei Province, China, and developed a discipline-adaptive framework. Using a four-stage mixed-methods design, the research drew on the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts and the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. Quantitative data came from stratified-random questionnaire samples of 152 teachers/administrators and 335 students drawn from populations of 250 and 2,585, respectively; 10 interdisciplinary experts contributed to model construction and 10 key implementers participated in model evaluation. Findings indicate that (1) the transformation sits on a “high recognition, difficult breakthrough” plateau, with teachers rating all five effectiveness dimensions at a medium level and students rating four at a high level; (2) regression explained 70.5% of the variance for teachers and 87.8% for students (subject to possible common-method inflation), with Digital Application Capabilities and Innovation Tolerance forming the dual core, while Resource-Allocation Flexibility independently predicted students’ perceptions but not teachers’; (3) the DaIt-UDMAM model integrates these drivers within a four-layer architecture (Strategy-Culture, Organization-Governance, Capability-Resource, Value-Outcome) and an evaluation-feedback-optimization closed loop; and (4) semi-structured interviews with 10 key stakeholders provided an insider appraisal of the model’s perceived appropriateness, applicability, and feasibility rather than independent validation. The study offers an analytical framework and an operational guide for moving art-education digital transformation from broad rollout toward high-quality deepening.