Aiming at the future development of digital media art and design education, the cultivation of innovation ability and the response of social demand, this paper constructs the integrated teaching mode of “production-learning-research”. The questionnaire survey method is used to obtain the status quo and existing problems in students’ practical ability cultivation mode. Through empirical research, we explore the influence of the industry-learning-research teaching mode on students’ creativity tendencies and innovative thinking abilities. The results show that under the traditional teaching mode, about 50% of the students lack creative consciousness, innovative spirit and innovative thinking ability. Before and after the experiment of the industry-academia research teaching mode, it is very effective in enhancing the imagination (P=0.045) and curiosity (P=0.033) dimensions of students’ creativity tendency. Compared to the control group, the creative thinking ability of the experimental class was significantly improved (P<0.05). The teaching model presented in this paper is more capable of stimulating students’ motivation and interest in learning.