In many studio classes, peer critique is an essential part of the learning process. How can you facilitate this process in the online environment?
The Challenge
Before an assignment deadline, students are scrambling to complete their own work. While a few students might post their assignments early, most are working down to the wire. So there's no time for them to look at their classmates' work before the deadline.
The Strategy
An approach pioneered by the Photography Department is now built into the Discussion interface, making it simple for you to ensure that students have time to review and comment on one another's work. Here's how it works:
Any topic designated as an assignment (i.e., a gradable topic) has not only an opening date and a due date but also a separate closing date. Students must post their assignments by the due date, or else they are marked "late."
As the instructor, you can extend an assignment's closing date beyond its due date.
In the days between the assignment deadline (due date) and the closing date, students have time to review each other's work — and they can post comments on that work.
Once the closing date is reached, the peer critique discussion is over.
New!!
Now the development team has streamlined this process by adding an interface that lets you extend the close dates for all your assignments at once. Instead of editing each topic individually, you can now quickly specify how many days to allow for peer critique for every assignment. Just navigate to the page for Current Topics or Pending Topics or Global Topics to find this tool.
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What if...?This is the first in a new series of posts addressing Common Teaching Problems (and their solutions). I hope you find them helpful! If you have suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed in this series, please post a comment, below, or drop me a line (jmichael@academyart.edu). |
1 Comment
Jennifer Michael AUTHOR
Have you tried this strategy in your online class? Post a comment and let us know how it's working for you!
And if you have questions or need help with this process, post a comment or drop me a line (jmichael@academyart.edu).