Have you ever participated in or taught an online class? Discussion forums are a common compo- nent of online learning, yet they often feel contrived even when they are well designed and student led.
Whether you are teaching an online course or just want to
use an online component with a face-to-face class, you can
foster student dialogue and community without forcing a
discussion and teach students to give and receive timely
and constructive feedback. Online critiques, which provide
a space for participants to share their work in progress and
receive input from their peers, can make this possible.
When and Where to Use Critiques
Critiques are commonplace in design or art classes, but
they can also be used with any kind of student writing,
such as essays or poetry, as well as with presentations, posters, videos, or other multimedia projects. Project-based
learning assignments are particularly well suited to online
critiques.
Critiques can even be adapted to elementary grade levels.
Instead of typing their feedback, elementary students can
record their voices using a free voice-recording software,
such as Vocaroo.com. By creating a series of recordings,
students can share their verbal reflections with minimal
assistance from an adult.
During critiques, participants discuss how things are going with their work, listen to suggestions from others, and
ask for input about problems they need help solving or issues that have arisen. Online critiques are not appropriate
to use with assignments that rely primarily on worksheets,
have predetermined answers, or allow little or no student
input on the structure.
Critiques do require preparation. Participants should
have something to share that others can respond to, be it
a project, paper, sketches, plans, or idea. Work does not
have to be finished. In fact, work should be unfinished
unless a “final” critique is taking place.
Asynchronous Critiques
In online settings, schedules vary widely, so gathering
everyone for a synchronous weekly critique can be a
serious headache. Access to sufficient internet bandwidth
can also make conducting critiques technically challenging. With the proper planning, asynchronous online critiques offer group members the benefits of face-to-face
critiques without the hassle of synchronous scheduling
or bandwidth issues.
The key to implementing online critiques in any context
depends on what is driving their use. If the work is learner
centered and project based, as the ISTE Standards recommend, then online critiques are suitable. Online critiques
address several of the ISTE Standards for Students, depending on the context of the student work and the specific teacher prompts provided within the critiques. These
include Standard 2: Communication and Collaboration;
Standard 3: Research and Information Fluency; and Standard 4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision
Making.
How Online Critiques Work
The keys to a successful asynchronous online critique are
an organized leader and a little help from technology. We
recommend using a familiar free tool, Google Spreadsheets, as a space for conducting group critiques (see
“Critique #1” on page 12).
To build a critique, compose a new spreadsheet. In
the first column, create headers to allow students to post
links to their work, such as a Google Doc, website, online
project, or downloadable file. A key component of online
critiques is self-reflection. Therefore, teachers should pose
questions that require students to assess their work-in-progress. For example:
• What have you been working on?
• What issues are you having with the assignment?
• What problem are you trying to solve?
The next columns are for peer feedback. To guide students in giving effective feedback, teachers should create
headers containing specific criteria or questions that students must address in their critiques.
Once you have created the main template, you can add a
critique page for each student using the tab function at the
With the proper planning, asynchronous online critiques
offer group members the benefits of face-to-face critiques
without the hassle of synchronous scheduling
or bandwidth issues.
