Alone in a Group Ten Characteristics of the Live Online Critique

Abstract

The design critique or crit, as it is commonly known, is a prominent educational practice that involves a design tutor guiding and prompting a student to develop design expertise. Although it has become a contested practice often criticized for its teacher-dominated approaches and asymmetrical power relations, it remains at the heart of architectural education. This paper is focused on an undergraduate blended architecture studio in South Africa, that allows students to study whilst working, through online learning engagements, combined with occasional on-campus blocks and office mentorship. This experiment was conducted well ahead of the recent pandemic which led to a sudden online pivot of educational spaces and practices. It explores the characteristics of the live online crit, mediated through a webinar platform. The research instruments include online surveys completed by students, graduates, and design tutors, as well as a focus group interview conducted with the graduates only. Through a thematic analysis of the data, we discovered ten characteristics of the live online crit namely that it is internet-reliant, participant-invisible, ubiquitous, media-intensive, multi-communicational, formal, accessible, work-focused, resource-saving, and inclusive. These results are timeous, given the current reliance on live online learning practices, in response to the regular need for social distancing.

Editorial

“…Whilst pervasive access to digital technologies (Cronjé 2016) have dramatically transformed our life and work, technology uptake in HE has been limited and slow (Ng'ambi, Brown, Bozalek, Gachago & Wood 2016), until the recent sudden shift to online and remote learning brought about by the Covid-19 Pandemic. This is no less true for architecture education (IUA 2017), where an over-reliance on synchronous online engagements led to 'Zoom fatigue' -a practice that deserves further investigation (Banou & Tahsiri, 2021;Morkel et al, 2021).…”

Untitled

“…Whilst pervasive access to digital technologies (Cronjé 2016) have dramatically transformed our life and work, technology uptake in HE has been limited and slow (Ng'ambi, Brown, Bozalek, Gachago & Wood 2016), until the recent sudden shift to online and remote learning brought about by the Covid-19 Pandemic. This is no less true for architecture education (IUA 2017), where an over-reliance on synchronous online engagements led to 'Zoom fatigue' -a practice that deserves further investigation (Banou & Tahsiri, 2021;Morkel et al, 2021).…”