Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime

6.12. Group critique

Often people learn more from the comments of their peers than from the lectures of instructors. Group critiques have learners help other learners to refine their work. Group-critique activities take advantage of discussion groups to help learners learn from other learners. In the simplest form of group critique, a learner prepares an individual answer to a question, posts it for other to critique, and then revises it before submitting the final version.

6.12.1. When to use group critiques

Group critiques teach learners to give and accept criticism. Use group critiques to:

• Teach learners to refine their work by incorporating the ideas of others.

• Condition learners to accept and filter the criticism of their peers.

• Teach learners to offer helpful criticism.

• Offload from the instructor much of the work of evaluating and critiquing learners.

6.12.2. How group critiques work

Learners research and write answers to questions posed by the instructor. They then post their answers to a discussion group where other learners critique the answers. Learners can revise their answers any time before the deadline, after which the instructor grades their answers.

6.12.3. Example of a group critique

This example shows the assignment for a group critique activity. Learners are asked to select their best picture, submit it to the discussion group, view the photographs of other ...