An exploration of the student-tutor interaction in the live online architectural design critique

Abstract

This research explores the student-tutor interaction in the live online critique, also known as the design crit, which is a prominent formative design studio activity in architectural education. The purpose of this exploration was to develop an understanding of the student-tutor interaction in this learning setting to guide the development of design expertise of students in online and blended studio contexts. The research method employed for this study is a qualitative exploratory or hypothesis-generating method. The study sought to identify the characteristics of the live online crit setting, the types of student-tutor relationships in the live online crit, and to explore how students and tutors interact in the live online crit. It aimed to uncover the moves that students and tutors make, the modes through which they make them and the methods that they use. The concepts of the moves, modes and methods were drawn from Conversation Theory, Experiential Learning Theory, and Cognitive Apprenticeship, respectively, to explore the learning mediated through conversation, facilitated through experience, and supported through cognitive apprenticeship by the student-tutor interaction in the live online crit. These theories on which the conceptual framework was built, were selected for their close association with the respective practices of the architectural design crit, which feature prominently in the literature. The data includes online surveys completed by graduates, students and tutors, a focus group interview with graduates, and three online crit protocols. I formulated ten characteristics of the live online crit that include internet reliance, participant invisibility, ubiquity, media-intensity, multi-communicability, resource-efficiency, formality, accessibility, work-orientation, and inclusivity. The four types of student-tutor relationships that emerged from the data, are the novice-expert, architect-client, mentee-mentor, and the parent-child relationship. Four dimensions describe the student-tutor interaction in the live online crit namely formative, iterative, formal, and immersive. The student-tutor interaction in this learning setting resembles an assessment, comprises iterative interactions; it is formal and focused, and it extends beyond the live online event. The study contributes to the limited body of knowledge on the student-tutor interaction in the architectural design crit generally, and the live online crit specifically, in the context of a blended undergraduate architectural technology programme in South Africa.