Having been neck-deep in my #ETMOOC experience these last few weeks, I have decided to share some progress that I have been making on my graduate thesis project. Over a year in the works, I have been aligning my thesis with courses taken during my time at the University of Boston, studying Instructional Design (M.Ed). Working with students on developing their creativity is an awesome thing. Having been a student of graphic design (BFA-2008), I found the ubiquitous ’critique’ process to be somewhat limited. Typically the process can tend to exclude introverts, and focus on the people who make ‘the best work’. They can also be long, and even boring at some points.
This project has *NOT* been created to eliminate in-class / group critique, as I believe this can have its high points and be valuable. This project has been created to supplement the students learning experience while in their creative arts program. The features of GridType allow for ratings, comments and organization of student work into a simple, easy to use interface that brings the critique/assessment process to the fore-front, and allows a larger on-line community to browse and give feedback on community members works.
Why this project exists:
We believe you should get the most out of critiques, and the best way to do this is by sharing your work with a wide range of people online. With project GridType, you can upload, archive and share your work with your fellow classmates and professors, while simultaneously gaining feedback through a designed rating system and comments.
Here are some screencaps / prototypes for you to enjoy:
More on the features of GridType
System administrators can set the system-wide criterion that all work is rated against
When you log-in, you can see your latest-rated images that you uploaded, as well as your latest works that have been commented on. Easy Access View.
Sort your uploaded works into albums by course, or any title you wish.
Users can comment and rate on your work, while you can add iterations to your own uploads to show your overall progress over time.
The analytics engine shows what your median rating is from all votes by all users. Overlayed on top is your rating for that piece.
Find users by their work. Browse uploaded works in the community by their tags