The effectiveness of digital desk crits in design education

Internet collaboration software has the potential to change paradigms in design education by allowing students and faculty who are geographically separated to maintain close personal contact. This research focuses upon studio-based architectural design education, and specifically the use of desk crits in which the student and instructor discuss an interim state of a solution to a building design problem. The strengths and weaknesses of Internet collaboration software in comparison to face-to-face meetings can be determined objectively through observations of the two ways of conducting a desk crit in controlled experiments. Our study suggests that the collaborative tools still get in the way of smooth communication, but in some ways they provide intensified channels that are superior to face-to-face meetings.