As a project in an online art history course, this instructor required the students to locate and research a work of art. Students then prepared a presentation about the work and the artist.
On-Location Presentation Activity applied to an Online Art Lecture Course
As online and distance learning become more and more popular, we risk losing connections to our actual environment while focused on our virtual one. Because of this, I challenged myself to find a means to get my online students away from the computer and into their local surroundings to seek out and discover art. Many of my students were surprised to find so many artistic avenues and outlets ripe for exploration. Anyone can sit at the computer and write a paper on the Mona Lisa, but it is so rewarding to the students to get out and discover the art in cities and geographical areas that they had lived for years and never knew existed or had seen, but knew little about.
The basic parameters of the project are that students find a piece art that they can visit in person, on a day trip from where they live. Students are required to explore and research this primary source and create a short video oral report describing the experience. In the video, students are required to give the basic history of the piece of art, describe it visually using appropriate aesthetic vocabulary, place the piece in the correct historical timeline, and give their own personal statement of the work’s value. The videos are then uploaded, with the student’s permission, to a course YouTube channel allowing their work to be shared not only with future students of the class but with everyone. This is, of course, optional.
Requiring the student to reach out to their local communities and research/present a work of art in this context provides an authentic assessment that evaluates all of the course outcomes in an applied setting, while providing them the opportunity to contribute to a growing body of local art historical recordings.
Overall, student response to the project has been very positive. Some of their comments are:
- I never thought I could walk to a museum and have the confidence to talk to describe a piece of art to my friends. This project helped change that!
- It helped my confidence by learning something about a subject I knew nothing about. It helped create an interest I now have in art.
- I have learned to look past the surface reaction of art. I now am able to look deeper at it and see what the artist was really trying to say.
Nichelle Wilson-Parish MFA, MA