Peer Review

Virtual Pilgrimage

Material Detail page

Bookmark

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This site takes you on an interactive trip to the Holy Land. Contains excellent
photographs.
Type of Material:: Simulation.
Recommended Uses:: For use in a western civilization survey course.
Technical Requirements:: None.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Goals are unclear. The material is probably designed as a student reference.
Target Student Population:: University students. Younger students would treat this site as an encyclopedia.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: None.

Rating:
Strengths:: The photographs are excellent but the user is not always provided with any
indication about where the photographs came from. Did the web site author take
them? The pictures provide a real flavor of what medieval pilgrims would see on
a religious pilgrimage.
Concerns:: It is difficult to tell how accurate the accounts are given for this site
because there are no footnotes or references identified. A bibliography for the
entire site is warranted given the breadth of information presented.

Rating:
Strengths:: This web site provides instructors with materials which are flexible and which
would be easily adapted to suit both survey and upper level courses on Medieval
Europe.
Concerns:: The lack of navigation capabilities on this site means that students' time
cannot effectively be used. Some interactive activities and maps with this site
would also be a positive addition.

Rating:
Strengths:: Professor Knox is working to add new/more information, but it is difficult to
tell when some pages were last updated.
Concerns:: Some pages list a number of different dates, which is distracting and sometimes
misleading. Because this site is such a large collection of web pages, better
navigation and a table of contents is needed so the user can tell where they
are, where they are going, and where they have been. While it indicates on the
homepage that this was designed as supplemental materials to a lecture, it would
be helpful if Professor Knox would provide other users with some indication of
how he sees students using the material and what his learning objectives are.

Other Issues and Comments:: The navigation was a bit exhausting. When the trip was over I felt exhausted by
the length of the trip but enjoyed the beauty of the sites seen. Perhaps, this
experience replicates what a pilgrim would have felt.
Creative Commons: