Case Study: Rend Lake College builds critical thinking skills with Kritik

Mark Jornd Building Critical Thinking Skills in Business Courses

Rend Lake College's Professor Mark Jornd sought a better method to drive student engagement and build critical thinking skills in his business courses. He had experimented with other peer feedback systems but found students gave superficial, unhelpful comments like "good job," which did not foster deeper learning.

By implementing Kritik's peer assessment platform, Professor Jornd created a structured process where students evaluate each other’s work against a detailed rubric. Kritik’s system enforced constructive feedback by requiring written comments of a minimum length and penalizing low-effort responses. This solution enabled students to apply, analyze, and evaluate course concepts, moving them up the Bloom’s Taxonomy ladder. As a result, 99% of students benefited with improved understanding, better writing, and enhanced research skills, becoming more engaged throughout the semester.

Rend Lake College

Mark Jornd

Business Associate Professor