Resistance towards wiki: implications for designing successful wiki-supported collaborative learning experiences (original) (raw)
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Effective Integration of Wiki for Collaborative Learning in Higher Education Context
Wiki is an asynchronous online collaborative tool thatcan be adapted for teaching and learning purposes. This study attempts to explore and develop a further understanding of the factors influencing students' participation and commitments in collaboration using wiki in a higher education context. The usage of wiki to support class instruction will also be evaluated. Findings from online wiki observations were found to be positive in terms of students' participation in their wiki pages. Six factors have been identified as playing important roles in motivating and engaging students in collaborative writing practices via wiki. An interesting finding emerging from this study was that different motivation and engagement levels between undergraduate and postgraduate students were attributed to their roles as part-time students. The findings of this study will provide instructors an understanding of the elements that could either encourage or hinder students' motivation and participation in wiki activities.
Abstract Purpose - This paper presents a case study investigating students’ patterns of collaborative content creation in a wiki-project that was designed to promote self-directed and collaborative learning in the context of a university course. In addition, it proposes a new organizational and analysis framework of students’ constructive and collaborative activities in wiki-authoring projects. Design/methodology/approach – The key notion, around which the present conceptual and research framework was built, is that a wiki integrates a content space and a social (discussion) space both considered in collaborative manner. The analysis of student contributions to their wiki was organised along two dimensions: a) interaction and refection posts were analysed using the framework of Community of Inquiry (CoI); b) content contributions to the wiki pages were classified into five categories: (1) creating a new page, (2) content expansion, (3) content reorganization, (4) content enrichment (with video, images or hyperlinks), and (5) editing and grammatical corrections. Findings - The analysis of the research data revealed important information that could help to depict an overall representation of individual interactions and contributions, students’ collaborative performance within wiki groups as well as the overall evolution of the wiki content. The findings showed that properly designed wiki projects can be effectively introduced in higher education with the aim to support students to improve their authoring and collaborative skills through critical thinking, peer interaction and reflection. Research limitations/implications - The findings of this study are limited by the specific sample and the context of implementation. Future research will be directed to various educational contexts and to include in the analysis students’ experiences and learning outcomes of wiki-authoring activities. Practical implications –The results provided supportive evidence that successful wiki-based projects in higher education depend on the way students’ individual and collaborative authoring contributions are interwoven. Effective wiki-based interventions should consider students’ learning as the outcome of both, individual and collaborative work, determined by self and peer reflection in wiki groups. Originality/value - The originality and the significance of the present study are justified by the conceptual framework proposed which can guide both aspects of students’ learning presence within self-directed wiki-authoring projects, i.e. research and educational practice (design and monitoring).
Wikis: what students do and do not do when writing collaboratively
Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 2010
We investigated the collaborative writing actions carried out by 60 Open University of Israel graduate students as they built a wiki glossary of key course concepts. These actions were analysed using a taxonomy of collaborative writing actions (i.e. adding, editing and deleting information) in order to find out what students do and what they do not do when writing collaboratively. Two main findings were reported: in accord with previous research, students most frequently add content to a wiki rather than delete existing text; and contrary to previous research, students modify existing texts to a greater extent than previously reported. These findings may help teachers design collaborative learning activities. Teachers should be aware of the difficulties faced by students when writing collaboratively and should design collaborative learning activities in ways that overcome or circumvent these difficulties.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2015
Use of wikis in education reflects a shift in the education paradigm from lecture and individual homework-based to a paradigm emphasizing student engagement and the construction of knowledge through collaboration and peer-help. Existing research work on the use of wiki in collaborative writing had given mixed results. The goals of this research are to investigate whether wiki supports learning of writing and argumentation skills, and whether the students are motivated to use it and see it as a useful learning tool. Our participants comprise ten senior undergraduate students of a Computer Science class, who engaged in collaborative writing using wiki for four weeks. Their contributions were graded by a designated TA. The grades assigned to both their final articles and individual contributions, and the wiki logs were analyzed to determine the quality and volume of their weekly contributions, while feedback was taken from them using questionnaire to sample their perception of the use of wiki in writing. Our results showed that the use of wiki is helpful in improving their writing skill. However, participants are not happy with the further use of wiki in their course work. Also, we found that they require extrinsic motivation, in form of feedback (grades) from the TA and acceptance of their contribution by their peers, to increase their participation in wiki writing.
The nature of collaboration and perceived learning in wiki-based collaborative writing
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2016
Wiki-based collaborative writing has been widely adopted in education to facilitate collaborative learning. However, research shows that students adopt different collaboration patterns during wiki-based collaborative writing, and that collaboration patterns may vary in how they enhance learning. It is thus critical to understand the relationship between the nature of collaboration and learning. This study examined 95 university English as foreign language (EFL) learners’ performances in wiki-based collaborative writing projects. Analyses of the student survey and interview responses and students’ archived performances on the wiki platform showed that they adopted three collaboration approaches, and that the approach featuring high equality and mutuality was associated with the greatest enjoyment of, perceived learning from, and positive attitudes towards collaborative writing. The study further found that equality and mutuality exert different impacts on different learning outcomes,...
Using wikis for collaborative learning: Assessing collaboration through contribution
Australasian Journal of …, 2010
Wikis are widely promoted as collaborative writing tools and are gaining in popularity in educational settings. However, while wikis include features that are designed to facilitate collaboration, it does not necessarily follow that their use will ensure or even encourage collaborative learning behaviour. The few empirical studies that have considered this issue report equivocal findings. We assessed students collaborative behaviour based on their contributions to a wiki-based shared writing task using a variety of text and time based metrics. We found little evidence of collaboration despite adopting a learning design that was intended to support it. While overall participation was high, a relatively small proportion of students did the bulk of the work and many students' contributions were superficial. Students made little use of the wiki's commenting feature -a critical tool for contextualising and coordinating their contributions for and with others, and the majority of contributions were made very late in the task, making the possibility of extensive collaboration unlikely. These findings are discussed in relation to factors that may lead to the more successful integration of innovative, technology based learning activities into broader undergraduate curricula.
2014
This exploratory study investigated the perceptions of 31 part-time adult learners who participated in an online collaborative writing experience. Situated in the context of a blended learning environment of an advanced English learning course, this study looked into learners’ perceptions with respect to the benefits of collaborative writing using Wiki in five aspects: motivation, group interaction, knowledge sharing, confidence in writing, and improvement in language skills. The relationships between each of these five aspects and learners’ participation in Wiki were also investigated. An online questionnaire was used to obtain feedback from respondents. The findings showed that, in general, learners positively perceived Wiki as beneficial for online collaborative writing in all areas measured. The results also indicated a positive relationship between learners’ contributions in Wiki and their perceptions regarding the benefits of online collaborative writing in terms of motivation...
Wikis supporting authentic, collaborative activities: lessons from distance education
2008
The Open University delivers distance learning to its students. Traditionally, its students work independently of each other. Looking to enhance their students learning, two postgraduate courses have introduced authentic, collaborative activities. This is easier to achieve now because of the availability of wikis: a lightweight, web-based collaborative authoring environment. This paper examines the effect of the wikis' functionality on the students' use of the tool, and the consequences for the students' engagement with the activities and learning opportunities. This is a relatively large scale study involving 56 wikis produced by over 250 students. The data was drawn from the two courses using a variety of methods. A qualitative inductive analysis was used to look for emergent themes. These were validated by cross referencing, to match recorded comments with wiki content. We found that the limited functionality of wikis influenced how students engaged with the collaborative activities. While all groups were able to collaboratively author the documents required for assessment, they were not always produced in the way intended by the course teams. This meant the expected benefits of collaborative learning were not always realised. This paper will be of interest to academics aspiring to employ wikis on their courses and to practitioners who wish to realise the potential of wikis in facilitating information sharing and fostering collaboration within teams.
2013
Due to the new possibilities they open up for collaborative writing in education, wikis have received much attention the last few years. As a result, teachers have used wikis to achieve various educational purposes, such as wikis for online courses, teacher evaluation, or class project. However, the novelty and popularity of a technology do not automatically imply its suitability in educational settings. To evaluate the pedagogical effectiveness of wiki-based collaborative writing, there is a need for a theoretical framework that focuses on three essential elements of wikis and their relationships: technology, content, and group work. The framework was used to assess students' perceptions of wiki-based collaborative writing. Even though the results achieved so far are not as satisfactory as expected, the framework provides a promising way of looking at collaborative writing activities in a wiki-based environment. Based, on the results, the article reports on pedagogical implications of using wikis as collaborative writing tools in teacher education.