Collaborating with Care: Wikis in the Online Classroom

For this week’s topic, I have selected wikis. Wikis are web pages that can be modified by multiple users. They facilitate student online project collaboration asynchronously; it is not necessary for students to meet virtually on Skype or in a chat room in order to work together on an assignment. They typically enable users to work with a range of content, from text and images to embedded videos and podcasts. Most wikis also record edits made and by what user, enabling instructors to track student participation in projects; this is a key way in which they differ from blogs, which are geared more toward individual use and also impose a linear structure wikis do not have. Wiki pages are instead connected by links rather than being chronologically sequential.

Although this video is a decade old now, it still offers an excellent portrait of how a wiki works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

The most common example of a wiki is, of course, Wikipedia. It works on the basis of pooling knowledge from a vast number of individuals, enabling it to be self-correcting to the point of being generally credible. This is a different structure from conventional encyclopedias, written by small teams of experts (Lo, 2016). In the online classroom, wikis enable students to shift from knowledge consumers to knowledge producers, helping them to hone their abilities in both critical thinking and collaboration. According to Eggleston (2010-11, p. 2), student assignments utilizing wikis “might entail one or more of Bloom’s ‘higher order skills’, depending on the objectives of the class and the project.” Tasks suitable for a wiki might include a small research project, a collaborative annotated bibliography, a class manual or glossary, a course overview of major concepts, or a compilation of relevant course links (Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, 2018). As discussed in this week’s course video lectures, wikis foster intrinsic motivation in students through both the aesthetics of production and the social mutuality of the collaborative process. And while the ultimate goal is a finished product, students also learn along the way about how knowledge is constructed.

For the myriad benefits wikis offer the learner, including them in a online university course is not without its challenges. In a meta-analysis of research on wikis in the classroom, Stoddart, Chan, and Liu identified eight best practices for instructors to follow. The theme of these practices is to be thorough and methodical in introducing the wiki itself, the task to be accomplished, and the collaborative procedure to be employed. Students should also be trained in offering peer critiques. The more up-front time and content invested in guiding students through the process, the more successful it will likely be. In documenting their careful approach in scaffolding a wiki project, Yucel and Usluel (2016) observed that the task spanned all fourteen weeks of a college course. Substantial preparation is generally vital, because many students encounter wiki assignments with little previous experience of them, and generally a marked preference for face-to-face interaction instead (Witney & Smallbone, 2011). Most college students are more familiar with traditional practices, and lack the skills and knowledge to dive into a wiki assignment without considerable guidance (Karasavvidis, 2010). As Zheng, Niiya, and Warschauer (2012, p. 357) put it, “while wikis can be a tool for post-secondary collaborative learning, appropriate pedagogical supports are required for successful implementation.” I might add that this challenge points toward the same disconnect between the technological affordances of Web 2.0 tools and the prior learning experiences that I covered in my discussion of multimodal texts last week.

For those keen to add wikis to their courses, a great list of wiki platforms is provided by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_hosting_services

Sources Cited:

Eggleston, T. J. (2010-11). Selecting the right technology tool: Wikis, discussion boards, journals, and blogs. Essays on Teaching Excellence 22(5), 5 pp. Retrieved from https://podnetwork.org/content/uploads/V22_N5_Eggleston.pdf

Karasavvidis, I. (2010). Wiki uses in higher education: Exploring barriers to successful implementation. Interactive Learning Environments, 18(3), 219-231.

Lo, C. (2016, Jan. 15). Teach smart with technology: Using wikis for collaborative learning. Retrieved from https://academictech.uchicago.edu/news/teach-smart-technology-using-wikis-collaborative-learning

Stoddart, A., Chan, J. Y. Y., & Liu, G. Z. (2016). Enhancing successful outcomes of wiki-based collaborative writing: a state-of-the-art review of facilitation frameworks. Interactive Learning Environments, 24(1), 142-157.

Vanderbilt Center for Teaching (2018). Wikis. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/wikis/

Witney, D., & Smallbone, T. (2011). Wiki work: Can using wikis enhance student collaboration for group assignment tasks?. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 48(1), 101-110.

Yücel, Ü. A., & Usluel, Y. K. (2016). Knowledge building and the quantity, content and quality of the interaction and participation of students in an online collaborative learning environment. Computers & Education, 97, 31-48.

Zheng, B., Niiya, M., & Warschauer, M. (2015). Wikis and collaborative learning in higher education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 24(3), 357-374.