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Using wikis for collaborative learning of technology
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Kear, Karen and Woodthorpe, John (2009). Using wikis for collaborative learning of technology. In:
7th International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications: EISTA
2009, 10-13 July 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA.
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Using wikis for collaborative learning of technology
Karen Kear & John Woodthorpe
Communication & Systems Department, Faculty of Mathematics, Computing & Technology
and
Centre for Open Learning in Mathematics, Science, Computing and Technology
The Open University, UK
together with Open University Associate Lecturers:
Sue Hawthorne, Sarah Horrigan, Mike Hutchison,
Peter Langford, Elizabeth Morrow, Sandy Robertson,
Diane Saxon, Janet Seaton & Julie Wright
ABSTRACT
2. RESEARCH APPROACH
This paper reports on a project to evaluate students‟ use of wikis
in a distance learning course on information and communication
technologies. The students, who were already familiar with
discussion forums, were offered the use of wikis for some of the
online tutorials which form part of the course. They were then
asked for feedback via an online questionnaire. Students‟
comments show that they valued the chance to use a wiki and
could see its benefits for collaboration. However, they also
raised concerns related to usability and to issues of editing each
other‟s work.
Nine course tutors took part in the project. They had 161
students between them at the start of the course and 111 at the
end (nine months later). Most of the participating tutors offered
the VLE wiki as an alternative to a FirstClass forum for the
online tutorial in the third block of the course. Several tutors
also offered the wiki for the online tutorial in Block 4 (the final
block of the course)
Keywords: Pedagogy,
collaboration
Online
learning,
Wiki,
Student
1. INTRODUCTION
The UK Open University course T175 Networked living:
exploring information and communication technologies makes
considerable use of online tools to support students‟ learning. In
particular, the course adopts a „blended‟ approach to tutorial
provision, with many of the tutorials consisting of pre-designed
online activities. Until recently, these online tutorials were
carried out mainly via discussion forums, using the FirstClass
system. However, the development of the Open University‟s
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) has provided
opportunities for students to gain experience of other tools for
collaborative learning.
This paper reports on a project to evaluate the use of the Open
University‟s VLE wiki facility instead of FirstClass discussion
forums for the T175 online tutorials. The tutorials were not
redesigned for the project, but modified instructions and
resources were provided to students by their course tutors.
Students‟ use of the wiki was evaluated using an online
questionnaire at the end of the course. This provided both
quantitative and qualitative data on students‟ perceptions of the
wiki, and allowed comparisons to be made between using the
wiki and using a forum.
For the Block 3 online tutorial, students worked in pairs,
allocated by the tutor. Each student wrote an entry in the wiki,
explaining how he/she had fulfilled one of the block‟s learning
outcomes. Students provided constructive feedback on their
partners‟ entries, by adding further contributions to the wiki.
Each student then used the feedback to improve their initial
entry, which they submitted as part of the assignment for the
block.
For the Block 4 online tutorial, the student group evaluated a
selection of three websites. Each student wrote an evaluation of
one site and posted this to the wiki. As students carried out this
task, the wiki built up into a set of evaluations of the websites.
Using the wiki as a resource, students then wrote a comparative
evaluation of two of the websites and submitted this as part of
their block assignment.
At the end of the course an online questionnaire, containing
both open and closed questions, was made available to all
students who took part in the project. 54 students completed the
questionnaire (a response rate of 0.49).
3. RESULTS
Quantitative data from the questionnaire
For each of the two online tutorials, the questionnaire asked
students whether they were offered the wiki, and whether they
had chosen to use it. The results, given in Table 1, show that a
smaller proportion of students chose to use the wiki in the Block
4 tutorial than in Block 3.
Table 1. Proportions of respondents who chose to use the
wiki
3
Block
tutorial
41
44
23
85%
56%
4
Students who had used the wiki were asked to express their
views on the experience by agreeing or disagreeing with a
number of statements. The statements and responses are
summarised in Table 2, with the figures given as a percentage of
the respondents who used the wiki for that tutorial.
Table 2. Respondents’ views on using the wiki for the online
tutorials
Enjoyed using the wiki
Found it confusing having others edit
what respondent had written
Felt irritated when others changed what
respondent had written
Did not feel happy about editing other
people's work
Found adding new material to the wiki
easy
Found it difficult to add new material to
the wiki
Never really mastered adding new
material to the wiki
Prefer to use FirstClass forums to
collaborate with others in my group
Wikis are a good idea, but OU system
difficult to use
Don't think could ever be comfortable
using a wiki
Block 3
Tutorial
73%
9%
Block 4
Tutorial
57%
0%
16%
17%
30%
9%
70%
48%
16%
22%
14%
9%
52%
52%
50%
43%
9%
9%
As Table 2 shows, for the Block 3 tutorial a large majority of
respondents enjoyed using the wiki. For the Block 4 tutorial this
decreased to just over half, possibly because the novelty value
had reduced.
In Block 3 a small proportion of respondents were confused or
irritated when others edited what they had written. In Block 4
the confusion disappeared, but the irritation remained. In Block
3 almost a third of the respondents were unhappy about editing
other people‟s work, but by Block 4 this concern had reduced.
The remaining data in Table 2 suggest that some students found
the wiki difficult to use, and this difficulty did not reduce with
time. For both online tutorials, just over half of the respondents
indicated that they preferred using FirstClass forums for
collaboration.
Students were asked a number of questions comparing their
experience of using the wiki with their experience of using
forums. Figure 1 illustrates students‟ responses to questions on
three aspects of usability:
30
Number of responses
Respondents who were offered
the wiki for the tutorial
Respondents who used the wiki
for the tutorial
Percentage use
Block
tutorial
52
time to learn;
time to edit and post contributions;
ease of use.
25
20
Time to learn
15
Time to edit
Ease of use
10
5
0
wiki much
worse
wiki a bit
worse
About the
same
wiki a bit
better
wiki much Not sure
better
Figure 1. Respondents’ perceptions of the wiki in
comparison with the forum
In Figure 1, more responses lie to the left of the „about the
same‟ mark, suggesting that students‟ perceptions of the wiki
were less favourable than their perceptions of the FirstClass
forum. These findings may partly be caused by students‟
familiarity with FirstClass. However, the findings also suggest
that, at the time of the project, usability aspects of the wiki
needed to be addressed.
Qualitative data from the questionnaire
Qualitative data was obtained from students via open questions
in the questionnaire, asking for :
students‟ comments about using the wiki;
their views on whether they would use the wiki again.
The main areas of comment were as follows.
Enjoyment and value
Several students gave positive comments on using the wiki.
They found the experience interesting and enjoyable.
“Yes I‟d use it again. It was good fun to edit other
people‟s work and contribute to a group produced
document.”
Other positive comments related to organising and presenting
ideas, and communicating them to others.
“Yes I would use the wiki again as I thought it was a
really good way to get ideas and thoughts organised.”
Usability problems
Where students had a negative view of the wiki, this was mainly
because of usability issues or lack of functionality.
“Yes I‟d use it again, but it‟s not an easy system to
use.”
Social discomfort
Some students felt concern about the „openness‟ of the wiki.
They were not happy that others could edit their work and that
they could edit the work of others.
“I would not use it, it is not secure enough for me. I
felt it was too open allowing anyone to modify it
without my knowledge”
Collaborative working
There were a number of comments related to lack of
participation in the online activities. Although this issue applies
to any collaborative work, characteristics of the wiki may have
discouraged some students from participating.
“I found the Wiki very impersonal and tended not to
use it for anything other than the tutorial.”
However, some students commented on the value of wikis for
collaboration.
“They make it easy to collaborate jointly on
documents which has always been a bit of a logistical
nightmare.”
Further requirements
A number of students pointed out specific facilities which were
missing, and which they felt were needed. In particular, students
wanted to know when a new contribution had been added, and
who had viewed contributions. These facilities were familiar to
students from their use of FirstClass forums.
“No immediate way of knowing if new messages are
present, without opening the Wiki up and searching
all the headings - time consuming. No history - can't
see who is present, who has read the messages - very
frustrating.”
It is likely that prior use of FirstClass influenced expectations of
the wiki. Some students may have preferred FirstClass because
they were already familiar and comfortable with it.
4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The findings of the project show that students valued the
opportunity to use a wiki, and most students enjoyed the
experience. However there were usability problems, which were
frustrating to students. Since the project, considerable
improvements have been made to the usability of the wiki.
Some of the students were concerned about the prospect of
editing each other‟s work. This is a common issue (Wheeler et
al, 2008, p. 992, Hemmi, 2009 p. 28) and is not entirely
restricted to wikis: students often express concern when asked
to critique each other‟s work. However the environment of the
wiki can make this more of a problem because of the lack of
clear ownership of the group contributions, and the facility for
users to change each other‟s words. This can cause frustrations
for some students, who may feel that their own work is no
longer represented in the wiki. To alleviate these problems, it is
important for learners to discuss the roles and „etiquette‟ that
they will use in their collaborative work via wikis. This process
in itself can be a valuable experience (Vratulis & Dobson, 2008
p. 291). Indeed the students in this project gradually became
more comfortable with the idea as the work progressed.
However, the issue needs consideration, particularly when
contributions to a wiki form part of the course assessment.
As mentioned earlier, the online tutorials used in this project
were designed for use with FirstClass forums, rather than with
wikis. Translating these activities for use with a wiki may
therefore not give an entirely fair comparison of the two
technologies. Nevertheless, the project has contributed to an
improved understanding of the different affordances of forums
and wikis. It has highlighted issues that needed to be addressed
(and subsequently have been), and has explored how the wiki
could be developed for the future.
5. REFERENCES
Hemmi, A., Bayne, S. and Land, R. (2009), „The appropriation
and repurposing of social technologies in higher education‟,
Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25, 19–30
Vratulis, V. and Dobson, T. M. (2008), „Social negotiations in a
wiki environment: a case study with pre-service teachers‟
Educational Media International Vol. 45, No. 4, 285–294.
Wheeler, S., Yeomans, P. and Wheeler, D. (2008), „The good,
the bad and the wiki: evaluating student-generated content for
collaborative learning‟, British Journal of Educational
Technology Vol 39 No 6 987–995.