Wikis 101

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Wikis Do you ever struggle with how to get students to collaborate well together? Do you find it hard to evaluate group participation in project work? Do you ever have version control issues with emailing files back and forth amongst group members? Do you have files that are too large to email back and forth amongst group members? Do you ever need to share multiple forms of media, like text, image, audio, video, or web with group members? Have you ever considered wikis?

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A wiki is a collection of webpages where students can add text, hyperlinks or hypertext, images, audio, videos, widgets, documents, discussion forums, and comments. With wikis, students can create a website, plan a project, or mange their own eportfolio. Privacy settings can allow for only the group users or for anyone in the whole wide world to view, comment, or edit on all pages or assigned pages. Students and faculty can use the revision history to track changes, control versions, and monitor participation.

Variations Web-Based Collaborative Work Spaces. Similar to a wiki, we can use web-based collaborative work spaces that have revision history and version control. Two popular shareware sites are Zoho and Google Drive. Both have publishing suites similar to the Microsoft Office suite. We can create documents, slideshows, spreadsheets, surveys, and diagrams. We can upload images, add hyperlinks, and embed YouTube videos. We can invite other users to edit, comment, or read by setting the permissions in the same way as a wiki.

CommonCraft

Google Docs in Plain English

An online document works well for a one-time single document that we intend to export as a polished finished file. A wiki works best for ongoing multiple page websites that we want to stay web-based to continue building and collaborating. However, with some wiki software programs we can export, download, or back up the webpages. Note that students need a Gmail email account to use Google Docs and that Google owns and mines the information on its shareware for marketing purposes, so it would not be appropriate to use for a project that required a research ethics board (REB) approval.

Examples Use your imagination. What could your students collaborate on with a wiki? What would be an appropriate activity for your discipline? Only you know what would be authentic to your field of study, your curriculum, and your students. To get started, consider these ideas: Visual Arts •Create an online photo gallery •Collaborate with a community partner on a design project •Plan a filming production •Establish a professional eportfolio

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Health & Community Studies •Create a best practices manual •Collaborate with a non-profit agency on a social issue •Plan a fundraising event •Establish a professional eportfolio Science & Technology •Create a how to manual •Collaborate with an industry partner on a project •Plan a charettte competition •Establish a professional eportfolio Business Administration •Create a professional corporate website •Collaborate with an corporate sponsor on a project •Plan a marketing event •Establish a professional eportfolio Humanities & Social Sciences •Create an online book club website •Collaborate with other authors on a digital story •Plan a field trip •Establish a professional eportfolio

Merits For the ultimate in online collaboration, students can create their own webpages with wikis.

Students can use the space simply to compile ideas in a messy start working towards a more polished finish. They can use the space to share ideas with community or industry partners. Finally, they can use the wiki for their own personal space to share and receive feedback from mentors, advisors, and supervisors. View a sample wiki created in Google Sites showcasing a project on social media.

Collaboration. Although there is little research to date on the efficacy of wikis, according to social constructivist theory, they should be an ideal tool for online collaboration (Samur, 2011). Like any technology, the implementation determines the success of the tool. Wikis may be ideal for collaboration, discussion, and integration. They can help students move towards a consensus (Samur, 2011). Further, collaboration with wikis is learner-centred, feasible, and authentic (Pittenger & Olson-Kellogg, 2012).

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Accessibility. Using web-based documents closes the digital divide. Students and community partners do not require special software just a web connection. There is no need to download or convert files. The any time, any place, and any pace nature of wikis allows adult learners in a distance education program the flexibility that they desire in an online course (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). Likewise, the possibility to use text, audio, images, video, and web with wikis, would appeal to various learning styles and abilities as well as English as a Second Language (ESL) learners (CAST, 2012; Gardner 2011).

Netiquette. One tenant of Netiquette is to respect time, space, and bandwidth (Shea, 2004). With a wiki, we can be more efficient with our use of time. Rather than emailing versions back and forth, we can collaborate in real time on our web documents, receive notifications of the latest revisions, and view the revision history. We can even choose to revert back to a previous better version. Using web files also closes the digital divide; some students and community partners may not have the most update version of Word or PowerPoint, but they can all read and edit the web documents. This also eliminates the wait time to download, convert, or re-format files.

Assessment. Groups will naturally go through Tuckman’s five stages of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Tuckman & Jensen, 1997). It is important to set up groups with roles, responsibilities, and expectations for members (Glasser, 1998) with evaluations for self, peer, group, and project. With the revision history, we can easily track group member participation and contribution. Further, we can post comments on individual wiki pages to probe, prompt, and encourage students to progress in their content creations.

Challenges While there are many benefits to collaborative learning, some students prefer individual work. It is important to vary activities to have enough individual, pair, and group work to satisfy various learning styles. The wiki should provide opportunities for team work, consensus building, and creativity through active rather than passive learning activities.

Group dynamics are unpredictable. With clearly defined roles and expectations as well as engaging activities, we can move groups more quickly through the storming and norming stages.

Facts. While students can create an online manual to demonstrate their learning, wikis are not meant for teaching facts (Pittenger & Olson-Kellogg, 2012). It may be tempting to put all of your static lecture notes in a repository wiki for your students. However, it is through the dynamic collaboration, consensus building, and creativity that students are learning critical thinking, problem solving, and team work. There are more active ways to teach facts such as a scavenger hunt, piece the puzzle, jigsaw, or fishbowl.

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Cyberbullying. In any online environment, there is a risk of cyberbullying. Review proper online behaviour or etiquette - Netiquette. Instruct students to avoid sarcasm and flaming (angry post wars) in discussions boards or comments. Consider the pros and cons of keeping the wiki private versus public to respect the privacy of the students and community partners (Shea, 2004). Use the revision history to monitor appropriate interaction and contribution.

Instructional Design Use a backwards design approach. First, start with your learning outcomes. Second, create your assessments. Third, plan your instructional activities. Finally, choose a technology to enhance the lesson.

Design. Consider your curriculum; look carefully at your accreditation standards, graduate attributes, program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, and lesson learning outcomes. How will a wiki enhance the learning outcomes? How will you evaluate what the students do with the wiki? What technologies will you and your students need to learn in order to create a wiki? Will a wiki enhance the learning experience?

Develop. Browse the Internet for wiki software available to you and your students. There are several shareware programs like Weebly, Google Sites, Wix, and WordPress. (Note that to use Google Sites, students must have a Gmail email account; Google also owns and mines the information on Google Sites and Gmail for marketing purposes, so it would not be appropriate to use for a project that required a research ethics board (REB) approval).

Deliver. Decide what your students will do before, during, and after the wiki. Before creating a wiki, you may preview and review vocabulary through a crossword puzzle; concepts through a mind map activity; or demonstrations through a lab experiment. During the creation of wiki, you may have a list of guided questions or activities to complete. After creating the wiki, you may require that students submit the polished wiki - website as their final project. The wiki should be authentic, active, and applied.

Plan how your students will engage in a wiki. You may want students to work in small groups and only share their wiki with you. On the other hand, you may want students to share their wiki with the entire class, community partners, or the entire world. Further, you may want to use the wiki as a simple planning space or you may want the collaborative space to develop into a full fledged website. Finally, you may want to allow students to

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comment on each other’s wikis. Likewise, you may want to allow community partners to comment on students’ wikis.

Weebly

Technology Wix

WordPress

You and your students will need to use a wiki software program.

Once you choose a platform, your students can bring their ideas, photos, and videos to share, collaborate, and edit. Your students can develop a polished group website, plan a project simply using the space to collaborate and share, or create an eportfolio to showcase individual work.

References Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2012). Universal Design for Learning.

Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/index.html CommonCraft. (2007, October 18). Google Docs in Plain English [YouTube] [02:50].

Retrieved from https://youtu.be/muVUA-sKcc4 Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.

Glasser, W. (1998). Choice theory in the classroom. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

Pittenger, A.L. & Olson-Kellogg, B. (2012). Leveraging learning technologies for collaborative writing in an online pharmacotherapy course. Distance Education, 33(1), p.61-80.

Samur, Y. (2011). Using wikis as a support and assessment tool in collaborative digital game-based learning environments. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 12(2), p.70-75.

Shea, V. (2004). Netiquette. Retrieved from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/ index.html Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Tuckman, B.W. & Jensen, M.C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited.

Group & Organization Studies, 2(4), p.419-427.

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