Bold, Mary. “Use of Wikis in Graduate Course Work.” Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 17:1. (2006): 5-14.
In the “Use of Wikis in Graduate Course Work,” Mary Bold of Texas Woman’s University, looks at wikis as a viable tool for collaborative work. As Williams and Jacobs discuss the development and use of blogs in their article mentioned in my entry of May 16, Mary Bold looks at the development of wiki technology in 1995 and its desirability in academic settings.
Defining a wiki as “a set of related webpages that can be authored collectively, typically without a special log-on or password entry” (5), Bold cites benefits of wikis:
1. “A collaborative workspace that can display documents immediately, with a minimal working knowledge of HTML tags” (6).
2. Collaborative changes can be made “live” whereas “by contrast, a collectively authored document in a CMS [content management system-DC] setting requires saving, uploading, and other transfer of the file among student-authors” (6).
3. Due to their ease of use and open-source code, wikis require little to no institutional support, financial or technical (6).
4. Bold claims “they are not usually vandalized,” but acknowledges that users can create misinformation and “unwanted changes” (6).
5. Conversely, if there are any issues, because multiple users have access, there can be multiple users assisting in page rebuilding if necessary (6).
6. Wiki instructions are relatively simple and therefore require few demands on teachers to assist their “lost” students. (7).
7. Wikis can allow instructors to delegate tasks to their students who are held responsible for posting, managing and maintaining their work instead of requiring the teacher at each step of the process (10).
8. Wikis can be used as part of group collaborative work or as part of individual submissions (8).
9. Wikis can be used in both informal and personal contexts as well as “formal and science-based” (11).
10. Bold claims that students like wikis (10).
Unlike Williams and Jacobs, Bold had not yet surveyed students specifically about using wikis, but has found past responses to indicate “the loss of interaction as a disadvantage in the online setting” (11) and students’ desire for fostering community. As the Williams/Jacobs article pushes for LMS’s to include blogs as part of the LMS package, Bold states that wikis should also be part of the features or plug-ins offered in CMS products.
Overall, Bold believes wikis don’t just help the student learn the curriculum better, but they help the student learn how to improve their skills in online interaction.
Bold cites very few drawbacks. One drawback has to do with the accuracy of the content added by the users or with the lack of experience many students have in creating content in the wiki format. Bold didn’t cite the emphasis on text-based content as being a drawback and only marginally showed an example of a wiki that contained any imagery.
I found the article handy however, as I wish to encourage new faculty to consider the benefits of wikis (and blogs) in their online and/or hybrid courses as they provide additional opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Diane,
I am also interested in using wikis in the classroom as a collaborative tool. In an article I blogged about, one of the problems the author addressed was the difficulty some students have with working in what can be an unstructured space. Did this article address this problem?
No, but it did mention that students felt a lack of interaction with wikis and that the accuracy of the content couldn't always be counted on.
The book I did for my presentation (Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis and Other Digital Tools by Richard Beach, et al) does mention some ways to offset student hesitance with writing in these spaces.
Post a Comment