Case+3

= Evaluating the Use of Wikis to Foster Collaborative Group Work =

=Case Description:= For this study Fawei Geng and Ruslan Ramanau used the web 2.0 tool called Wiki. It was conducted in 2007 and published in 2008 in the International Journal of Organizational Innovation. They used 75 students at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom that was enrolled in a beginning Japanese course. They were using the wiki to facilitate student-centered collaborative learning through group work. The wiki was used to encourage students to independently study Japanese grammar. The objectives for this research was to see how the space in the wiki could be designed to support collaborative learning and how the space design within the wiki affected the student-centered approach in learning Japanese grammar.

Key Findings:
There were some initial issues by the students because 78% of the students in this study had never used wiki. Even after the students had been using the wiki for at least a semester they were still not confident in their ability to use the wiki. The students also thought they should be allowed to work on the wiki as a group during classroom time when the original thought was that they would use the wiki outside of class. Even with the difficulties the students did benefit. They thought that it helped with the revision and a widen understanding of what was learned in class. They also found that the wiki gave them a better understanding of the material than the textbooks. The researchers found that they when creating a space on wiki for collaborative learning it is essential to give training to both the students and staff on how to use the wiki effectively. They also found that they should allow the students to design their own wikis while under the supervision of a trained tutor.

Case Evaluation:
The research showed a benefit to using the wiki as a collaborative method for generating student-centered learning. The students gained a better understanding for Japanese grammar than they would have if they were just studying out of the textbook by themselves. I believe that the researchers found the weaknesses in that there was a lack of training at the beginning for both students and staff and have made changes use in the future. Also, they designed the wiki in which the students found difficult to follow but the researches learned that once training was provided that the students would be able to designed a wiki that they would be able to follow. I would suggest a face-to-face training in the beginning along with a video of that training that the students and staff could view afterwards. Within the study the students didn’t interact with the other groups within the class. I would suggest that each group work on different material and that they could all come together for a larger wiki project. Then they could do a peer review of what the other groups had done and not just what their group had done.

References:
Geng, F. & Ramanau, R. (Fall 2008). Evaluating the use of wikis to foster collaborative group work. The International Journal of Organizational Innovation, Vol.1, Issue2; P. 50-61