WIKIs can be used as an collaborative aid in group assessments to promote learning in an engaged and interactive forum. This e-learning tool is actually being used as the framework for an assessment piece in another subject I am studying this term. In this subject, we, as a class, are required to research and populate a wiki page with verifiable facts and information on the subject of communication in the digital age. The wiki page allows users to view their teammates’ contributions, the time and date that it was contributed, and how the page has changed from beginning to end. At the end of the prescribed time, we as individuals are to select our 3 best contributions and comment on their relevance to the wiki page, why we chose them, and their verifiability of fact. We also have to comment on the success of the wiki page as a whole.
As a learning manager, I would consider this as an appropriate way to use the learning tool in the classroom as a method of improving students’ teamwork skills. The only adaptations I would make would be to organise the assignment into smaller and more manageable teams. The above assessment piece is being completed as a class which consists of 20 or more people. To promote enhanced collaboration and the formation of group roles, groups of 3 to 4 people would be more preferable as this would allow for deeper discussion between team members on areas of concern and in the planning process. Increased responsibility of team members in the completion of the task would also better engage students. Furthermore, in the evaluation I would include an area where students can discuss team performance so the project doesn’t seem as “individualised” in its nature.
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What are the implications of using WIKIs in group-based assignments in the editing process?
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Hi! Lyneale
ReplyDeleteI agree that Wiki is a great tools for collaboration. However my question to you that I am sure there are some active user and non active user. How can you motivate those NON active user (student) to participate Wiki more?
Regards
Makiko
Hi Makiko
ReplyDeleteGreat question. I can see where you are coming from here. There are always some people in the team who "carry" others along. I believe that motivating these people to participate is harder in group settings because they think that the work of their teammates will get them through the subject. This is why, even in group assignments, I think there should be some individual form of evaluation either separately or in conjunction with the evaluation of the group work. It is obviously unfair to award two students the same grading when one may have contributed a lot more in terms of effort and quality of work. What are your thoughts?
Lyneale