Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives

This paper presents a study of the use of wikis to support online group projects in two courses at the UK Open University. The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a wiki in supporting (i) student collaboration and (ii) tutors’ marking of the students’ collaborative work. The paper us...

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Autores principales:	Karen Kear, Helen Donelan, Judith Williams
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Athabasca University Press 2014
Materias:	Wikis collaboration online learning group projects Technology Acceptance Model Special aspects of education LC8-6691
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5fceb32aa9bf45cb94816e95181e84f2
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5fceb32aa9bf45cb94816e95181e84f22021-12-02T16:59:50ZUsing wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives10.19173/irrodl.v15i4.17531492-3831https://doaj.org/article/5fceb32aa9bf45cb94816e95181e84f22014-08-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1753https://doaj.org/toc/1492-3831 This paper presents a study of the use of wikis to support online group projects in two courses at the UK Open University. The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a wiki in supporting (i) student collaboration and (ii) tutors’ marking of the students’ collaborative work. The paper uses the main factors previously identified by the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a starting point to examine and discuss the experiences of these two very different user groups: students and tutors. Data was gathered from students via a survey and from tutors via a range of methods. The findings suggest that, when used in tandem with an online forum, the wiki was a valuable tool for groups of students developing a shared resource. As previous studies using the TAM have shown, usefulness and ease of use were both important to students’ acceptance of the wiki. However, the use of a wiki in this context was less well-received by tutors, because it led to an increase in their workload in assessing the quality of students’ collaborative processes. It was possible to reduce the tutor workload by introducing a greater degree of structure in the students’ tasks. We conclude that when introducing collaborative technologies to support assessed group projects, the perceptions and needs of both students and tutors should be carefully considered. Karen KearHelen DonelanJudith WilliamsAthabasca University PressarticleWikiscollaborationonline learninggroup projectsTechnology Acceptance ModelSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691ENInternational Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol 15, Iss 4 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Wikis collaboration online learning group projects Technology Acceptance Model Special aspects of education LC8-6691
spellingShingle	Wikis collaboration online learning group projects Technology Acceptance Model Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Karen Kear Helen Donelan Judith Williams Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives
description	This paper presents a study of the use of wikis to support online group projects in two courses at the UK Open University. The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a wiki in supporting (i) student collaboration and (ii) tutors’ marking of the students’ collaborative work. The paper uses the main factors previously identified by the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a starting point to examine and discuss the experiences of these two very different user groups: students and tutors. Data was gathered from students via a survey and from tutors via a range of methods. The findings suggest that, when used in tandem with an online forum, the wiki was a valuable tool for groups of students developing a shared resource. As previous studies using the TAM have shown, usefulness and ease of use were both important to students’ acceptance of the wiki. However, the use of a wiki in this context was less well-received by tutors, because it led to an increase in their workload in assessing the quality of students’ collaborative processes. It was possible to reduce the tutor workload by introducing a greater degree of structure in the students’ tasks. We conclude that when introducing collaborative technologies to support assessed group projects, the perceptions and needs of both students and tutors should be carefully considered.
format	article
author	Karen Kear Helen Donelan Judith Williams
author_facet	Karen Kear Helen Donelan Judith Williams
author_sort	Karen Kear
title	Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives
title_short	Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives
title_full	Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives
title_fullStr	Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives
title_full_unstemmed	Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives
title_sort	using wikis for online group projects: student and tutor perspectives
publisher	Athabasca University Press
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/5fceb32aa9bf45cb94816e95181e84f2
work_keys_str_mv	AT karenkear usingwikisforonlinegroupprojectsstudentandtutorperspectives AT helendonelan usingwikisforonlinegroupprojectsstudentandtutorperspectives AT judithwilliams usingwikisforonlinegroupprojectsstudentandtutorperspectives
_version_	1718382267334656000

Using wikis for online group projects: Student and tutor perspectives

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