Capturing (non-) collaboration in wiki-mediated collaborative writing activities: The need to examine discussion posts and editing acts in tandem

Abstract

Most previous research exploring collaboration during wiki-mediated writing activities has focused on either students’ posts to wiki discussion forums or on their edits to wiki texts. This paper, however, argues that wikis are ‘convergent media’ which allow authors to work and make meaning across, as well as within, the two modes of interaction. In order to obtain a true picture of the nature of student-student (non-)collaboration in wiki-mediated writing activities, it is therefore necessary to examine students’ discussion posts and their edits to the wiki text in tandem. In response to this, a coding scheme and transcription format which aligns discussion posts with edits to the wiki text is introduced. The insights into student-student collaboration this approach affords are subsequently illustrated through a study which examines Kuwaiti high school students’ interactions during a wiki-mediated collaborative writing activity. The results of this study confirm that considering discussion posts and edits to the wiki text independently provides an incomplete picture of the nature of student-student (non-) collaboration in wiki-mediated writing activities. If discussion posts and editing acts are not considered in tandem, analyses may overlook a number of non-collaborative (e.g. refusing to accept one another’s edits and respond to feedback, and claims of ownership over the wiki text) as well as collaborative behaviors (e.g. willingness to accept edits and respond to feedback)