Building Collaborative Capacities in Learners: The M/cyclopedia Project Revisited

In this paper we trace the evolution of a project using a wiki-based learning environment in a tertiary education setting. The project has the pedagogical goal of building learners’ capacities to work effectively in the networked, collaborative, creative environments of the knowledge economy. The paper explores the four key characteristics of a ‘produsage’ environment and identifies four strategic capacities that need to be developed in learners to be effective ‘produsers’ (user-producers). A case study is presented of our experiences with the subject New Media Technologies, run at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. This progress report updates our observations made at the 2005 WikiSym conference

Team project work for distance learners in engineering – challenges and benefits

Team Engineering (first presented in autumn 2006) was the first course (module) at the Open University (OU) to use wikis and video-conferencing in combination to support the work of project teams. Teams of five students, working remotely from one another, tackle an engineering project over 32 weeks. The teams schedule regular meetings throughout the project and these are conducted using FlashMeeting, a lightweight video-conferencing system being developed by the OU's Knowledge Media Institute, KMi (http://flashmeeting.open.ac.uk). Unlike other systems, FlashMeeting requires no software installation. In addition, it not only archives the meetings but also provides detailed analysis of the proceedings. The teams are encouraged to use the wiki facility in the OU's virtual learning environment (VLE) for their collaborative report-writing. The collective work of the team is assessed through these reports. The performance of the individual is assessed through their reflective account of the project. The archiving facility in FlashMeeting has been of huge help in developing this. For the next presentation of the course a learning journal is to be added to the existing means of support. Feedback from tutors and students alike has been extremely positive, whilst recognising the limitations of the technologies in their current implementations. This paper gives an account of the students' achievements and offers an assessment of the pedagogic potential of using these media together

Meeting the growing demand for engineers and their educators: the potential for open and distance learning

As with all teaching, open and distance approaches are successful only if based on good pedagogical design addressing the purpose, structure and pace of the material, hence engaging students and encouraging active learning. For distance learning such pedagogical design is often expensive, and can only be justified by comparatively large student numbers. Much open and distance teaching offers meagre student support. To be successful, course developers must integrate student support into the learning materials, including such elements as a modest number of face-to-face sessions or electronic communication at a distance. This presentation discusses these issues in the context of SET distance teaching and presents examples of good practice from the UKOU, including: • an introductory course in ICT that adopts an issues-based approach, in order to de-mystify the subject and make it more attractive to students • resource-based approaches in engineering education • team projects at a distance • an emphasis on ‘active learning’ An argument is also to be made for the importance of openness if we really wish to promote engineering. In this context ‘openness’ means making programmes available to all students (even those without formal school-leaving qualifications) that will ultimately enable them to qualify as a professional engineer or an educator of engineers. The traditional approach to engineering education has been hierarchical and linear: a good school leaving certificate in mathematics / science followed by an often very theoretical university education plus an application-oriented final project. If we are serious about attracting new engineers, this will no longer do. An open and distance approach to engineering formation, based on outcomes rather than input educational levels, and with an emphasis on lifelong learning and professional development, can make a major contribution to chang

Web 2.0 @ BU – Use of Wikis within the School of Health & Social Care

The aim of the Web 2.0 @ BU project is to investigate current good practice and to map the use of Web 2.0 technologies within Bournemouth University. This paper aims to communicate the findings from the School of Health & Social Care project team during the academic year 2007/2008 concerning the use of wikis in three distinct areas: Reviewing The Literature Wiki - A teaching session on reviewing the literature is included as a part of the Masters Research Unit - Principles of Enquiry Unit 1. This case study concerns using a wiki as a replacement for PowerPoint and as a separate study guide. LIMBIC Project Wiki - The aim of the LIMBIC project is to evaluate an inter-professional approach linking practice based learning with the principles and methods of healthcare improvement. This case study examines how an external project group wiki could be utilised to enable collaboration between non-technical healthcare users. Teamworking and Communication in Health and Social Care Unit Wiki - The purpose of this third year unit is to provide students with the opportunity to undertake interprofessional project work and, through this develop their skills of working collaboratively in teams and to communicate and function more effectively within their role. This case study looks at how effective small student group wikis are as a part of a long, thin unit where students sometimes find that they vary their contribution according to the time that they have. The paper hopes to share knowledge and experience of utilising wikis, enabling teachers and practitioners to be in a stronger position to respond and react to the changing demands of using innovative new learning technologies

Reducing Procrastination while Improving Performance: A Wiki-powered Experiment with Students

© 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.Students in higher education are traditionally requested to produce various pieces of written work during the courses they undertake. When students' work is submitted online as a whole, both the ethically questionable act of procrastinating and late submissions afect performance. The objective of this paper is to assess the performance of students from a control group, with that of students from an experimental group. The control group produced work as a unique deliverable to be submitted at the end of the course. On the other hand, the experimental group worked on each part for a week, and their work was managed by a wiki environment and monitored by a speciically developed software. Positive efects were noticed in the experimental group, as both students' time management skills and performance increased. Replications of this experiment can and should be performed, in order to compare results in coursework submission.Final Accepted Versio

Wrestling and wrangling with a worrisome wiki: an account of pedagogical change in the use of a Web 2.0 technology in a first year education course

The delivery of higher education in online and blended modes has implications across a range of contexts – economic, pedagogic, technical and social. This article explores the tensions and contradictions of teaching in a blended learning environment in terms of its pedagogic implications. It reports on how a specific Web 2.0 technology (a wiki) was used over a four-year period with and by students in an Education Course to enhance their learning outcomes during their first year of university study. Student feedback (qualitative and quantitative), and the personal reflections of the first author regarding her teaching approach, kept over a four-year period, provide the dataset for this article. Analysis of these data builds a story of how the wiki developed from an extraneous, inauthentic component of the course to an integral component of a successful teaching and learning experience for both the lead author and the students in the course. This story illustrates how an early career academic wrestled to develop appropriate approaches to adult education; wrangled with largely untested Web 2.0 technologies in higher education; and reaped the rewards of the use of such technologies in enhancing the educational experience of both the students and the lecturer. Although a highly personal account of wrestling, wrangling and reaping, the article provides valuable insights into the importance of establishing and maintaining authentic pedagogic relationships in increasing online educational environments. It cautions that the development of technical skills alone is insufficient to guarantee improved outcomes for students

Digital tools disrupting tertiary students’ notions of disciplinary knowledge: Cases in history and tourism

This paper reports on the findings from a two year research project that explored the potential of digital tools in support of teaching–learning across different disciplinary areas at a New Zealand university. Two courses (in History and Tourism) are case studied using data collected through interviews with lecturers, tutors and their students, and an online student survey. Findings from the research revealed that both lecturers and students were challenged in learning about the affordances and use of the lecturer selected digital tools as a mediational means. The tools were not initially transparent to them, nor were they able to be easily deployed to undertake their primary task—teaching for the lecturers, and, learning and demonstrating learning for the students completing assigned tasks. The process of learning and using the tools disrupted participants’ prior thinking and led to new understandings of both disciplines and of effective pedagogies for the two disciplines. The findings increase our understanding of the ways digital tools can develop, challenge and expand tertiary students learning and have implications for practice