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Observations and discussions

21 January, 2016 - 14:46

Varna Free University incorporated a wiki module in its e-Learning system (Figure 1.1), which encouraged both tutors and students to harness their collective intelligence in order to achieve their common educational goals and the exploration of new and effective uses of the Wiki tool is also presented.

Moodle has the most transparent and easiest navigation especially for a generation of students well trained in text editing in programs such as Microsoft Word. (Figure 1.2, Figure 1.3, Figure 1.4, Figure 1.5).

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Figure 1.1 VFU E-learning System 
 
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Figure 1.2 Wiki HTML Editor 
 
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Figure 1.3 Wiki in Moodle 
 
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Figure 1.4 Adding images to a wiki in Moodle 
 
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Figure 1.5 Moodle Wiki Editing 
 

Wikis find application in the educational process and in the university management system as well. Placement centers use wiki pages to store and organize content for job postings and career development. Wikis act as a sounding board so that students can voice opinions about university policies.

The free-form, collaborative nature of wikis makes them easy to apply in creative ways. Any sort of group process can be facilitated using a wiki. Creating a wiki for group lecture notes after a lecture gives students a chance to combine their notes. Those that missed information get it from their peers. The group decides what information is critical and gives it proper emphasis. Group lecture notes are done.

The most straightforward use of a wiki is as a tool for group collaboration for creating group projects. A teacher assigning a group project gives students a place to work by creating a wiki with the group mode enabled. This gives each group their own space to record research, to develop outlines and to create the final product. The teacher creates a submission date on which to turn off editing capabilities for students so that he/she can grade the final projects. Afterwards, the teacher enables visible groups so that everyone can see each other's work. Also, a teacher develops a wiki for a student group and urges people to submit ideas around a brainstorming topic. People can add ideas as they occur and link to other pages for elaboration.

A teacher might assign students the task of contributing to another wiki on the Web, on any study topic, perhaps by assigning students to groups and challenging them to collaboratively create an article they would feel confident posting to a public-information space. Students use the course wiki to create drafts of the article they will eventually publish to the community at the end of the semester.

This type of assignment has a number of benefits:

  • It gives students additional motivation to do their best, since they know their work will be viewed and critiqued by the public instead of just by their instructor.
  • It can act as a summarizing activity for an entire semester's worth of material.
  • Students will know their work will be used by other people, not just graded and filed away.
Table 1.2 Student Survey of Wiki Projects (MBA 257 - 60% response rate)

Response

Ease of use

Enhanced learning

Useful for exam prep

Fair assessment of students’ effort

1 – strongly agree

15

13

25

22

2 – agree

65

24

27

40

3 – neutral

13

59

30

17

4 – disagree

7

4

18

21

5 – strongly disagree

0

0

0

0

 

An inquiry was made among 257 MBA students and as a result they had mainly positive reactions to the Wiki projects. Some students commented that Wiki was a useful tool and a good way to put a summary of the lecture content together in a way that all students could benefit. Others mentioned that it allowed them to carry on dialogue with varying view-points that offered a more holistic learning experience. There was dissatisfaction about the fact that it is hard to grade participation because often people post the same things. Pointing out the pedagogical benefits from the project we have to stress on the assessment. As seen in the survey results above, this is one area in which students were the least satisfied. Students were assessed on their participation in the Wiki. Any user can see who has made a contribution, the date and time of each contribution.

Another difficulty in integrating Wikis successfully comes from the switch to a student-centered approach. Using student-created Wikis as a major content source shifts the creation and ownership of knowledge base from the teacher to the student. The role of student in this Wiki project is that of primary content producer. The teacher’s role changes to one of facilitating and correcting errors. As mentioned above, Wikis are quite straightforward, and Moodle has Wiki interface that resembles common word processing programs, so students may find it easy to use.