A Tale of Two Wikis
With greater availability of technology in and out of the classroom, some instructors are looking for fresh ways to teach core concepts. One promising option is wikis. A wiki is a kind of website that encourages collaborative authoring by inviting visitors to add and edit content. (Perhaps the best-known example is Wikipedia, a web-based encyclopedia written collaboratively by its users. See the entry on wikis in Wikipedia for more information about the history and typical features of wikis.)
The strengths of wikis -- flexibility, ease of use, and collaborative nature -- make them a useful tool for teaching and learning. Here are two innovative ways Ohio State instructors are using wikis with their students.
Case 1: Great Ideas to Great Products
When Phil Schlosser was asked to teach the Engineering course "Great Ideas to Great Products" he looked for innovative ways to move beyond traditional papers. One of his students suggested wikis and offered to host the system. Schlosser accepted the offer and, after two quarters of the course, is delighted with the outcome.
As a project-based course for upper-level engineering students, "Great Ideas to Great Products" was designed to teach business aspects of product development. For their projects, student teams researched an existing product -- such as the iPod Nano, Firefox web browser, and XBox game system -- and documented not only technical design considerations, but also the business strategy and mass appeal that made it a success.
The teams used the class wiki to create detailed reports richly supplemented with images and links. Because wikis are naturally scalable, students could easily add sections to their projects week by week.
Schlosser notes that wiki-based projects meet the same goals as traditional papers -- teaching students to gather, evaluate, organize, and present information effectively.
However, he draws the analogy that traditional papers are "like engineering before CAD [computer-aided design] software came along" -- the process is less efficient and the outcome is more limited when compared to wiki-base projects.
"I could teach the course in paper, but I think that would put restrictions on the quality of the work that can be done. For this purpose, the web is a far superior medium."
Case 2: Collaboration in Business Writing
Wikis also play a major role in Vera Dukaj's Business Writing class, which helps students develop skills in professional communication. She explains: "Wikis were a natural choice. Business writing is increasingly collaborative. With the wiki, they can help each other out, and there's a revision history to show how their work is evolving."
Dukaj also likes that wikis are a tool that her students might later use in real-world business settings.
Writing assignments for the course cover a variety of formats -- including memos, formal letters, and a project proposal -- as well as a capstone project to build a prototype of the website described in their proposal. Although students build their web prototype using traditional web technologies (HTML and CSS using Dreamweaver), other assignments are done in the wiki.
For example, students post their memos and then critique each other's work via the wiki to practice offering and receiving advice. Dukaj posts some of her comments to students as well, so others can benefit from feedback on approaches they didn't try themselves. Dukaj also has her students write responses to their weekly reading assignments in the wiki so they can see each other's perspectives and add comments.
This range of writing tasks teaches not only effective organization and clarity in written communication, but also communicating to different audiences. For instance, some assignments require students to write for each other as members of the class; others require them to role-play as work colleagues. Additionally, their web prototype is written for a public audience.
Dukaj uses a closed wiki that only she and her students can access and says students have adapted well to posting their work online. "Wikis are simple -- there's not a lot to learn," she says.
In fact, the system is so easy that she also uses it as a classroom teaching tool to present lecture notes during class (in place of PowerPoint slides) and to record information during in-class discussion. As an added benefit, using the wiki creates web documents that her students can review later.
Article by Robyn Ness