Working in wikis: submission correction and feedback of students’ work

1. Working in wikis: submission correction and feedback of students’ work Patricia Campbell and Jonathan Sly patricia.j.campbell@manchester.ac.uk sly@manchester.ac.uk

2. Context Integrated Foundation Year (in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences) • approximately 280 students • mixed cultural backgrounds (typically, home 55%, EU 15% and other overseas 35%) • very mixed academic backgrounds

3. Foundation Year curriculum 12 units comprising: • Maths (up to 6 units) • Physics (up to 4 units) • Chemistry (up to 3 units) • Communication skills (1 unit) • Project (1 unit) • ICT (1 unit) • English (if required, 1 unit)

4. Unit specifications Communication skills Project • staffed by University Language Centre • semester 1 • core skills include: • academic writing • oral presentation • issues in collaborative learning • critical analysis • staffed by FY and nine Schools across Faculty • semester 2 • core skills include: • report writing • oral presentation • project planning and management • team working

5. Aims • to increase and emphasise the relevance of the academic skills learned in the Communication Skills unit by ‘integrating’ it with the Project unit • to enhance the student experience through improved feedback, increased staff-student interaction and improved course management (and to maintain this for an increasingly large cohort)

6. Tools • overhaul of course units: curriculum and structure (including formation of student work-groups that stay the same through both units) • use of on-line, collaborative-working tools: • VLE group pages • wiki sites • journals • file exchange • video streaming

7. Wikis • Potential: • students can easily access and contribute to one document • different members of staff can access (and comment on) on students’ work, for example for: • moderation • double marking • targeted language support

8. Wikis in practice 2011 - 2012 • Communication Skills: • students submitted essays in small groups on a wiki page • essays were read by students and teachers in the wiki • teachers both corrected and gave feedback on the essays

9. Student reactions • Very positive (despite the collapse of the site)! General: • work was easy to submit • speed of feedback was greatly improved • marking and comments were very clear because of the use of a different coloured font • work can be revisited; it cannot be ‘lost’.

10. More detailed reactions • students liked the in-text interventions as they could see exactly where they needed to improve • (overseas) students read and learned from their tutor’s comments on other students’ work • most thought this combined well with face-to-face contact • no more squiggles, arrows or illegible writing to be interpreted!

11. Journals • excellent way of managing large numbers of students engaged in Project work • good way of encouraging ongoing Project management by the students • students need to be given very specific instructions on what to include • more motivating for students if marks are given for journal entries

12. Other facilities • VLE group pages • provides focus for group activities • facilitates setting-up of groups, communications and administration • video streaming • group settings enable selective release of videos • file exchange • file sharing/drop-box for students’ collaborative work • draft work can be marked or commented on by staff