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Exploring wikis through an assessment task – reflections and resistance from practice

This article reflects on the use of wikis in a Cyberpsychology course, exploring the resistance faced and the outcomes achieved. It highlights the student's fear of the assignment and the need for restating the brief. The article also discusses the practical issues faced, such as technical demands and level of collaboration in the wikis. Overall, the experience proves to be a learning opportunity for both students and lecturers.

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Exploring wikis through an assessment task – reflections and resistance from practice

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  1. Exploring wikis through an assessment task – reflections and resistance from practice Marion Palmer, Hannah Barton and Dr Gráinne Kirwan Marion.palmer@iadt.ie

  2. Context • Programme and module • Masters in Cyberpsychology • Applied Cyberpsychology module • Assessment approach • Assessment brief drafted June 2008 • Reviewed and approved by external examiners • Issued to students September 2008 • Submission January 2009

  3. Focus • Cyberpsychology • study of the human mind and behaviour in the context of human-technology interaction. • Part-time taught masters students • Challenge • Academically valid assignments that reflect the cyberworld • Wiki assignment 2nd Year Applied Cyberpsychology module

  4. Wikis • Website that can be changed by users • Used in education since 2005 (Foord,2009) • Supports collaboration • Lots of free wikis • Pbworks http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/pbwiki.html • Wikispaces http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/wikispaces.html • Wetpaint http://www.wetpaint.com/ • Use unfamiliar to most of the students and lecturers

  5. Rationale for using wiki • Need to engage with web 2.0 tools • Students • Lecturers • Development of a resource • Educational Cyberpsychology • Organisational Cyberpsychology • Educational rationale • Use technology to provide online resources • Educational Cyberpsychology - study of learners, learning and teaching online, informed by research (adapted from Slavin, 2009)

  6. Assignment brief • Online resource in area of choice • Agreement of lecturer • Individual wiki • Determine the function and audience for the wiki • Set up wiki and organise entries • Edit and review entries • Test the wiki with the intended audience (semi-structured interview) • Report 1500-2000 words • Analysis and reflection on process • Features • Accompanying assessment criteria, 50% of module • Assessed by two lecturers • Assignment approved by external examiners

  7. The module • Applied Cyberpsychology • Aims to enable students to appreciate how psychology can be applied to practical problems in an online setting • Four areas: education, organisation, forensic and clinical • Four lecturers • Two assignments – wiki and an essay • One lecturer used a wiki • To support learning • To prepare for wiki assignment

  8. Doing the assignment – resistance • Need for restatement of brief • Request for group rather than individual wikis • Continuous questions • Student fear – big issue • Late start of assignment due Jan 10 evident • October • November 2, 17 • December 27, 30 • January 5, 7

  9. Outcomes • 16 different wikis • Range of topics • Different levels of participation and collaboration • Many related to work interests • 10 educational cyberpsychology • Using wikis, cyberbullying, learning in second life, statistics for psychologists, constructivism, group work, informal learning, information literacy • 6 organisational cyberpsychology • Trust and collaboration, persuasion, helpdesks, software organisation • Accompanying reports

  10. Technology • PBwiki now PBworks used by 8 • Page history clear • Recent changes easily seen • Number of members unclear • Wetpaint wiki used by 7 • Members clear to see • Site activity – what’s new easy to see • Page history not easily seen • Each person’s activity very clear to see • Ads • Wikispaces used by 1 • Ads

  11. Practical issues • Different features of the wiki software • technical demands • Access to the wikis by • Lecturers i.e. internal examiners and external examiners • Level of work required by the assignment • Setting up of the wiki • Getting participants • Using the wiki • Reviewing the process including interviews • Level of collaboration in the wiki • Getting participants to interact • More polished the wiki, the less the interaction

  12. Reaction to wiki assignment • Lack of experience caused fear • Providing content and structure demanding (Wang & Beasley, 2008) • Reluctance to edit work • Level of polish of wiki • Use of a wiki needs critical thinking (Wang and Beasley, 2008)

  13. Reflections and thoughts • Surprised by reaction and level of resistance • Pleased with outcomes • Student feedback • From a student published blog At first I was against the idea of creating a wiki by myself, and argued with the lecturer with regard to this. Part of this project involves asking the target audience (i.e. students) to view the wiki, and ask them about it’s usefulness. It was suggested that the individuals that were invited to view the wiki would naturally add content to it, and thus the wiki would mature. What I’ve actually found is that I might have done too much work and have been told that it reads like a complete wiki. I hadn’t expected that, but I guess I’ll just have to write that into my reflective essay http://www.sineadcochrane.com/2009/01/09/online-group-work/

  14. Assignment evaluation • Assignment • Wikis developed and student reports • Themes from reports • Impact of the assignment • Grades • Range of grades C+, B-, B, B+ • Student response to grades • Online survey • Anonymous and confidential • External examiners response (June 2009)

  15. Themes from reports • Role of trust in wikis • Keeping participants engaged and contributing • Audience/users/participants • Students’ fear of competition • Relevance of topic • Role of moderator • Need to monitor wiki to ensure reliability • Need for critical thinking skills

  16. Impact of assessment • Students • Experience of wikis for many of the students • Wiki developed for use by educational psychologists • Elearning company explored new forms of learning • Teacher participated in a wiki – intends to use with students • Undergraduate students participated in a wiki • Request to keep wiki Project Spaces online • Lecturers • Use of wikis, different wiki software • Reading of literature on use of wikis in education • Student response to assignment • This presentation!

  17. Online survey – part 1 • 16 invited to take part, 13 viewed and 7 took part • The wiki assignment • Was a valuable learning experience 6 strongly agree/agree 1 disagree • Increased my knowledge of educational/organisational cyberpsychology 5 strongly agree/agree 2 strongly disagreed • Increased my knowledge of wikis 6 strongly agree/agree 1 strongly disagree • Sparked my interest in wikis 4 strongly agree/agree 1 no opinion 2 disagree

  18. Online survey – part 2 • Reaction to wiki assignment • Enjoyed it / initially badly explained, confusion within topic choice /didn’t like the idea we had to find people to add content /accept it for what it was /good way to learn about wikis / initially overwhelming / no effort = nothing learnt • Learning from wiki assignment • Value of collaborative learning / very good learning experience in terms of learning 2.0 and employing new technologies / writing a report about a wiki is like using a square wheel to describe a round wheel / how practical and usable such a technology is

  19. Online survey – part 2 cont’d • Like about wiki assignment • It was fun to set up/it was cutting edge – it gave me confidence with newer technologies, it allowed me to tailor the assignment to my own interests/ nothing /enjoyed creating the content and receiving positive feedback for my work/fitted in with my work practices • Not like • Didn’t like not being able to choose a topic / newness of the assignment meant it was difficult to be sure I was taking the right approach /vagueness / too open-ended / did not give myself enough time to do it properly • Any other feedback • Improve on the brief / would have enjoyed the assignment more had it been a large group project / will probably create some wikis in the future / one of the best of the course, experiential at its most productive

  20. Ethics • Is it ethical to set new and untried assignments for students? • Masters’ students are not technology guinea pigs (Survey response, 2009) • Use of personas to stimulate interactivity • Ethics of evaluation • Power relations • Use of student work for research purposes • Permission to use wikis sought and granted by 3 students

  21. Development of the assignment • Review assignment • Retain and revise OR remove • Retaining assignment • Clarify brief and assessment criteria • Plan for formative assessment • Apply STOLEN principles (Foord, 2009) as appropriate • Consider context and ensure alignment with learning outcomes (Rust, 2007) • Develop argument for assignment more clearly

  22. References • ASTD (n.d.) E-Learning Glossary, Retrieved 29 January 2009 from http://www.astd.org/LC/glossary.htm. • Bloxham, S. and Boyd, P. (2007). Developing Effective Assessment in Higher Education: a practical guide. Maidenhead, Open University Press. • Dunn, L., Morgan, C., O'Reilly, M. and Parry, S. (2004). The Student Assessment Handbook. New Directions in Traditional and Online Assessment. London and New York, RoutledgeFalmer. • Foord, D. (2009). The STOLEN principle for using wikis educationally. Retrieved 18 May 2009 from http://stolenprinciple.pbworks.com/. • Freeman, R. and Lewis, R. (1998) Planning and Implementing Assessment. London, KoganPage. • Gardner, H. (2000). Can Technology Exploit Our Many Ways of Knowing? Retrieved 18 May 2009 from http://www.howardgardner.com/docs/Can%20Technology%20Exploit%20Our%20Many%20Ways%20of%20Knowing.pdf. • Grant, L. (2006) Using wikis in schools: a case study. Bristol: Futurelab. Retrieved 29 January 2009 from http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/discussion-papers/Discussion-Paper258.

  23. References 2 • Hutchings, P. (ed) (2002). Ethics of Inquiry Issues in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Menlo Park Ca.,: Carnegie Publications. • Lamb, B. (2004) Wide Open Spaces Wikis Ready or Not, Educause Review 39(5), pp. 36-48. Retrieved 29 January 2009 from http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVol/40505 • LeFever, L. (2007) Wikis in Plain English. Retrieved 3 February 2009 from http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english. • Mason, R. and Rennie, F. (2008). E-Learning and Social Networking Handbook. New York and London: Routledge. • O’Donnell, V., Tobbell, J., Lawthom, R. and Zammit, M. (2009). Transition to postgraduate study, Active Learning in Higher Education, 10(1), pp. 26-40. • Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks Ca: Corwin Press. • Rust, C. (2007). Towards a scholarship of assessment, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(2), pp. 229-237. • Wang, L. and Beasley, W. (2008). The wiki as a web 2.0 tool in education. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 4(10), pp. 78-85.

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