Wikis: Enhancing learning in International Tourism Development

1. Wikis: Enhancing learning in International Tourism Development Mandy Talbot School of Management and Business Aberystwyth University

2. Teaching intervention cycle

3. Tourism Development Module • Course Aim: To address the conceptual and practical nature of tourism development and develops students’ transferable skills • Coursework Task : Students work in small groups to identify and evaluate tourism development strategies in given tourist destinations and compare these to approaches being taken elsewhere • Course Approach: Student centred • Method: Classroom presentations • Assessment: 50% Coursework & 50% exam Fiji New Zealand Greece Zanzibar Thailand Dubai (UAE) Maldives Bhutan Galapagos Nepal Egypt

4. The issues The Issues: • Lack of cohesiveness of student presentations: segmented • Limited interaction/ discussion from students with each others’ presentations The Result: • Lost the opportunity to engage with each others’ work The Possible Reasons: • Limited time to assimilate information and to interact with each others’ work • Shyness /Dominant individuals • Lack of preparation / not sharing thoughts

5. The Intervention method: Wikis to host student presentations Wikis are collaboratively created websites that enable visitors to the site to question and comment on content Intervention aims: • To improve the cohesiveness of student group work • To provide students more opportunity to engage with each others’ presentations • To improve the quality of students work • To develop new IT skills • To complement presentations

7. Example wiki: New Zealand 1) The history of international tourism development 2) Current pattern of tourism 3) The economic significance of tourism - an analysis of various statistics 4) Governance of tourism : institutional frameworks within which tourism development takes place 5) Problems associated with tourism Analyse THREE specific problems and show how the destination are addressing them. 6) Give your assessment, of the future prospects for the development of tourism 7) Reference list

8. Stage 2: Student group wiki development Sharing content and ideas: Economic information • Made by Charlie on 3/7/2012 at 3:38 PM, GMT • Hey Nikolas, I found a good PDF for this category for you! I will send it to you on Skype when you come online! IT Skills support: Uploading pictures • Made by Lucy on 3/23/2012 at 1:53 PM, GMT. • I have a graph I would like to put in, I have tried inserting it the way we have been told though no success. • Made by Jane on 3/23/2012 at 3:10 PM, GMT. • Hey save the picture to your own documents on your computer. Then on the wiki toolbar, there is an icon saying edit image, click on that to download the picture

9. Stage 2: Student group wiki development Organising content: National Park • Made by Hannah on 3/26/2012 at 9:39 PM, BST • Hey Helena - Should we make the National Park one special subject as there is so much to it? • Made by Helena on 3/27/2012 at 8:42 PM, BST • We could do that, but do we need that much information about the National Park when the focus is supposed to be on tourism? Encouraging further wiki site development Economic Contribution • Made by Joanna on 3/27/2012 at 9:57 PM, BST • I'm surprised at the low contribution that oil and natural gas contributes to Dubai's economy. Are there any older figures to compare this to in order to determine if there is a shift to other money generating sectors such as tourism?

10. Stage 2: Teacher moderating • A good start: Galapagos • Made by Amanda Talbot on 3/28/2012 at 12:44 PM, BST. • A good start! Re: Between 2010 and 2011 over U.S. $ 21 million was collected through visitor taxes: What is this income used for ? Is it used effectively? • Re: A good start • Made by Helen on 4/3/2012 at 5:53 PM, BST. • Yes over 21 Million $ was collected 2010 - 2011, but only 8 Million $ were used for the National Park and 1 Million $ for the Marine Reserve. The National Park income goes to the State: Ecuador, that redistributes it. You will find a diagram of this shortly in the economics section.Also tourism has exploded recently and the National Park is struggling to manage this - there are problems such as rubbish.

11. Stage 3: Student Interaction • Visitor Numbers: New Zealand • In the graph showing visitor arrivals, there was a significant increase in numbers from 2001 -2004 and a slow down between 2007 - 2009. Why is this and what is the impact? • Re: Visitor numbers • Made by Katy on 4/27/2012 at 10:48 PM, BST. • Increased number in visitor arrivals in 2001-2004 was caused by improving air -links to NZ, And the slow-down noted in 2007-2009 was caused by the world's economic break down – this difficult financial situation discouraged tourists from expensive long-haul travels. • Re: Visitor numbers • Made by Lucy on 4/27/2012 at 5:49 PM, BST. • Increased numbers may also have been due to the Rugby World Cup (which i have explained in the economic section), It would have increased visitor numbers significantly and boosted tourism business incomes such as accommodation

12. How do you think tourism development in Bhutan compares to Nepal? Although similar size and product they have developed very differently? Reply by Hannah on 4/25/2012 at 9:20 PM, BST: • The uncontrolled, environmentally and culturally damaging tourism the Royal Governing body of Bhutan (RGOB) saw in Nepal has meant that Bhutan has chosen a different approach to tourism in order to preserve their "rich heritage and vibrant culture“ which is essential as this is a key reason for visits to Bhutan (Brunet et al, 2001) . • In Nepal environmental degradation from large numbers of tourists is well-documented e.g. Large scale deforestation for fuel wood (Gurung 2008). As forestry is a key sector of the economy in Bhutan, they ensure tourism’s usage does not cause such severe impacts. Bhutan's economy has been growing slowly and the country prides itself in its "restrictive tourism policy " (Seeland, 2000) which enables growth and development at a steady manageable rate.

13. Assessing the impact of the Wikis • Effectiveness assessed through: • Student feedback on the wikis • Assessment of interaction: wikis & in class • Student coursework results • Wiki monitoring tools: site visits 40 – 200+

14. Student Feedback: Open response: what was useful? • The ability to interact with other groups work:x5 ‘commenting on other people’s work’ ‘seeing what others had done’ • The wikis provided an easy way to manage the groups work: x 6‘ It’s easy to check and update group work’ • IT skills development: ‘x6 Learnt how to structure a web page’ • Doing research about new countries: x4 ‘encouraged me to do wider research • Other positive:x2‘fun’&‘useful for exam’ • Negative:x2 Not necessary,presentation enough

15. Student feedback: interaction

16. Overall Student feed back

17. Student coursework results Result span 50-76%

18. Review: Did the wiki intervention meet its aims?

19. Revising the activity Student feedback: • Wiki software: a more user friendly wiki package • Wiki training: inductions in IT lab and instructions • Timing: start the project earlier = more opportunity for interaction Teacher feedback: • Agree an amount of content before sites go live • Give students an idea of number of sites to interact with • Set tasks for students for greater interaction

20. Some final thoughts on creating a student centred wiki exercise • Providing students with a meaningful, real world or relevant task that will encourage them to engage with each other’s sites • Equipping students with the relevant cognitive and technical skills to complete the task • Pitching the activity at the correct level • Engaging students in establishing the ground rules for working in groups and interacting with each others work

21. REFERENCES • Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E. (2008) Cooperation in the classroom, Edina: Interaction Book Company • Richardson, W. (2006) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other Powerful Web-tools for the Classroom, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press • West and West (2009) Using Wikis for Online Collaboration, San Francisco, Wiley