A wiki task for first-year university students: The effect of scripting students’ collaboration

Publication date: Available online 27 December 2014 Source:The Internet and Higher Education Author(s): Bram De Wever , Raija Hämäläinen , Michiel Voet , Mario Gielen Developing authentic learning environments in higher education calls for pedagogical approaches to foster online collaborative learning. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a collaboration script for a wiki task. A collaboration script is a set of instructions to improve collaboration between learning partners. Participants were first-year university students in Educational Sciences (N=186) collaborating in groups of five during a three-week period to create a wiki on peer assessment in education. Two conditions were contrasted: a scripted and a non-scripted condition. The effect of scripting was measured in four ways (questionnaires, log-file analyses, group product scores, and individual pre- post-test scores). Results show significant positive effects of scripting with respect to the collaborative group processes and students’ feelings of shared responsibility. No significant effects of scripting were found with respect to the developed wiki products. As for students’ individual learning outcomes, results showed a significant increase from pre- to post-test for all students. Although the increase was higher in the scripted condition, the difference between the conditions was not statistically significant.
Source: The Internet and Higher Education - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research