An empirical analysis on how learners interact in wiki in a graduate level online course

Citation:

Work data:

ISSN: 1744-5191

Type of work: Article (academic)

Categories:

e-Learning and Instructional Technology | Education

Tags:

ple

Abstract:

As Web 2.0 emerging technologies are gaining momentum in higher education, educators as well as students are finding new ways to integrate them for teaching and learning. Technologies such as blogs, wikis and multimedia-sharing utilities have been used to teach various subject matters. This trend not only creates new opportunities for us to afford collaborative learning processes but also generates research inquiries that demand that we empirically examine those technologies’ pedagogical impact against existing theoretical frameworks. By doing so, we are able to validate Web 2.0 technologies’ systematic integration into instructional settings while innovating the learning process for new generations of learners. Therefore, this exploratory mixed-method case study, situated in a 10-week online graduate level course, investigated the perceived interaction levels between learner–learner and learner–instructor in using PBwiki for weekly reading assignments. Based on quantitative responses from 16 participants, learners perceived a significantly higher level of instructional interaction with their peers than they did with the instructor. Their qualitative responses further identified their weekly activity patterns in accomplishing the Wiki assignments and provided rationales for their interaction level perceptions. This case study concluded that educators should remove all communication modalities external to the Wiki environments to provide authentic Wiki-collaboration experiences for learners.