Wiki Wonderful Student perspectives of an elearning experience

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Wiki Wonderful? Student perspectives of an
e-learning experience

• Louise Martin
• School of Sport Exercise Science

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Background

• More than just an electronic filing cabinet
• Online tutoring course (OCSLD, Nov 2006)
• Student feedback on repetitive nature of three
  PBL scenarios
• Facilitate a PBL scenario entirely by e-learning

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ILS Support

• Paul Williams
• Set up wiki page for each group using
  www.wikispaces.com
• Created guidelines to using wiki and developing a
  wiki page

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On-line activities

• Early on-line tasks to
• Familiarise students
• Highlight technical difficulties
• Develop student confidence in on-line discussion

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Examples

• Sporting Heroes and Heroines
• Johnny Wilkinson and England Rugby Success Fact
  or Fiction
• 11 of 18 students posted in each, with just 3
  students replying to others comments

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Scenario 2 Enduro-Rider

• PowerPoint presentation with rider quotes and
  task guidelines
• Video clip
• Wiki guide
• Private group discussion board
• Email to invite to join group wiki space

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Completed Wiki Space

• 3018blue home
• 3018red Assignments

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Student Evaluations

• On-line survey
• Frequency and type of contributions
• Comparisons to face-to-face discussions
• Access and use of wiki space
• Knowledge and skill development
• Impact e-learning on student experience

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Themed Analysis

• Primary Themes
• Technology
• Communication
• Learning pedagogy
• Subject knowledge

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Technology

• Majority access to webCT
• 28 respondents unable to access wiki, 64
  identified very easy.
• I have been unable to register on the wiki space
  and my
• access has been limited as I commute to uni. My
  home
• internet cannot access WebCT (S1)
• I found it straightforward accessing and
  registering the
• site, but I found it difficult to get my work
  on, but eventually found out (S8)

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• Disaster I hate computers and they dont
• like me very much either. When I opened
• the email invitation I could not click the link
• and when I pasted the link it said the site did
  not
• exist and this happened with 2 separate emails.
• For me the wiki was a horrible experience but I
  do
• see the benefits of it (S15)

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Communication

• 50 communication less frequent, but higher
  quality discussions on-line
• 50 reported they preferred face-to-face
  discussions to on-line
• Asynchronous nature was problematic
• Availability postings to refer back to
  advantageous

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• I believe the online discussions are more formal
  which is beneficial to constructing quality work
  but was too infrequent to have any impact on how
  members of the group developed their work
  individually (S5)
• Discussion was less frequent and sometimes there
  were days between responses (S9)

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Learning Pedagogy

• Active learning via
• Sharing ideas
• Discussions
• Posting research and references

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• My main influence was discussion on problems and
  brainstorming with others (S13)
• Other peoples postings triggered thoughts and
  gave guidance into which direction to further
  research (S6)

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Knowledge and Skills

• Communication
• IT skills
• Research/Referencing
• Organisational

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• Computer skills, communication skills you have
  to be more clear and precise. (S2)
• Skills have developed in summarising and
  communicating ideas in a short and precise way
  (S13)
• Application of knowledge is biggest skill I have
  learnt, as well as skills associated with working
  with people communication, patience (S9)

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Student Experience

• WebCt is very effective when used properly but
  it takes a challenge like this to learn how to
  best utilise it (S15)
• The e-learning scenario has given me a wider
  perspective on how to produce an effective piece
  of work within a group
• Its just made me feel annoyed that I couldnt
  show my full potential and knowledge of the
  situation to the rest of my group (S1)

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• Strengths
• Communication
• Skills development
• Easy monitor individual contributions

• Development
• Transferring skills into face to face sessions
• Asynchronous
• Valuable approach to adopt earlier in course
• Develop wiki guidelines
• Technology

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Summary

• High level satisfaction and achievement that I
  have moved on from electronic filing cabinet
• Shared with SSES through 3-week webCT staff
  development to devise a wiki
• Consider using earlier to develop referencing and
  communication skills
• Challenge is to get students to communicate as
  confidently in face to face situations