Cited As: Chu, S.K.W., Siu, F.L.C., Liang, M., Capio, C.M. & Wu, W.W.Y. (in press). Users’ experiences and perceptions on using two wiki platforms for collaborative learning and knowledge management. Online Information Review.
Users’ experiences and perceptions on using two wiki platforms for collaborative learning and knowledge management
Samuel Kai Wah Chu*, Felix L.C. Siu*, Michael Liang†, Catherine M. Capio#, Wendy W.Y. Wu*
*Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong, HKSAR
† WiderWorld Company Ltd.
# Institute of Human Performance, the University of Hong Kong, HKSAR
Abstract
Purpose - This study aims to examine users’ experiences and perceptions associated with the use of two wiki variants in the context of collaborative learning and knowledge management in higher education.
Methodology - Participants included two groups of postgraduate students from a university in Hong Kong who used MediaWiki (n = 21) and TWiki (n = 16) in completing course requirements. Using a multiple case study approach and a mixed methods research design, data logs on the wiki platforms were downloaded and the contents were analyzed. Students’ perceptions were examined through a survey.
Findings - Findings indicate that both wikis were regarded as suitable tools for group projects, and that they improved group collaboration and work quality. Both wikis were also viewed as enabling tools for knowledge construction and sharing.
Implications - This study provides insights that may inform the decisions of educators who are considering the use of wiki in their courses as a platform to enhance collaborative learning and knowledge management.
Originality/value - Previous research has shown that wikis can be effectively used in education. However, there are a number of wiki variants and it may be difficult to identify which variant might be the best choice. There is a dearth of research comparing the effectiveness of different types of wikis. This study compares two wiki variants on a number of outcomes which may provide some insights to teachers who are in the process of selecting an appropriate wiki for teaching and learning.
Keywords: Wiki, collaborative learning, knowledge management, knowledge sharing
1. Introduction
From the time that Ward Cunningham developed the first wiki in 1994 as the Portland Pattern Repository for a small community of software engineers, wikis have been taken up across diverse disciplines, including in businesses and educational settings, and in community projects (Klobas, 2006). In the commercial settings, wikis have been deployed as organization knowledge databases or project management tools, contributing to increased efficiency (Paquet, 2006). Wiki’s collaborative features make it easy for users to contribute to the knowledge base. Hence, a successful wiki can serve as a platform to shape an organization into one which may be called a knowledge-creating company (Nonaka, 1991). Adapting this concept to an educational setting, students using wiki tools could effectively establish a knowledge-creating platform that stirs brainstorming activities, enhances project outcomes, and stimulates individual learning.
Constructivism emphasizes individual learners’ role in constructing meaning, instead of a mechanical transmission of content from teacher to student (Duffy & Cunningham, 1996). Learners “are required to examine thinking and learning processes; collect, record, and analyze data; formulate and test hypotheses; reflect on previous understanding; and construct their own meaning” (Crotty, 1994: 31). This approach engages learners so that constructed knowledge are usable in new and different situations (Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell & Haag, 1995). Furthermore, the constructivist approach has been found to impact curricula across different levels worldwide, and has led to a gradual shift from exam-based to project-based learning (Chu et al., 2008). Project-based learning (PjBL) allows students to deal with problems in order to master facts and key concepts in a subject matter, rather than learning and acquiring concepts in a rote fashion (Norman & Schmidt, 1992).
Web 2.0 tools have been suggested to form a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment that help students adapt better from rote learning to active learning (Chu, Chan & Tiwari, 2012). In particular, wikis have been proposed to be useful due to is information sharing and straightforward collaboration features that make them particularly well-suited for promoting cooperative learning environments (Schaffert, et al., 2006). Hazari et al. (2009) clarified that collaborative learning could take place via the wiki platform, as it provides an environment where team members can access shared resources, create task lists, and contribute individual analyses to co-construct a project. One form of collaborative activity that has been regarded to facilitate the development of a shared understanding of concepts is knowledge construction (Lipponen, 2002). Logically, the outcomes of collaborative knowledge construction would be affected by the quality of student interaction and the tools they use (Veerman, & Veldhuis-Diermanse, 2001).
Wikis, as a tool, are loaded with functionalities that could influence the effectiveness of learning experiences (Bower, Woo, Roberts, & Watters, 2006). Subtle differences in technology could affect the socio-educational environment (Gunawardena & McIsaac, 2004), thus highlighting the importance of positive user experiences and utilities that facilitate effective collaboration and knowledge management. Technical comparisons of various wiki variations are available (e.g., Tonkin, 2005). However, there is a dearth of research on empirical comparisons of wiki variants in higher education (Elgort et al., 2008).
This research contributes to the growing literature on the use of wikis in higher education by comparing the use of two comprehensive and popular wikis – TWiki and MediaWiki - in postgraduate students’ group project work at a university in Hong Kong. As wikis are purported to be tools that were designed to facilitate collaborative knowledge construction, this study explored students’ experiences of using TWiki and MediaWiki, and examined users’ perceptions on the effectiveness of these wiki variants on collaboration and knowledge management.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Wiki as a knowledge management tool
Nonaka and Takeuchi’s (1995) work on the Socialization Externalization Combination Internalization (SECI) model for knowledge creation laid the foundation for research on knowledge management (KM) in education (e.g. Edge, 2005). Knowledge creation was explained as a spiraling process of interactions between explicit and tacit knowledge in a four-stage knowledge conversion process: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). It has been suggested that such interactions between explicit and tacit knowledge may be facilitated by wiki platforms, which provide a knowledge repository for building communities of practice as apparent in the case of the education sector (Sheehy, 2008). In corporate organizations, wikis have been utilized in highly collaborative tasks such as project management and co-creation of documents, policies, procedures, and databases (Tay, 2009). Molyneaux and Brumley (2007) noted that wikis facilitate project management through its features that allow easy accessibility, and the ability to track timelines and tasks.
Wiki, as a technology, has been designed as a collaborative environment (Engstrom & Jewett, 2005). The utilities of wiki allow multiple authors to jointly edit pages to produce a collaboratively authored resource, thus suggesting a capability to facilitate the formation of collective intelligence. Wiki’s What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) content editor enables quick and easy web editing. Thus the knowledge base could be updated frequently as users are able to contribute to a document’s content, perform multiple editing, and take part in a work in progress (Lamb, 2004). Wiki pages are organized by content, and users are able to structure their posted information, retrieve earlier versions, and trace project progress (Lamb, 2004; Raman et al., 2005). In terms of security, the “access right control” feature allows users to restrict write or read access at the page level or site level conveniently. In other words, sensitive information could be uploaded to the wiki to be shared with a limited audience while less sensitive information could be shared with the public. Pages could also be locked from editing, ensuring data accuracy.
Given these features, a wiki could provide a social interaction platform in which knowledge is created and exchanged at low costs (Stvilia et al., 2008). Users could easily share knowledge due to the ease of web publishing. At the same time, knowledge capture could also occur when the user turns tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge through web publishing. Knowledge transfer could happen when a knowledge-seeking user learns from the published information. Given this collective intelligence and knowledge exchange among the community members, knowledge creation could happen as a result of transformative learning. This process has been observed in case studies of business organizations that have utilized wikis as active repositories of knowledge and expertise (Tay, 2009). It has been shown that a wiki could provide the platform for capturing the tacit knowledge and technical know-how of an organization’s member.
An emerging shift in KM approaches appears to be related to the use of online platforms like wiki. While the more traditional KM strategy utilizes a centralized knowledge repository, the use of wiki has directed KM towards a more interactive and conversational approach (Lee & Lan, 2007). Knowledge has ceased from being dominated by domain experts, and has become shared by peers who share their capabilities. This shift highlights the collaborative nature that wiki lends to KM strategies.
2.2 Wiki in Education
With the perceived visibility of their published work to an infinitely large online audience, wiki contributors have been found to put serious efforts in constructing knowledge (Hazari et al., 2009; Forte, 2006). Forte and Bruckman (2007) interviewed regular wiki contributors, and found that they spent tremendous effort in searching accurate facts, minimize errors, and present information without bias. It also appears that wiki contributors become motivated to engage in inquiry learning (Forte & Bruckman, 2006). Thus, it has been suggested that educators may use wikis to support coursework, and potentially nurture an environment, which promotes students’ critical inquiry. The motivation that has been found among wiki contributors could potentially translate as a positive factor influencing students’ academic success (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2010).
It has also been suggested, on the basis of their functionalities, that wikis have the potential to promote collaborative learning (Hsu, 2007; McLoughlin & Lee, 2007). A number of studies have demonstrated empirical evidence that supports such utility of wikis in education (Chu, Cheung, Ma, & Leung, 2008; Mak & Coniam, 2008; Nicol, Littlejohn, & Grierson, 2005). For instance, wikis have been found to be useful for students who were engaged in collaborative tasks (Bower, Woo, Roberts & Watters, 2006). Students’ effective engagement in group project implementation were also found to benefit from the use of wikis (Augar, Raitman & Zhou, 2004; Fountain, 2007). It appears that the use of wikis in education is hinged on their utility as a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment.
Theoretically, the use of wikis as a CSCL environment has been grounded in constructivism (e.g., Coyle, 2007; Larusson & Alterman, 2009; Woo, Chu, Ho, & Li, 2011). Constructivist teaching approaches focus on facilitating active processing and interpretation of information by students (Ally, 2008). Collaborative learning has been known to be a constructivist approach (Dillenbourg & Schneider, 1995), such that interactions among students have been shown to enhance learning through exposure to alternative perspectives (Brett & Nagra, 2005). Since collaborative learning places great emphasis on the extent of the exchanges that occur among students in a given environment (Dillenbourg & Schneider, 1995), the discussion that occurs during task engagement in a platform such as wiki is important to consider (Pressley & McCormick, 2006).
It is not surprising that CSCL environments would also encounter problems in facilitating the desired student interactions in a collaborative learning approach (Kirschner, Strijbos, Kreijns, & Beers, 2004). In one study that utilized wiki in an undergraduate information systems module, little impact on student engagement was found because students chose not to post information on the wiki (Cole, 2009). Such problem was likely associated with insufficient integration of the wiki into the teaching format of the course. It has been suggested such problems could be addressed by evaluating learning environments in terms of the pedagogical and social factors that facilitate collaborative activities (Kirschner, et al., 2004).
2.2 Wiki variants
TWiki, an enterprise wiki tool used as a project development space or a knowledge base, has been considered a collaborative tool for the development of educational papers and technical projects (Raygan & Green, 2002). As wikis have been reported to be gaining ground in higher education (Elgort et al., 2008), a recent study by Chu (2008) used TWiki in group project work of undergraduate students. A general improvement in the quality of group project output was perceived by students and attributed to enhanced collaboration brought about by TWiki.
MediaWiki is another wiki variant that has gained its reputation and popularity as the software used by Wikipedia. In higher education context, MediaWiki has been used to enhance social interaction in assignments (Augar et al., 2004), and in developing an encyclopedia on new media technologies among undergraduate students (Bruns & Humphreys, 2005). Academic interest in facilitating academic collaboration on MediaWiki has been growing (e.g. Foley & Chang, 2006). While both wiki variants appear to offer educators a free and open source collaborative platform, technical differences are evident and are summarized in Table 1. While the differences in terms of language, data storage and interface are straightforward; users’ experiences remain unexplored as far as usefulness in an education context is concerned.
Table 1 Technical comparison of Twiki and MediaWiki.
Twiki / MediaWikiFree and Open Source / Yes / Yes
Language / Perl / PHP
Data Storage / File-based / Database such as MySQL
Interface language / 19 / 140
Source: WikiMatrix – compare them all. Retrieved from http://www.wikimatrix.org/compare/TWiki+MediaWiki+Confluence+TracWiki
2.4 Research Gap
Wikis have been suggested to be effective online platforms for collaboration and knowledge management, and its application in education appears to enhance student learning. The number of wiki variants is likely to continue growing, and interested educators may find it difficult to identify which variant might be the best choice for a specific purpose. While technical specifications are readily comparable, the subtle differences when wikis are utilized in education need to be examined closer. This is an empirical study that compares the perceived effectiveness of two different wiki variants in facilitating collaborative learning and knowledge management. Comparison of learning experiences in collaboration, knowledge sharing, and knowledge creation activities with TWiki and MediaWiki in a masters level of study at a university in Hong Kong was done. The findings of this study contribute towards addressing the current gap in research, thereby providing evidence for the utility of wikis as a tool for collaborative learning and knowledge management. Moreover, the findings of this study contribute towards understanding wiki as an online learning environment through the perceptions of student users.