Hughes+and+Narayan

= **Hughes, Joan E and Narayan, Navi.** "Collaboration and Learning with Wikis in Post-Secondary Classrooms" = // Journal of Interactive Online Learning //. Volume 8, Number 1, 2009. 63-82. Online.

Abstract
This research examined the use of wikis used in support of collaboration and learning in two post-secondary courses in a large Midwestern university that adopted wikis in pedagogically different ways. In the first course, students used their wiki as a course content glossary for posting and editing original contributions. They perceived the wiki as positively supporting collaboration efforts and effectively supporting learning and engagement. In the second course, wikis were used to develop, share, and edit project assignments. These students perceived the wiki as not supporting collaboration, and they reported modest perceptions of the wiki supporting their learning and engagement and supporting the development of high-quality assignment products. Technical aspects of the wiki tools impacted the two group’s respective perceptions.

Argument
This research focuses on two questions.
 * 1) "Do students perceive wiki wiki use for coursework as supportive of peer and teacher collaboration?"
 * 2) "Does using a wiki for coursework facilitate students' content learning?"

The study uses two different courses and instructors as well as different uses for wiki tools. The first group, mostly undergraduates in an Interactive Design course, used the wiki as a semester long glossary for terms learned throughout the course. The second group, a graduate seminar for research in Learning Technologies, used the wiki as an assignment archive.

The study used reported activity and answers from a questionnaire to assess the performance of the wiki in collaborative learning. The results obtained from the questionnaire exhibited a conflict between reported activity and the students' perception on wiki performance. The glossary group reported less activity (both original and edited content) then the archive group, yet the glossary group perceived more collaborative learning was promoted by the use of the wiki.

Hughes and Narayan conclude that use of a wiki does not have to exhibit the activity indicators for collaborative learning for the wiki to be perceived as benefiting collaboration. The article encourage similar studies be performed and acknowledges a weakness in the studies results and suggest how to account for the conflict in the results. Hughes and Narayan believe that because this study was asking for comparison of the wiki component of coursework, students' naturally used the normal face to face portion of the course as reference. The authors posit that the glossary group may have had less collaborative learning experience in the face to face portion, which lead to their perceiving the wiki portion as more beneficial to collaborative learning. Because of this weakness, Hughes and Narayan suggest field observation be done in conjunction with similar testing.

Key Passages
"In future research, we recommend including field observations of the courses in which the wikis are used in order to understand the nature of pedagogy (including nature and degree of collaboration) which occurs within the face-to-face instruction. This expanded view would provide a useful frame for understanding the respondents’ views of how the wiki may or may not be playing a role in collaboration among students and instructors."