"Contribution types" in Wikis (using Tikiwiki)
New Method Using Wikis and Forums to Evaluate Individual Contributions in Cooperative Work while Promoting Experiential Learning: Results from Preliminary experience"

Xavier de Pedro
xavier.depedro@ub.edu
Ecology Department
University of Barcelona. Catalonia. Spain

http://edu.tikiwiki.org


Introduction. What is it about?
  • Asking students to think about and select which type of contributions, from an ordered by importance list, they are producing before editing or posting (wikis, forums, blogs, spreadsheets, comments...)
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Introduction. Why?
  • Improve quality of collaborative building of knowledge and associated learning
  • Improve quality of document written by students in group work (blended learning)
  • Promote Experiential-reflective learning (Kolb 1984)
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Methodology: How?
  • 1h initial training in usage of platform (Tiki)
  • Regulated by teacher activities + self regulated students work without teachers
  • Individual and group tutorships
  • Assessing & grading students by the final product AND also by activities along the PROCESS
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Methodology: Which contribution types?
  • List initially set by team of teachers
  • also "open" to student suggestions...
(the more "stars" in left column, the more weight in grading process)

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Methodology: Contributions (Tiki)
Wiki edit example:
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Methodology: Action log (Tiki)
  • information about contributions browsable by students (optional) and also editable by teachers.
    user | date | wiki action | wiki action type | object | category | +bytes | -bytes | Contribution (type) | edit button
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Methodology: Criteria for grading individual contributions
(P = Process | FP = Final product)
(the more "stars", the more weight in grading process)

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Results: contributions in groups
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Results: Individual contributions
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Conclusions: Strengths
  • opportunities for self-regulation by students of their effort invested to develop the specific and cross competences
  • allows teachers to have quantitative data to characterize the contributions of each individual of a work group
  • means a substantial improvement with respect to traditional methodologies in the ability to evaluate student learning when teachers are not eyewitness of the activities
  • facilitates the personalized tutorship "at early stages", so each student can realize what aspects he/she has adequately developed, what other aspects have not been adequately developed (and remedy can be put in time)
  • allows teachers invest weekly less effort since the beginning (instead of a huge effort at the end) to supervise, validate or correct and feedback to student

Conclusions: Weaknesses
  • method does not appreciate the intrinsic quality of the edited text. Critical reading, validation and appraisal of students contributions by teachers is necessary
  • can be inadequate if it is used to promote "police control" of students actions. Its main potential is, instead:
    • serving data for tutorships with students along the process,
    • help detecting and reverting "early enough" whatever handicaps that prevented some students improving their contributions
  • could have some students who refuse to use it, if previous negative experience with Wikis.
    • in some cases: lack of adequate prior instruction about the best practices for using Wikis.
  • 2-3 times more investment of time by teachers is needed to evaluate student contributions (type and sums of sizes).

Acknowledgments and References
http://ws2007.wikisym.org/space/dePedroPaper

(presentation created "dogfooding" Tikiwiki slideshow)