Introduction

Today, constructivism reverses the learning trend that behaviorism dominated for many years (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000) . Instruction has shifted from a teacher-centered to a student-centered environment. Students are no longer passive information-receivers; rather, they are active knowledge-constructors (Schunk, 2004). During the knowledge-construction process, tools should be provided to support student learning (Davis & Miyake, 2004). Technologies often serve as scaffolding tools in the learning environments (Jonassen et al., 2008). For example, Bell and Linn (2000) employed a technological program called KIE to support students’ reflective thinking and argumentation skills.

To date, web technologies have moved toward a Web 2.0 standard whose core value is social networking. In the Web 2.0 online environment, social networking is a concept which emphasizes collaborative user-to-user interaction (Vickery, 2007). The goal of social networking is to provide a community-based website where users can share personal experiences and construct their knowledge (The Horizon Report, 2007). According to Leuf & Cunningham(2001), a wiki is defined as a “…collection of interlinked Web pages, a hypertext system for storing and modifying information— a database, where each page is easily edited by any user with a forms-capable web browser client” (p. 14). In this platform, users can easily engage in collaborative learning (The Horizon Report, 2007). For teaching and learning purposes, wiki use is a prime example in which social networking functions as an intellectual technology tool to promote collaborative learning (Raman et al., 2005).

Recently, a number of studies have reported that the wiki technique supports teaching effectiveness and’ learning outcomes. For instance, Vaughan (2008) indicated that wiki use in the classrooms can promote peer collaboration and support learning. Similarly, Wang (2008) reported that a wiki is a useful digital tool for teaching. In Taiwan, however, because of cultural factors, wiki use in the classrooms is not as popular as in the United States. Until now, the number of empirical studies regarding wiki integration into instruction in Taiwan remains sparse. For this reason, this study explored the effect of wiki use on Taiwanese college students’ collaborative learning.

Related Literature Survey

Wiki in the classroom is an innovative approach. The popularity of wiki technology for teaching and learning contributes to collaborative learning (Engstrom & Jewett, 2005). In the wiki platform, students can join together for editing the same project’s page contents in real-time (Jonassen et al., 2008). To understand fully the related studies regarding wiki use for student learning, Table 1 summarizes the findings of several researchers as reported in current literature.

The findings listed indicate that integrating a wiki into the curriculum tends to focus on non-engineering education classes, and the amount of existing literature regarding use of wikis is limited. Whether wikis can support engineering student learning remains undetermined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was not only to examine the effect of wikis in engineering learning, but also to add practical insight into the existing literature.

Table 1. Related Studies

Case Scenario

Study Context

Participants for this study were 55 college students majoring in information technology and management at a university in southern Taiwan. Their computer skills were expected to be better than average considering their major course of study. A two-week wiki activity, implemented in a programming language course, Advanced Dynamic Programming, occurred during the spring 2008 semester. Two weeks prior to the study, all participants received notification of the upcoming activity.

Before the study, both the researcher and the course instructor engaged in three preparatory activities. First, the tool shown in Figure 1, PBWiki, created a course wiki with several web pages modified to coincide with the learning goal of the activity. Second, a detailed activity description and a wiki instruction package were formulated to guide students toward successful learning. Lastly, through the PBWiki mail system, 55 individualized e-mails invited participation and provided the method that allowed students who received the e-mail to access the course’s wiki page without a complicated registration process.

Figure 1. Screen shot of the PBwiki Platform

Research Design

The five characteristics of meaningful learning with technology proposed by Jonassen et al. (2008) served as the details of the wiki activity.

1. International (goal directed/regulatory). Participants, randomly divided into 11 groups, were to complete a small group project within a two-week timeframe. The goal of the project was to develop a dynamic program, a search engine system, by using PHP programming code and MySQL database. The programming skills needed for the project were those developed during the previous 8 weeks of class. The assessment standard for the project consisted of two parts: the final product and the wiki page. Based on functionality, creativity, and aesthetics of the final product, the instructor assessed 70% of the project’s score. The other 30% accrued from online performance in the wiki page.

2. Active (manipulative/observant). Each group possessed a collective folder in the wiki page. In this folder, group members easily created a new page or edited material initiated by other members. In other words, students manipulated all learning objects from the course wiki website and observed the results of their manipulations.

3. Constructive (articulative/reflective). By posting a new page in the group folders, each group constructed their knowledge, including an explanation of various members’ roles in the project, illustrations of programming structure, demonstrations of project results, and individual reflective learning. During the knowledge construction, the instructor accessed each group’s folder to provide feedback every day.

4. Authentic (Complex/Contextual). The career goal for all participants was to achieve status as a successful computer engineer or a technology specialist. In real-world workplaces, they will encounter situations in which teamwork is a crucial component during product development. The expectation for this project was that students immersed themselves in the real-world task and better understood what they learned as a result of the project-based nature of the assignment.

5. Cooperative (collaborative/conversational). Each team member in a given group worked collaboratively toward the final product. In addition, each group browsed the other groups’ folders, and peer evaluations promoted project improvements.

Research Method

This study adopted an action research approach. According to Gall et al. (2007), the purpose of action research is to “increase the quality, impact, and justice of education professionals’ practice” (p. 597). This study expected that wiki in the classroom would not only provide the instructor with an opportunity to examine current instructional strategies, but also allow the instructor to re-create a modified learning activity based on the result of this study.

In order to understand better the effect of wiki in the students’ learning outcomes, qualitative research methodology became a primary technique for data collection. For each group’s wiki pages, the researcher used a content analysis approach to explore students’ online behavior as demonstrated in each group’s folder. As for individual learners, survey questions elicited students’ perceptions of using wiki in the classroom. In addition, comparison of the results from the two sources (i.e. qualitative and quantitative data) yielded reliable evidence of the particulars of wiki use. Figure 2 summarizes the research process in this study.

Figure 2. Research process in this study

Results

At the conclusion of the study, all groups produced well-functioning dynamic programs. An analysis of each group’s content and survey results produced the following conclusions:

Content Analysis by Online Observation

During project development, online observations followed the development of each group’s folder in the wiki platform. During the first week, each team seemed to focus on preparation of the project. Team folders reflected no new contents. After the first week, each team initiated uploading the required information to the wiki page. At the same time, based on wiki contents, the instructor provided each team with immediate feedback to guide students toward the right track. Four phenomena arose during the second week:

Figure 3 . One of group projects: A lyric search engine

Survey Questions

After the two-week wiki activity, a self-perception questionnaire elicited participant opinions about the wiki project. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: four Likert-scale questions and one open-ended question. The results of the former appear in Table 2.

The results shown in Table 2 indicate that students agreed that the wiki activity supported their learning during the project’s development (Q1, Q3, and Q4). Moreover, from a learning perspective, students were motivated by the innovative technological tool (Q2). However, although student attitudes toward wiki technology were positive, examining the learning experience from non-scale measurements was necessary. Therefore, one open-ended question elicited student opinions regarding the advantages and challenges of wiki use. Table 3 summarizes the analytical results of the open-ended question.

Table 2. Survey Results of Four Likert-Scale Questions

Table 3. Summary of the Analytical Results of the Open-ended Question

In terms of the advantage of using a wiki, two themes support the results of the Likert-scale questions: motivation/interesting and feedback. The other three themes can be attributed to the technological features of the wiki platform (Themes 2, 3, and 4 in the Advantages theme). In contrast, for the challenges students faced, because the wiki activity was a new teaching strategy in this class, the expression of negative comments regarding extra learning tasks is not surprising. However, almost one third of the students disliked the method for assigning team members. They preferred to work with their “good partners” (i.e. classmates with whom they are familiar).

Discussion

The reason this study implemented random assignment of team members is that the course instructor had concerns about socially motivated loafing in the class (see Piezon & Donaldson, 2005). The instructor’s prior teaching experience had shown that students often choose group members for very specific reasons. For example, students with weak programming skills are more likely to choose those who can cover their programming weakness. The rationale for random assignment was to eliminate the dependency mentality among team members. However, the results of the study show that almost one-fifth of students disliked the random assignment method. Working with someone unfamiliar was uncomfortable. Due to the limitations of the data collection technique, a follow-up study, such as individual interviews with students, would verify the influence of the random assignment’s decreasing the effect of social loafing.

The results of this study are consistent with Vaughan’s (2008) findings. The technological features of wikis, such as a better communication channels, can facilitate group work. Moreover, this study confirmed that wiki technology can support student learning (Armetta, 2007; Bold , 2006 ; Castaneda Vise, 2007; Engstrom & Jewett, 2005; Hewitt & Peters , 2006 ; Ioannou & Artino , 2008 ; O'Bannon , 2008 ; Plowman , 2007 ; Rueckert et al., 2007 ; Solvie , 2008 ; Vaughan, 2008).

However, a polarized reaction appeared in this study. While some students perceived that the wiki tool motivated and benefited their learning, others felt that the extra effort generated by the nature of this project caused an additional learning load. Speculatively, those who expressed negative comments are resistant to a change in their personal learning models. According to Roger’s (2003) diffusion theory, these reluctant participants became adopters of an innovation, later. In other words, adjustment to a new teaching strategy required extra time for acclimation.

In this study, although instruction for peer feedback and online reflection (see appendix) was provided to students, their initial online performance was poor. With regard to peer feedback, the instructor adopted the role of facilitator to steer students in the correct direction. To obtain meaningful peer comments, constant guidance from the instructor was necessary in the student-centered learning environment (Jonassen & Land, 2000). Considering self-reflection, the quality of student responses tended to be superficial learning. Even though immediate feedback was provided by the instructor, the contents of self-reflection did not seem to improve significantly. In an effort to decrease the number of shallow descriptions, students should have been taught how to create high quality reflective content before engaging in reflective learning ( Devlin-Scherer et al ., 2006).

In this study each team apparently participated in a competitive game. Once one team updated the features of its project, other teams would follow this path. No one wanted to occupy a disadvantageous position in a public context. Perhaps the competition not only allowed students to understand what they would face in the professional information and technology fields, but to also adopt the role of observer to learn from peers in order to polish the project’s final results (Vaughan, 2008).

Conclusion

This study implemented a two-week wiki activity in a programming language class. The findings of the study showed that this new teaching method could motivate students to engage in collaborative learning and could support learning outcomes. Moreover, students felt that the features of the wiki platform facilitated their group work. Although some students expressed concerns for the burden of learning and stress from tasks, the learning effectiveness resulting from the wiki activity can surmount those uncomfortable feelings.

The wiki platform created in this project just provides a learning context in which students can improve their professional knowledge by means of collaborative learning. In the future, based on student negative comments, the current instructional strategy will be modified and a new learning activity will be proposed, which can better facilitate teamwork and support student learning.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Dr. Chao-Chun Chen for his invitation to act an instruction designer in his course, Mr. Ho-Huan Chen for his assistance on data collection, and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

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