User:Jtneill/Publications/Wikis provide a rich environment for collaborative open educational practices

Wikis provide a rich environment for collaborative open educational practices

James T. Neill
University of Canberra

Word count:
Maximum 2,000
(not including references, appendices, or author biography)

About

Themes

This chapter addresses the following primary book themes:

• Creation
• Authentic Assessment
• Collaboration

Case study area

• Undergraduate postgraduate

Bio

James Neill is an Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Australia. He is an open education advocate who seeks to contribute open educational resources that are maximally reusable and editable by anyone via open wiki platforms, particularly Wikiversity. James is an English Wikiversity custodian and bureaucrat who has made over 70,000 edits since 2005.

Overview

Target: 150-200 words

Wikis offer a rich, but surprisingly underutilised digital environment for collaboratively developing open educational resources. Open wiki platforms, such as those hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, can be used to provide highly engaging and flexible learning and assessment exercises.

To demonstrate the potential of using open wiki platforms with students, a case study of an ongoing project which has developed over 1,500 online, interactive book chapters about the psychological science of motivation and emotion is described. The authors are undergraduate psychology students. Each student develops a chapter about a unique topic. This exercise serves as an innovative alternative to traditional "disposable" (Wiley, 2013) essay writing.

The project's philosophical and educational principles, and its approach to scaffolding and student support, can be readily adapted across disciplines and educational levels. Engaging educators and students in collaborative authoring partnerships on the open web contributes meaningfully to the knowledge commons and develops valuable 21st century digital communication skills. In summary, open wikis offer ideal platforms for open educational practices.

Key stakeholders

Target: 100-125 words

Figure 1. An onion diagram illustrating the key stakeholders in student-authored open wiki projects.

The key stakeholders for the Motivation and Emotion online book project can be understood in terms of an onion layer model (see Figure 1). At the core is an inspired academic educator with values rooted in open pedagogy, annual cohorts of students enrolled in a specific university coursework unit at the University of Canberra (7124 Motivation and Emotion), the broader community of participants who voluntarily edit Wikiversity and its Wikimedia Foundation sister projects, and the broadest stakeholder group are users of the knowledge commons who search for, and access, free content on the internet.

Background info

Target: 275-325 words

The student-authored motivation and emotion book project started in 2010, with approximately 100 to 150 students participating each year since. The project was initiated as an alternative learning and assessment task, in response to some fundamental problems with the widespread overuse of traditional essays in higher education. The project has evolved as a working proof of concept demonstration for how educators can guide student cohorts through simultaneous mass development of individually unique work in a publicly editable, online platform.

Figure 2. Traditional student essays are mass-produced, like sausages in a factory. Instead, each student can learn to produce gourmet, handmade sausages.

The use of disposable essays as a method of assessment is problematic for several reasons. Traditional essays are typically hidden during the (often last-minute) drafting process, limiting the potential for formative feedback and peer-to-peer learning. Usually an educator sets a single or a small number of permissible topics, leading to a lot of repetition between students and over time, like sausages in a factory (see Figure 2), which can be demotivating and heightens the risk of academic integrity violations such as plagiarism and contract cheating. These traditional essays typically never see the light of day, even though their publication potentially offers many benefits for student authors and disparate audiences. Traditional essays are usually written individually, whereas much professional writing in the real world is collaborative and involves version tracking, commenting, and interactive discussion. Traditional essays usually consist of solely of "flat" text which does not make use of the rich, interactive potentials of the internet (e.g., hyperlinks, images, multimedia, interactive commentary). Furthermore, a general skill that students ethically could, or arguably should, learn during higher education, is how to contribute to the knowledge commons.

In summary, student writing can make a valuable contribution to the knowledge commons and much learning can come from engaging students in contributing their ideas and writing into the collective public domain.

Project description

Target: 250-350 words

In this project, students author 3,000 word online book chapters about specific motivation and emotion topics as a major part of the assessment for a Level 3, core unit in an undergraduate psychology course which is accredited by the Australian Psychological Accreditation Council. The unit's learning outcomes are to:

• Identify the major principles of motivation and emotion,
• Integrate theories and current research towards explaining the role of motivation and emotions in human behaviour, and
• Critically apply knowledge of motivation or emotion to an indepth understanding of a specific topic in this field.

In the initial lectures, students are introduced to the rationale for working towards a capstone-style major piece of work in a public space which showcases their skills and knowledge. In the tutorials, students are taught how to create an account, how to sign up to or negotiate a unique topic, basic wiki editing skills, and how to import a customisable template to scaffold a chapter. Students then develop a chapter plan which is submitted as an early assessment item, to encourage development of wiki skills, headings and sub-headings, key points, and identification of key citations about the topic. Students also taught how to edit and comment other chapters and how to record these "social contributions" on their user page. Making social contributions is part of the marking criteria for the book chapter and extensive social contribution can earn bonus. All book chapters have titles and sub-titles in the form of a question (e.g., Music and study: What effect does music have on motivation to study?) which are approved by the educator. Topics are about either motivation or emotion and align with the book theme which is "Understanding and improving our motivational and emotional lives using psychological science". In addition to the text, chapters should include "learning features" which can include internal and external hyperlinks, images, tables, and quizzes. This features help to bring chapters to life and make them more interactive. Finally, students develop a 3-minute multimedia overview of the chapter which is featured underneath the title and sub-title.

Key outcomes

Target: 300 words

• What was achieved?
  • The project addresses several sustainable development goals
• What next?

Learning and recommendations

Target: 350 words

• How can others do this?
• Pitfalls to navigate?

Champions

Target: 200 words

• What was the experience of those worked on the project?
• What did they say?
• Any reflections they have?

Advice/tips

Target: 150 words

• What advice/tips do you have for those wanting to implement a similar open education practice (OEP)?
• Start small, tinker, build skills and confidence, iterate, reflect, and gradually scale up over time

Further resources

Target: 50 words

• English Wikiversity
• Motivation and emotion book project

References

Neill, J. T. (2024). Collaborative authoring using wiki: An open education case study. International Journal of Students as Partners, 8(1), 224–232. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v8i1.5417

Wiley. D. (2013, 21 October). What is open pedagogy? Improving Learning. https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975