Scaffolding wiki‐supported collaborative learning for small‐group projects and whole‐class collaborative knowledge building

Abstract

While educators value wikis' potential, wikis may fail to support collaborative constructive learning without careful scaffolding. This article proposes literature-based instructional methods, revised based on two expert instructors' input, presents the collected empirical evidence on the effects of these methods and proposes directions for future refinements. The instructional methods were implemented by an expert instructor teaching a 12-week 68-student undergraduate design class in Canada. Data were collected from observations, interviews and content analysis of wikis. The findings revealed that in small-group project (SGP), the wiki instructional methods enhanced collaborative learning with most instructional methods derived from cooperative learning, but in whole-class collaborative knowledge building (CKB), the wiki instructional mehtods failed to turn the class into a self-sustained learning community after the scaffolding faded. We conclude that the genre of wikis should be different for SGP and CKB. While the students easily adopted the 'reproduced' genre of wikis for SGP with familiar tasks, they felt overwhelmed or resistant to the unfamiliar 'emergent' genre of wikis for CKB in massive collaborative constructive learning. Therefore, we propose that future refinements for wiki-supported CKB should focus on providing students scaffolding for intersubjectivity (understanding collaborative constructive learning) and transfer of responsibility (developing autonomy).Keywords collaborative knowledge building, collaborative learning, genre of wikis, scaffolding, smallgroup project-based learning, wikis.

Types and Timing of Scaffolding to Promote Meaningful Peer Interaction and Increase Learning Performance in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

“…These results showed the positive effect of structured scripts for meaningful negotiation when addressing a complex task (Haake & Pfister, 2010;Weinberger, Stegmann, Fischer, & Mandl, 2007). Still, not many studies have investigated appropriate methods for systematically supporting learners' negotiation processes to encourage them to propose diverse ideas and integrate feedback into one solution to reach a collaborative outcome in CSCL environments (see Lin & Reigeluth, 2016;Tiruneh et al, 2016). It is unclear how scaffolding strategy should be effectively differentiated in the meaning-negotiation phase and position-negotiation phase, given the characteristics of scaffolding (Shin et al, 2018;Slof et al, 2010).…”

Scientific Memes: Using the Language of Social Media to Improve Scientific Literacy and Communication in Lifespan Development

“…Several studies have focused on the use of social media, in particular wikis, to promote learning objectives including student collaboration, knowledge building, writing skills, and scientific literacy. Wikis (i.e., publicly editable websites with informative articles) are commonly used by educators as tools to foster student collaboration (Hulbert-Williams, 2010; Kummer, 2013;Shane-Simpson et al, 2016;Zheng et al, 2015) and knowledge building, or the "collective creation of public knowledge" (Kimmerle et al, 2011, p. 139;Lin & Reigeluth, 2016, 2019). Kummer's (2013) meta-analysis on wiki collaboration indicated that providing wiki training, incentivizing participation, scaffolding collaborative activities, and establishing netiquette guidelines are all important for facilitating productive collaboration.…”

“…Kummer's (2013) meta-analysis on wiki collaboration indicated that providing wiki training, incentivizing participation, scaffolding collaborative activities, and establishing netiquette guidelines are all important for facilitating productive collaboration. Multiple studies have suggested that, to optimally build collaborative knowledge, instructors must integrate scaffolding, class discussions, and multiple time points of graded feedback (Lin & Reigeluth, 2016, 2019. The scientific memes assignment integrates similar characteristics to optimize student learning outcomes (e.g., scaffolding, class discussions, and multiple graded feedback stages).…”

Creating and Collaborating: Students’ and Tutors’ Perceptions of an Online Group Project

“…Asynchronous tools, such as online discussion forums, enable students to communicate at any time that suits them; forums, in particular are a popular way of supporting online group work (Oliveira, Tinoca, & Pereira, 2011). Wikis support collaborative writing, as well as other aspects of online collaboration (Lin & Reigeluth, 2016). Synchronous tools, such as Web conferencing, that support real-time audio, video and text interactions can also be valuable (Kear et al, 2010;Thorpe & Edmunds, 2011).…”