A Case Study of Wikis Effects on Online Transactional Interactions - Essay Example

Article Summary: A Case Study of Wikis’ Effects on Online Transactional Interactions Schools Number and of Instructors Name Date of Submission (e.g., October 12, 2009) Article Summary: A Case Study of Wikis’ Effects on Online Transactional Interactions Introduction The article entitled “A Case Study of Wikis’ Effects on Online Transactional Interactions.” (Wen-Hao, 2010) is an interesting contribution to modern theories of online learning. David Wen-Hao is assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and he has publications and a research interest in technology and learning. This article explores the interfaces between learners, educators and various new technologies, especially Web 2.0 and wikis, which are increasingly being used in educational contexts across the world. It argues that educators need to learn a number of essential strategies if they are to enable students to get the best out of the collective learning opportunities that wikis offer. The study is important because it goes beyond explaining the potential of the technology, and looks in depth at the how the tripartite relationship between learners, educators and technology needs to evolve in practice. Above all the article demonstrates that the latest Web 2.0 technologies still require educators to apply elements of existing online learning theory and that they additionally require that some new theories be developed and adopted, which are particularly relevant to the collective learning context of wikis. Analysis As the title suggests, the article is based on a case study methodology focusing on the new situation that arises when Web 2.0 technology is implemented in an educational context. The unique contribution of wikis is that they are designed allow many different users to review, contribute to, and modify both synchronously and asynchronously, a collection of web pages. Researchers know very well that students work together when they use wikis, and they have accepted that this interaction is both valuable and important, but so far there is a gap in current understanding since existing research “lacks transparency on what activities learners carry out in wikis and those activities’ impact on online learning.”(Wen-Hao, 2010, p, 1) The main aim of the study is therefore to examine what learners actually do when they use wikis. A second aim is stated also, namely to understand how learners perceive their own interactions with each other and with their instructor when they are using wikis. The literature review concentrates on the learner/instructor relationship and the need to reduce transactional distance in order to foster dialog. Learner-Content, Learner –Instructor and Learner-Learner interactions are all cited as essential components in online learning. It is pointed out that the pre-Web 2.0 technologies, such as emails, discussion forums and chat, are usually well mapped out in a hierarchical way by the instructor, and there are clear paths for each type of interaction within the course plan. Wikis, on the other hand, encourage more autonomy, and result in a more collaborative and collective endeavor. Because of in-built archiving and updating mechanisms, there is always the possibility of identifying individual contributions at different stages in retrospect, as well as the finished collaborative text. The case study at the center of this article uses a naturalistic observation method coupled with a survey which was a modified version of an earlier survey completed by Arbaugh and Benbunan-Fich (2007). The sample chosen was a group of sixteen Masters level graduate students at a state university in the United States. They were all participating in a formal instructional technology design course which covered a range of subject areas in the field of E-Learning design. The only ethical issue that is mentioned is that of privacy, in so far as the wiki was closed to the participating study group, and did not allow access to any outsiders. A program-specific wiki was set up using software entitled PBworks and students were instructed to contribute to this, as well as completing weekly reflective surveys, in which they recorded their reading and their interactions. 24 items were examined using a 7-point Likert scale. Half of the items referred to Learner-Instructor interaction and half to Learner-Learner interaction. The results showed that the students reported very little Learner-Instructor interaction, and a great deal of Learner-Learner interaction, as well as “numerous spontaneous reflective activities as part of the synthesizing process.” (Wen-Hao, 2010, p. 7) Learner-Instructor interaction decreased over the nine week program. The author acknowledges that the sample size of sixteen is small, and that responses were obtained in a non-controlled setting, but nevertheless the case study does support the hypothesis that wikis encourage collaborative learning. Students reported writing, reviewing and editing tasks much more assiduously at the beginning of the program, and by the end seem to have internalized these processes, so that they did not mention them so often. The author concludes that therefore instructors need to focus on these elements at first, until students become familiar with the mechanics of the software. If the dynamic collaboration is to be effective in the medium term, however, instructors are advised to leave plenty of room for student autonomy because this is very closely linked to student motivation to keep up wiki contributions. Conclusion This study by Web-Hao is useful because it provides some data on what students say they did when using wikis, and some student perceptions about the types of interactions they had. These technologies are relatively new and it is important to gather this kind of primary data for analysis. There is no indication what the instructor’s perception was, however, and very little consideration of variation between different students. The survey method, as opposed to structured interview for example, does not allow any deep insight into the attitudes of the students and may encourage stock responses. There was no attempt to correlate the student feedback in their surveys with actual participation frequency and volume, and so there is a danger that some of the data be an inaccurate reflection of what actually happened. There was also a bias in the chosen sample, because the students were all highly competent users of new technology. A study with undergraduates, or students less familiar with new technologies would doubtless have produced very different results. These are all weaknesses in the study which do not detract from its specific findings but do limit the extent to which these findings can be generalized. The author suggests that “existing theoretical frameworks for online teaching and learning need to be re-examined” (Wen Hao, 2010, p. 11) and this is a logical conclusion, since the article makes interesting suggestions regarding the positive impact of collaborative learning using wikis, but falls short of proving proof of this, not least because it only describes how the students learned, and fails to provide an objective means of measuring any actual impact on what the students have learned or how well they have understood it. There was no control group, or comparative non-wiki based sample and so conclusions about qualitative improvement would be hard to justify. In short this was a competent, small scale exploratory study, but it raises considerably more questions than it answers. Works Cited Arbaugh, J.B. and Benbunan-Fich, R. (2007) The importance of participant interaction in online environments. Decision Support Systems 43, 853-865. Wen-Hao, D. (2010). A Case Study of Wikis’ Effects on Online Transactional Interactions. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 6 (1), 1-14. . Read More