Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing

Abstract

Web 2.0 technologies are having a considerable influence on the learning industry. Constructivist learning processes, such as collaborative writing, have emerged as a result of the development of Web 2.0 technologies. We define the term "mandatory collaborative writing" to describe a writing task where the group has a firm deadline. This article focuses on how a wiki can fully support mandatory group writing. The motivation of this design science research study emerges from a graduate Knowledge Management class assignment to write a wiki book. The main finding shows that the wiki instance used for the project, MediaWiki, could better facilitate the collaborative writing process with a set of extensions that support discussion and project management. We outline designs for these processes: 1) a discussion process that changes the way users discuss content on a wiki page and increases group awareness; and 2) a project management process that increases awareness of the status of each component of the writing project and provides an overall summary of the project. A demonstration of the principles to a focus group provided a basic proof of the validity of this design. The significant contributions of this study are these processes, which can facilitate group writing and constructivist learning processes. Contributions of the study to several streams of research are discussed.

A Collaborative Writing Approach to Wikis: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

“…Heafner and Friedman (2009) suggest that wikis used in secondary social studies facilitated a pedagogical shift from traditional teacher-centered instruction to student-oriented and constructivist learning. Likewise, Kasemvilas and Olfman (2009) pointed out that that MediaWiki could better facilitate the collaborative writing process with some extensions that support discussion and project management.…”

Supporting awareness of content-related controversies in a Wiki-based learning environment

“…setting a deadline or defining different goals of an individual's writing task, and led to a set of extensions and design principles to facilitate group writing and constructivist learning processes (Kasemvilas and Olfman, 2009). Research on the implementation of cognitive group awareness tools to support controversial discussions has been conducted on online forums showed that making contributions more salient could strengthen a group's influence on others and foster learning processes (Buder and Bodemer, 2008).…”

Education Students’ Use of Collaborative Writing Tools in Collectively Reflective Essay Papers

“…In higher education settings, research has been carried out on a wide range of subjects related to wikis, including issues as didactic and organizational arrangements for learning, design of open learning environments, and knowledge production (Baltzersen, 2010;Bonk, Lee, Kim, & Ling, 2009;Hadjerrouit, 2013;Karasavvidis, 2010;Kasemvilas & Olfman, 2009;Pusey & Meiselwits, 2009;Rice, 2009;Su & Beaumont, 2010;Trentin, 2009). (Brodahl et al, 2011, p. 74) However the use of Google Docs (2008) and EtherPad (2008), being collaborative writing tools relatively comparable to wikis, remains a gap in research literature (Benson, 2012;Chu & Kennedy, 2011), though recently a number of contributions to the body of research have been made (Brodahl et al, 2011;Burden, 2012;Caspi & Blau, 2011;Cruz, Dominguez, Maia, Pedrosa, & Grams, 2013;Dishaw, Eierman, Iversen, & Philip, 2013;Garner, 2010;Oguilve, Vindas, & Moya, 2012;Tomlinson et al, 2012).…”