for Effective Teaching through Online Environments

Workshop: Promoting Collaboration with Wikis
Amanda Schipman, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Overview

Today’s learners expect more than online lectures or one-way communications in distance courses. Activities that promote interaction and collaboration with their peers are becoming a fundamental part of how students learn. Within a wiki, learners possessing little or no knowledge of HTML can collaboratively use, create and modify web content. In this brief hybrid workshop, we’ll explore the different ways you can use wikis to promote collaboration in an online course.

Initial Activity

Write down a brief response to the following questions:

  1. Why is collaboration important in online learning?
  2. What tools would best facilitate collaborative learning in an online course? Why?

eClip - Wikis in Plain English

Video Transcript

Reflection Activity

Think, Pair & Share

What are some ideas for implenting Wikis in an online course? Can Wikis replace any current tools you are using for collaboration? Can Wikis replace any of the tools you brainstormed during the Initial Activity? Record your ideas then pair with a partner and share your thoughts.

Follow-up Resources

50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative & Interactive Classroom

EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative - 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis

EDUCAUSE Pocket Edition #6 – Uses of Wikis (mp3 clip)

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.