Are Great Wikis Born or Made? Are Students Just Posting in the Same Place?

Are Great Wikis Born or Made?Evaluating Quality Trajectories in

Wiki Learning Environments

Justin Reich

Richard Murnane

John Willett

Just Posting in the Same Place?Evaluating Student Collaboration in

Wiki Learning Environments

@bjfr

edtechresearcher.org

Distributed Collaborative Learning Communities Project:

Web 2.0 in K-12 Settings

• Excellence: How do we make them good?

• Equity: Do only certain kids get the good ones?

• Analytics: What can we learn about learning from real-time usage data from online learning environments 2

3

Initial Quantitative Analysis to

Develop Sampling Strategy

Classroom Observations and Teacher Interviews to

Understand Wiki Practices

Measure Wiki Quality

Develop Wiki Quality

TrajectoriesLiterature Review of CSCL and 21st C. Skill

Scholarship

Path Diagram of Wiki Research

Correlate wiki quality with school level

SES

4

Initial Quantitative Analysis to

Develop Sampling Strategy

Classroom Observations and Teacher Interviews to

Understand Wiki Practices

Measure Wiki Quality

Develop Wiki Quality

TrajectoriesLiterature Review of CSCL and 21st C. Skill

Scholarship

Path Diagram of Wiki Research

Correlate wiki quality with school level

SES

Low Income Schools(n=117)

Mid to High Income Schools

(n=133)

Failed or Trial Wiki 50% 30%

Teacher-Content Wiki 34% 35%

Individual Student-Owned Wiki

15% 35%

Collaborative Student-Owned Wiki

2% 1%

Median Lifetime 6 days 33 days

6

Initial Quantitative Analysis to

Develop Sampling Strategy

Classroom Observations and Teacher Interviews to

Understand Wiki Practices

Measure Wiki Quality

Develop Wiki Quality

TrajectoriesLiterature Review of CSCL and 21st C. Skill

Scholarship

Path Diagram of Wiki Research

Correlate wiki quality with school level

SES

Are great wikis born or made?

“Time is Precious”

• Reimann (2009)– Collaborative learning unfolds over time

• Substantive need

– Online learning environments track data in real time• Methodological opportunity

8

Initial Quantitative Analysis to

Develop Sampling Strategy

Classroom Observations and Teacher Interviews to

Understand Wiki Practices

Measure Wiki Quality

Develop Wiki Quality

TrajectoriesLiterature Review of CSCL and 21st C. Skill

Scholarship

Path Diagram of Wiki Research

Correlate wiki quality with school level

SES

How did we measure collaborative behaviors on wikis, and what did we find?

Theoretical debates in wikis and collaboration (IJCSCL)

Are students meaningfully collaborating?

Dohn (2009): Web 2.0 tools are theoretically well-suited for collaborative knowledge production practices, but the educational logics of individual assessment prevent these practices from being realized.

Or just posting in the same place?

Glassman and Kang (2011): wikis not only enable students to participate in knowledge building, but allow the enactment of Dewey’s vision

Go Big Data!

The Plan• Explain our research design• Explain how we model wiki quality over

time– Answer the question: Are Great Wikis Born or

Made?• Explain in detail how we measure

collaboration– Answer the question: Who’s right: Dohn or

Glassman & Kang?

RESEARCH DESIGN

Which wikis are in my dataset?• All 179,851 publicly-viewable education-related

wikis started on the PBworks platform between June 2005 and August of 2008.

• Does not include “private” wikis (~70,000)

12

179,851PBWorks Wikis

Which wikis are in my sample?• Randomly sampled 1,799 wikis (1%)• Coded to identify 406 U.S. based, K-12 wikis• 255 from specific, identifiable public schools

– Detailed usage statistics provided by PBworks.com– School level SES data from the Common Core of Data (National

Center for Education Statistics, 2007-2008) – 255 wikis are from 41 U.S. states

13

179,851PBWorks Wikis 1,799

1% Random Sample

406U.S. K-12

Wikis

255Public School

How should we measure wiki quality?

Wiki quality as opportunities for 21st Century Skill Development

Expert Thinking

Complex Communi-

cation

New Media Literacy

Wiki Quality Instrument• Information Consumption (2 items):

– Do students use wikis to get information? links?

• Participation (4 items):– Do they contribute? Do they own pages?

• Expert thinking (5 items):– Do students use academic content knowledge in wiki activities?– Do students reflect on the process/product?

• Complex Communication/Collaboration (7 items):– Do students concatenate text on pages?– Do they substantively edit each others work and co-create pages?

• New Media Literacy (6 items):– Do students use formatting?– Do they hyperlink? Embed media?

24 QuestionsWiki Quality Scale

of 0-24

How did we measure wiki quality?• Sample wiki quality at 7, 14, 30, 60, 100, and

400 days• Two raters independently apply wiki quality

instrument– All raters must code “training set” of wikis within 1.5

points of master coders– Weekly meetings while coding to discuss categories,

difficult cases, etc.

• Third rater reconciles disagreements

17

Data Analytic Strategy:Multilevel Model for Change

• We should have time nested within wikis and use the MMFC to model quality trajectories

• What functional form should we use to represent time?

• The decision that we make in setting a functional form will answer the research question about time!

BUT WHICH ONE!!!!

Data Analytic Strategy:Multilevel Model for Change

Selected Empirical Growth Plots

Empirical Velocity Plot of Wiki Quality

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 4500

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

Mean Difference in Score/Days

Data Analytic Strategy:Multilevel Model for Change

Comparing Fit Statistics

Linear Quadratic LogIntercept 2.8371*** 2.5647*** 1.2073***

Time 0.005629*** 0.02078***Time2 -0.00004***Ln(Time) 0.6614***-2LL 5542.2 5468.7 5263.0AIC 5554.2 5482.7 5275.0BIC 5578.3 5510.9 5299.1

Data Analytic Strategy:Multi-level Poisson Regression

Singer and Willett (2008); Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal (2008)

Prototypical wiki quality trajectory (n=406)

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 4000

5

10

15

20

Days

Co

mp

os

ite

Wik

i Q

ua

lity

Sc

ore

Implications• Early wiki quality is a strong predictor of

later wiki quality- Great Wikis are Born– Hypothesis: Norms developed early on in wiki

learning communities are powerful in shaping later use

– FOR TEACHERS: Therefore, wiki design deserves critical attention

– FOR RESEARCHERS: Further qualitative studies of wiki using communities should ensure that observers can study wikis from the start of the process

BACK TO COLLABORATION

Theoretical debates in wikis and collaboration (IJCSCL)

Are students meaningfully collaborating?

Dohn (2009): Web 2.0 tools are theoretically well-suited for collaborative knowledge production practices, but the educational logics of individual assessment prevent these practices from being realized.

Or just posting in the same place?

Glassman and Kang (2011): wikis not only enable students to participate in knowledge building, but allow the enactment of Dewey’s vision

Go Big Data!

29

Initial Quantitative Analysis to

Develop Sampling Strategy

Classroom Observations and Teacher Interviews to

Understand Wiki Practices

Measure Wiki QualityLiterature

Review of CSCL and 21st C. Skill

Scholarship

Path Diagram of Wiki Research

Complex Communication

Concatenation Do multiple students add discrete sections of text to the same page?

Copyediting Does at least one student copyedit text created by another student?

Co-ConstructionDoes at least one student substantively edit text created by another student?

Commenting Does at least one student comment upon another student’s work on the wiki?

Discussion Do students respond to each others’ comments for at least four conversational turns?

Scheduling Do students schedule meetings or tasks?

Planning Do students plan for future work?

Concatenation

Concatenation Do multiple students add discrete sections of text to the same page?

Copyediting Does at least one student copyedit text created by another student?

Co-ConstructionDoes at least one student substantively edit text created by another student?

Commenting Does at least one student comment upon another student’s work on the wiki?

Discussion Do students respond to each others’ comments for at least four conversational turns?

Scheduling Do students schedule meetings or tasks?

Planning Do students plan for future work?

Complex Communication

Concatenation Do multiple students add discrete sections of text to the same page?

Copyediting Does at least one student copyedit text created by another student?

Co-ConstructionDoes at least one student substantively edit text created by another student?

Commenting Does at least one student comment upon another student’s work on the wiki?

Discussion Do students respond to each others’ comments for at least four conversational turns?

Scheduling Do students schedule meetings or tasks?

Planning Do students plan for future work?

Co-Construction

Concatenation Do multiple students add discrete sections of text to the same page?

Copyediting Does at least one student copyedit text created by another student?

Co-ConstructionDoes at least one student substantively edit text created by another student?

Commenting Does at least one student comment upon another student’s work on the wiki?

Discussion Do students respond to each others’ comments for at least four conversational turns?

Scheduling Do students schedule meetings or tasks?

Planning Do students plan for future work?

Complex Communication

Concatenation Do multiple students add discrete sections of text to the same page?

Copyediting Does at least one student copyedit text created by another student?

Co-ConstructionDoes at least one student substantively edit text created by another student?

Commenting Does at least one student comment upon another student’s work on the wiki?

Discussion Do students respond to each others’ comments for at least four conversational turns?

Scheduling Do students schedule meetings or tasks?

Planning Do students plan for future work?

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 4000

5

10

15

20

Days

Co

mp

lex

Co

mm

un

ica

tio

n S

co

re

Prototypical wiki trajectory for Complex Communication WQI subdomain (n=406)

Selected Empirical Growth Plots

Rate Day

Com

posi

te W

iki Q

ualit

y S

core

Distribution of Complex Communication subdomain score in 406 U.S., K-12 wikis on final occasion of

measurement

Complex Communication Score

Percentage Frequency Count

0 88.92 3611 6.40 262 1.48 63 .25 14 1.48 65 .74 36 0 07 .74 3

Distribution of collaborative behaviors in 406 U.S., K-12 wikis on final occasion of measurement.

Percentage Frequency Count

Concatenation 5.91 24

Copyedit 1.72 7

Co-construction 4.43 18

Comment 6.4 26

Discussion 2.22 9

Planning 2.46 10

Scheduling 1.72 7

01

23

45

67

89

1011

1213

1415

1617

1819

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

Information ConsumptionParticipationExpert ThinkingNewMedia LiteracyComplex Communication

Wiki Quality Subdomain Scores(Averages for each WQI Level) (n=255)

n=102

n=49

n=37

n=6n=4

n=4n=5

n=7

n=5

n=9

n=7n=1

1n=3

n=3

n=2

n=1

SourceForge

• 70% of projects have only 1 developer, • 14% of projects have 2 developers• 14% of projects have 3-9 developers• 2% of projects have more than 10 developers

Theoretical debates in wikis and collaboration (IJCSCL)

Are students meaningfully collaborating?

Dohn (2009): Web 2.0 tools are theoretically well-suited for collaborative knowledge production practices, but the educational logics of individual assessment prevent these practices from being realized.

Or just posting in the same place?

Glassman and Kang (2011): wikis not only enable students to participate in knowledge building, but allow the enactment of Dewey’s vision

Implications• Empirical: Few wikis provide

opportunities for student collaborative writing– Very little copyediting or rich discussion– “I DON’T CARE DO UR OWN PAGE!,” (Grant,

2009).

Implications• Hopeful: Research to develop strategies

for scaffolding online student collaboration is really important

• Despairing: What does it mean if Dohn is right? What if the institutional structures of schooling limit collaborative learning?

blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edtechresearcher

Back Deck

What subjects are wikis used for? (n=411)

Education

Classics

ESL

Business

Health/PE

Modern FL

Contained Elementary

Art

Library

Math

Computer Science/ Technology

Science

Social Studies

English / Language Arts

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

2

4

5

6

8

10

20

22

26

45

60

61

70

120

49

1,000K

10K

1,000

100

10

1

100K

# of Cases

Days Weeks Months Years

Design Research

Interviews

Surveys

Simulations

Semantic Analysis

Content Analysis

Discursive Analysis

Observational Research

Duration of data collection and capture

Time/Scale Web 2.0 Research State Space Modeling

Usage Statistics

Seconds

Biometric Analysis

Prototypical wiki quality trajectories in subject areas, controlling for SES (n=259)

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 4500

5

10

15

20

25

Days

Wik

i Q

ua

lity

Sc

ore

Social StudiesEnglish

Computer ScienceScience

Math

0 50 100 150 200 250 3000

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

MrBoyersClass.Pbworks.comPage Saves by Day

Page Saves

Days

ALLPS

0

10

20

30

day

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

Moving average of wiki development measured in page saves