Wikis and Blogs in EducationWikis and Blogs in EducationMhairi McAlpine and Linn van der Zanden
Scottish Qualifications Authority
Assessment SIG, Cambridge
PBNC in Health and SafetyPBNC in Health and Safety
Assessed by • project plan• group project• evaluation
– Difficult for candidates to achieve– Difficult for tutors to record– Difficult for markers to assess.
Collaboration and GroupworkCollaboration and Groupwork
Generally seen as educationally desirable
Working with others a recognised core skill
Teamwork demanded by industry
Common in primary, but less common in secondary and FE
Problems with collaborative groupworkProblems with collaborative groupwork
Difficulty tying individual contributions to a coherent whole
Risk that a sub-group might take over
Members may “freeload”
Internal conflict over contributions
Difficulty of authentication
Solution?Solution?
Provide wiki– Groupwork can be assessed online using the history
to see what contributions have been made
Provide blog– Facilitates reflective learning and evaluation on
ongoing basis and allows tutor to monitor progress
Project plan can be submitted online through e-assessment
How can a wiki improve groupwork assessment?How can a wiki improve groupwork assessment?
all contributors work on the same article page
there is an explicit space for dissent to be recorded and acknowledged on the discussion page.
mark allocation can take into account freeloading as the history page records individual contributions
conflict can be dealt with and depersonalised using an evidence based approach
authentication is strengthened through the login requirement.
Blogs and Reflective learningBlogs and Reflective learning
When used for educational purposes, this can provide a history of learning, allowing the learner to return to their earlier opinions or areas of misunderstanding and identify how they are developing
Tutor can identify areas where students are struggling and it also
allows the teacher access to an ongoing narrative charting their progress
ContextContext
2 Scottish colleges piloting with 50 candidates this academic year
Interim software solution: Mediawiki and Drupal
(some course structure and group access issues so exploring Moodle as single sign-on solution)
Live Demo
Example blog contributions so far..Example blog contributions so far.. “Hi looking over college stuff at the minute, starting to type up the plan and I
was thinking have we all to do a plan or is it just one person from each group??”
-> allows tutor to identify where student is struggling
“This afternoon I wrote my plan up and found it went well. I hope the others found it well also and at least that is the first hurdle out of the way. talk to you all soon.”
-> allows student to refer back for the evaluation and allows tutor to monitor progress.
“Hi Dawson, could you put where you got the information from on the wiki for the 2 questions you have done, me and Joey have already done this”
-> allows group to agree on who is doing what and allows tutor to see if all members are contributing
“My group is copying well, we have all added a bit in the wiki. We all have to sit down and see who has added what and discuss what should be on the discussion page”
Example of student and tutor dialogueExample of student and tutor dialogue
Example wiki project…Example wiki project…
Next steps . . .Next steps . . .
Central Marking in June Evaluation of pilot 08/09: Scale up pilot to more centres – same
course 09/10: implement new solution (Moodle) and
scale up pilot to more subject areas
Questions welcome…..Questions welcome…..