1. f The Open University of Israel Collaborative Learning in a Wiki Environment Edna Tal Hagit Tal The Open University of Israel The Center for Technology in Distance Education Wikimania 2006 August, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

2. The Open University of Israel  The largest university in Israel  Distance Learning institution  40,000 students, Aged 13 to 85  600 courses, B.A, M.A, M.Sc  Open admission  A pioneer and a leader in the implementation of advance technologies to support learning The Open University of Israel

3. Why Wiki? Why MediaWiki?  Trendy tool  Creates one collaborative learning product  Provides powerful assessment tools for the teacher and the researcher: History, Recent changes, User contributions, compare selected versions  Enables co-editing and “discussion” for each page  MediaWiki: fully Hebrew enabled and most students are already familiar with the Wikipedia  An open source code

4. The Open University of Israel Uses of Wiki in Teaching and Learning at the Open University  The project started in September 2005  2006: 17 courses, 1000 students, 15 Instructors 2007 :30 courses  Participating Faculties: Humanities, Natural Sciences, Education, Social Sciences, Management and Economics and more

5. The Open University of Israel Background for the Research  “Technology and Learning” A basic course for MA in Education  The Wiki-Assignment : To build a glossary of the course key terms  Assignment Features : Duration: The entre semester Compulsory assignment, 10 points of the final grade.  Evaluation Criteria: Extent of participation Degree of collaboration Number of initiations Quality of the work Keeping to deadlines

6. The Open University of Israel The Purpose of the Research To examine the quality of the collaborative assignment and its impact on learning To assess the Wiki platform as a collaborative learning environment

7. The Open University of Israel Method A questionnaire to the students A quantitative analysis of the “digital traces” left on the server: Wiki tools: History, Recent changes, User contributions Tool developed by the Open University: Integration of the above into one statistical tool

8. The Open University of Israel  Number of participants: 32  Number of glossary terms: 164  Average contribution per student: 10 Active entries 33 Editings  Moderator’s contributions: 81 Active entries 318 Editings (82 feedbacks in “discussion”) The Study

9. The Open University of Israel Impact of the Wiki Assignment on Learning: Students’ Perception

10. The Open University of Israel Did Collaborative Learning Occur?

11. The Open University of Israel What Influenced Collaboration? Instructor’s intervention 100% Total 77%39% Collaboration Participants > 1 23%61% No collaboration Participant = 1 No intervention In 50% of the terms the instructor gave feedback 91% of students reported that the involvement of the instructor in the assignment encouraged active participation in the assignment

12. The Open University of Israel Attitude Towards Co-editing How did you feel about exposing your work to the class? “I had no problems with this exposure” “It was a struggle but also exciting”

13. The Open University of Israel Would You Prefer to Receive a Ready Made Glossary Written by the Course Team?

14. The Open University of Israel To What Extent was this Wiki Assignment Enjoyable?

15. The Open University of Israel Thanks! ednata@openu.ac.il

16. The Open University of Israel Examples of Collaborative Wiki Activities  Developing a glossary  Writing a research project  Preparing towards the final exam  Providing guidelines for reading The course textbooks  Creating knowledge maps of the course  Reading comprehension & analysis of academic articles