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…..