USING WIKIS TO STIMULATE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN TWO ONLINE HEALTH SCIENCES COURSES

The use of wiki technology fits well in courses that encourage constructive knowledge building and social learning by a community of learners. Pedagogically, wikis have attracted interest in higher education environments as they facilitate the collaborative processes required for developing student group assignments. In this presentation, we describe our pilot project to assess the implementation of wikis in two online small- and mid-sized elective courses comprised of students in third or fourth year undergraduate levels within interdisciplinary health sciences courses and our perspectives of the effectiveness of wiki technology to enhance collaborative group assignments. Use of wikis for group assignments provided some clear advantages, yet a number of students faced challenges related to collaboration and peer feedback. Our experiences clearly indicate a need to further develop the pedagogical use of wiki environments before they can be expected to support collaboration among undergraduate students. Adapting wiki implementation to suitable well-matched courses will make adaptation of wikis into health sciences curricula more effective and may increase the chances that students will hone the collaborative abilities that are essential in their future professional roles in communities of practice.