A co-writing development approach to wikis: Pedagogical issues and implications

Abstract

Wikis are promoted as collaborative writing tools that allow students to transform a text into a collective document by information sharing and group reflection. However, despite the promising collaborative capabilities of wikis, their pedagogical value regarding collaborative writing is still questionable. Wiki alone cannot make collaborative writing happen, and students do not automatically become more active, participate, and collaborate with others when they use wikis. To foster collaborative writing and active involvement in wiki development there is a need for a systematic approach to wikis. The main goal of this paper is to propose and evaluate a co-writing approach to the development of wikis, along with the study of three wiki applications to report on pedagogical implications of collaborative writing in higher education.