Lessons learned from using a Wiki to encourage class group collaboration in an online management information systems course

Abstract

In the current business climate, it is useful to cultivate in students and future leaders the significance and importance of collaboration in team projects and to explore alternative methods to utilize team resources. This paper presents an experience on using web 2.0 technologies as collaboration tools for an online MIS course. The paper demonstrates the use of wiki as a medium to capture students’ engagement through working collaboratively in a given task. It is argued that student must see collaboration work in a task that is interesting and meaningful to them in order to truly understand what collaboration means. Students were asked to collaborate on designing and developing a wiki to complete an end-of-semester group assignment. After completing the assignment, students expressed more engagement feelings in the activity and showed more elaborate knowledge on the given topic. A group evaluation rubric is presented at the end of the experiment to assess group collaboration elements. This rubric can be adapted and modified to include other components to improve the assessment process for future group collaborative work.