Wikis: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners

Wikis have potential benefits for adult education (King and Cox, 2011) (Hazari, North and Moreland, 2009) (West and West, 2009). As with any technology, there are pros and cons to using wikis in education. Fortunately, there are more pros than cons and most of the cons have solutions or alternatives. Wikis provide groups with a means to collaborate on a project asynchronously. This is an obvious pro to a wiki especially for online courses when students are not always able to have face-to-face meetings to work and write together. Even in face-to-face classes, a wiki can still offer an effective tool for collaborating on group projects. All students can add information to the wiki at any time so that all members of the group can edit, comment, add to, modify, etc. While the logistical benefit is obvious, researchers have also identified other benefits to using wikis for class projects. Hazari, North and Moreland conclude that using tools such as wikis empower students by providing a place to express their views (2009, p2). Such tools can also help students with reading, writing, reflective, and collaborative learning skills (Leight, 2008) (as sited by Hazari, North and Moreland 2009, p2). Hazari, North and Moreland believe using wikis will help students develop work that they can use later in interviews, portfolios, and work situations (2009, p3). They also state, “Since most businesses use groupware software that allows collaboration similar to Wikis, …” (p3). In surveying colleagues and associates from other work fields, I did not find anybody who has every used a wiki for any work other than a class project. The individuals I asked were from higher education staff, an Assistant Plant Manager from a manufacturing company, an accountant from a different manufacturing company, and a programmer from a software company. Jonassen, Howland, Marra and Crismond (2008) (as sited by Hazari, North and Moreland 2009, p4) state that, “technology can be only effective in the learning process when it meets a learning requirement.” They propose that for an activity to be a learning requirement it must be: active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative. A disadvantage to wiki projects can be the grading process (Hazari, North and Moreland 2009, p3). While having students work in groups rather than individually can reduce the number of projects to grade, more planning and preparation has to go into the assignment on the front side. The project goals and grading criteria must be clearly defined. While this is true for any assignment, it is even more vital for group assignments. King and Cox acknowledge the possible disadvantage of multiple people being able to edit a wiki and therefore potentially posting content that is not appropriate and takes away from the wiki’s purpose (2011, p123). One way to avoid this potential con is to password protect the wiki so that it is limited for editing to only the individuals who need to add content. A balance between security and open collaboration has to be considered. Another possible con is the bias of the collaborating group (King and Cox 2011, p123). Since the group creating the wiki will most likely be working from a shared point of view, the bias will most likely be obvious as it would be with any article written by a single author. When used appropriately, wikis can provide advantages. When not planned carefully, wikis can pose problems and detract from the subject of the course. References Hazari, S., North, A., & Moreland, D. (2009). Investigating pedagogical value of Wiki technology. Journal of information systems education. 20(2). 187-198. King, K. & Cox, T. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte. Information Age Publishing. West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write Web. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.