Working in wikis: submission correction and feedback of

students’ work

Patricia Campbell and Jonathan Sly

patricia.j.campbell@manchester.ac.uksly@manchester.ac.uk

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ContextIntegrated Foundation Year (in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences)

approximately 280 studentsmixed cultural backgrounds (typically,

home 55%, EU 15% and other overseas 35%)

very mixed academic backgrounds

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Foundation Year curriculum12 units comprising:

Maths (up to 6 units)Physics (up to 4 units)Chemistry (up to 3 units)Communication skills (1 unit)Project (1 unit)ICT (1 unit)English (if required, 1 unit)

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Unit specificationsCommunication skills Projectstaffed by University

Language Centresemester 1core skills include:

academic writingoral presentationissues in

collaborative learning

critical analysis

staffed by FY and nine Schools across Faculty

semester 2core skills include:

report writingoral presentationproject planning

and managementteam working

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Aimsto increase and emphasise the relevance of the

academic skills learned in the Communication Skills unit by ‘integrating’ it with the Project unit

to enhance the student experience through improved feedback, increased staff-student interaction and improved course management (and to maintain this for an increasingly large cohort)

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Toolsoverhaul of course units: curriculum and

structure (including formation of student work-groups that stay the same through both units)

use of on-line, collaborative-working tools:VLE group pageswiki sitesjournalsfile exchangevideo streaming

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WikisPotential:

students can easily access and contribute to one document

different members of staff can access (and comment on) on students’ work, for example for:

moderationdouble markingtargeted language support

Wikis in practice 2011 - 2012Communication Skills:

students submitted essays in small groups on a wiki page

essays were read by students and teachers in the wiki

teachers both corrected and gave feedback on the essays

Student reactionsVery positive (despite the collapse of the

site)!

General:work was easy to submitspeed of feedback was greatly improvedmarking and comments were very clear

because of the use of a different coloured font

work can be revisited; it cannot be ‘lost’.

More detailed reactionsstudents liked the in-text interventions as they

could see exactly where they needed to improve

(overseas) students read and learned from their tutor’s comments on other students’ work

most thought this combined well with face-to-face contact

no more squiggles, arrows or illegible writing to be interpreted!

Journalsexcellent way of managing large numbers of

students engaged in Project workgood way of encouraging ongoing Project

management by the studentsstudents need to be given very specific

instructions on what to includemore motivating for students if marks are

given for journal entries

Other facilitiesVLE group pages

provides focus for group activitiesfacilitates setting-up of groups,

communications and administrationvideo streaming

group settings enable selective release of videos

file exchangefile sharing/drop-box for students’ collaborative

work draft work can be marked or commented on by

staff