A reader of Jack Vinson’s blog asked the following question about how to help students do a better job of collaboration using a wiki:

[I am working on a Senior Design* course in chemical engineering.] We have encouraged the students to post their work on wikis created for each project. The quality of these postings is generally not very good. Are there some papers, etc that might help the next years students do a better job of collaboration via this (or other) computer technique?

Jack mentioned my website, and the article The State of Wikis in Education, but commented that it doesn’t address the “how to make it work better” question. (That article was the product of an interview on the current state of affairs, not a how-to piece, so that’s why it doesn’t address the question.) It’s an important question, so let’s address it.

Jack’s reader says: “The quality of these postings is generally not very good.” The use of the word postings makes me wonder how exactly the students were using the wiki. Did they build the project from scratch on the wiki? Or did they simply post project materials on the wiki after the fact?

I’m willing to bet that they posted information on the wiki, but only after they had traded it back and forth by email, and made revisions to that information in an attached Word document. If this is the case, they didn’t actually build their materials directly on the wiki, which is what differentiates it from email & Word documents.

The Wikipedia Paradox

This is one of the most common problems I see with first-time wiki users, and it’s often the case they they don’t really know how a wiki operates because their only prior exposure to a wiki is Wikipedia. To get the kind of high quality information the Jack’s reader wants from those students, she or he needs to show them wiki examples other than Wikipedia, and explain how to build information from scratch on the wiki, instead of posting it there after the fact. Looking a Wikipedia as an example of how to work collaboratively on a team project is like watching a stock car race to learn how to drive on city streets.

Wikipedia is a totally different type of wiki experience from using one for a project inside an organization, and most people who casually read articles on Wikipedia have no idea how the articles are built because they don’t pay attention to the authoring side of the operation. They only consume the articles, and hear the word “wiki”. They may have a vague concept of what it entails, but they are highly unlikely to have ever seen or participated in the wiki editing process. Therefore, exposure to Wikipedia is not a qualification for effectively using a wiki for project collaboration and management.

Successful Wiki Use

Here are some specific tools to help with wiki adoption and project management:

• Your Wiki Isn’t Wikipedia (PDF download)
• 21 Days of Wiki Adoption – step by step, video guide to managing projects on a wiki
• When is a Wiki a Tool, and When is it a Medium? Or Both?
• Top 10 Organizational Wiki Tips (and how to use them)
• Wiki Adoption: Planning, Rollout, & Workshops