Using Wikis to Support Project-Based Learning: A Case Study

Wikis are social media tools which allow users to easily create and edit pages collaboratively, enabling the co-construction of content. Due to their potential to facilitate cooperative and collaborative learning, they have started to be used in educational settings, with generally positive results. This paper reports on the successful experience of using a wiki as a support tool for a project-based learning scenario, in Computer Science education. The main assets of the study consist in its relatively large scale (215 students over a period of 4 years) and the assessment of data coming from two sources: students' activity on the wiki (collected by a dedicated tracking tool) and students' perceptions regarding the use of wiki (collected by means of opinion surveys). Some lessons learned and potential solutions for further boosting student engagement and promoting collaboration in wiki-supported learning are also included in the paper.