Using Wikis To Develop Collaborative Communities in an Environmental Chemistry Course

Group construction of wilds in an environmental chemistry course provided an effective framework for students to develop and to manage collaborative communities, characterized by interactive projects designed to deepen learning. A sequence of assignments facilitated improvement of the students' wild construction and editing skills and these activities additionally spread the workload throughout the semester. Because the student groups selected their own topic for each assignment, the wilds provided some opportunity for students to personalize their course content. The ability to track multiple versions of the wild allowed the instructor to observe the development of the final product and to attribute contributions to each individual student uniquely, a common concern regarding group work. Links created among the multiple wild pages lent cohesion to the multiple assignments, created connections between groups, and unified the semester-long course content. The authors acknowledge the use of the graphic from http://www.clker.com/clipart-jigsaw-puzzle-4-pieces.html (accessed Sep 2014) for the table of contents image.