No description available.

Obwohl die wenigen bisher erschienenen Studien zur Qualität von Inhalten in Wikis und besonders der Wikipedia ein hohes Potential für die Erstellung auch verlässlicher Inhalte vermuten lassen, existiert noch kein formales und anerkanntes Qualitätsmanagementsystem für partizipativ erstellte Inhalte im organisationsinternen Web 2.0. Im Rahmen der Erprobung eines Wiki-Services für das Intranet der Bundeswehr wird derzeit ein solches System entwickelt und im laufenden Experiment evaluiert.

For many years universities communicated generic graduate attributes (e.g. global citizenship) their students have acquired after studying. Graduate attributes are skills and competencies that are relevant for both employability and other aspects of life (Barrie, 2004). Over the past years and due to the Bologna Process, the focus on competencies has also found its way into universities' curricula. As a consequence, curricula were adapted in order to convey students both in-depth knowledge of a particular area as well as generic competences (Bologna Working Group on Qualifications Framework, 2005, Appendix 8). For example, students with a Master's degree should be able to “communicate their conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously” (p. 196). This shift has been supported by the demand of the labour market for students that have achieved social and personal competencies, in addition to in-depth knowledge (Heidenreich, 2011). On course level, this placed emphasis on collaborative learning, which had led to “greater autonomy for the learner, but also to greater emphasis on active learning, with creation, communication and participation” (Downes, 2005). The shift to collaborative learning has been supported by existing learning theories and models (Brown et al., 1989; Lave and Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978), which could explain the educational advantages. For example, collaborative learning has proved to promote critical thinking and communications skills (Johnson and Johnson, 1994; Laal and Ghodsi, 2012). As Haythornthwaite (2006) advocates: “collaborative learning holds the promise of active construction of knowledge, enhanced problem articulation, and benefits exploring and sharing information and knowledge gained from peer-to-peer communication” (p. 10). The term collaboration defies clear definition (Dillenbourg, 1999). In this article, cooperation is seen as the division of labour in tasks, which allows group members to work independently, whereas collaboration needs continuous synchronisation and coordination of labour (Dillenbourg et al., 1996; Haythornthwaite, 2006). Therefore, cooperation allows students to subdivide task assignments, work relatively independent, and to piece the results together to one final product. In contrast, collaboration is seen as a synchronous and coordinated effort of all students to accomplish their task assignment resulting in a final product where “no single hand is visible” (Haythornthwaite, 2006, p. 12). Due to the debate about digital natives (Prensky, 2001) and “students' heavy use of technology” in private life (Luo, 2010, p. 32), teachers have started to explore possible applications of modern technology in teaching and learning. Especially wikis have become popular and gained reasonable attention in higher education. Wikis have been used to support collaborative learning (e.g. Cress and Kimmerle, 2008), collaborative writing (e.g. Naismith et al., 2011), and student engagement (e.g. Neumann and Hood, 2009). A wiki is a “freely expandable collection of interlinked Web ‘pages’, a hypertext system for storing and modifying information - a database, where each page is easily editable by any user” (Leuf and Cunningham, 2001, p. 14; italics in original). Thereby, wikis enable the collaborative construction of knowledge (Alexander, 2006). With the intention to take advantage of the benefits connected with collaborative learning, this doctoral thesis focuses on the facilitation of collaboration in wikis to leverage collaborative learning. The doctoral thesis was founded on a constructivist understanding of reality. The research is associated with three different research areas: adoption of IT, computer-supported collaborative learning, and learning analytics. After reviewing existing literature, three focal points were identified that correspond to the research gaps in these research areas: factors influencing students' use of wikis, assessment of collaborative learning, and monitoring of collaboration. The aims of this doctoral thesis were (1) to investigate students' intentions to adopt and barriers to use wikis in higher education, (2) to develop and evaluate a method for assessing computer-supported collaborative learning, and (3) to map educational objectives onto learning-related data in order to establish indicators for collaboration. Based on the research aims, four studies were carried out. Each study raised unique research questions that has been addressed by different methods. Thereby, this doctoral thesis presents findings covering the complete process of the use of wikis to support collaboration and thus provides a holistic view on the use of wikis in higher education.

Eine wachsende Zahl von Unternehmen aus den produzierenden und Zuliefererindustrien integriert bereits externes Know how oder Zuarbeiten in ihre Produkte. Diese verteilten und häufig asynchronen Geschäftsprozesse in und außerhalb der Unternehmen fordern eine stärkere Integration und Koordination der internen und betriebsübergreifenden Kommunikations- und Kollaborationsprozesse. Häufig steht die organisationale Struktur eines Unternehmens mit ihrer Unterteilung in einzelne Geschäftsbereiche jedoch orthogonal zu der effizienten Vermittlung dieses Wissens. Dabei wird das erfolgskritische Wissen für Unternehmen gerade an den Schnittstellen von Geschäftsbereichen oder einzelnen Phasen des Produktlebenszyklus entwickelt. Als Beispiel mag hier der hohe Bedarf an Kommunikation zwischen Entwicklungsabteilung und Servicebereichen dienen. Hier entsteht in der Abstimmung von Prozessen oder dem Erfahrungsaustausch oftmals hochgradig zeit- bzw. kontextsensitives Wissen, das unmittelbar an einzelne Mitarbeiter oder Gruppen im Unternehmen gebunden ist. Die Kommunikation dieses Wissens erfolgt oft in informellen face-to-face Meetings oder am Telefon. Die Dokumentation entsteht per Mail parallel zu einem formalisierten und dokumentengetriebenen Geschäftsprozess.

Wikis are a popular collaboration technology. They support the collaborative editing of web pages through a simple mark-up language. Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous, powerful and affordable. Thus it is advantageous for people to get the benefits of wikis in a mobile setting. However, mobile computing leads to its own challenges such as limited screen size, bandwidth, memory and battery life; they also have intermittent connectivity due to the mobility and the coverage of network. I investigate how wikis can be made mobile; that is how wiki forms of collaborative editing can be achieved through mobile devices such as PDAs and smart phones. A prototype mobile wiki has been created using .NET, which addresses these issues and enables simple collaborative working whilst on and offline through smart mobile devices. A cut down wiki runs on the mobile device. This communicates with a main central wiki to cache pages for off line use. When sitting in a powered cradle eager, downloading and synchronization of pages is supported. During mobile operation, pages are cached lazily on demand to minimize power use and to save the limited and expensive bandwidth. On re-connection, offline edited as well as new pages are synchronized with the main wiki server. Finally a pluggable page rendering engine enables pages to be rendered in different ways to suit different sized screens.

Wiki är en applikation där kunskap kan utbytas mellan användarna på ett säkert sätt och som möjliggör att idéflödet ökar på företag vilket kan leda till att en stor kunskapsbank skapas. Syftet med denna studie är att ge svar på hur kunskapsdelning sker mellan människor med hjälp av Wiki och varför användandet av Wiki skiljer sig mellan olika användare. Kandidatuppsatsen har utförts på olika it/logistik företag i Kronobergs region. Studien har utförts genom en kvantitativ metod och baseras på UTAUT (Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) modellen.  Resultatet analyserar faktorer som påverkar användarnas motivation och Wikis användbarhet till kunskapsdelning som verktyg. Slutsatsen besvarar frågeställningen som ställs i syftet, om varför användandet av Wiki skiljer sig mellan användarna, vilket visade sig ha en koppling till ledningens stöd/feedback. / Wiki is a type of collaboration website that allows users to upload, edit, and remove content present on a webpage. The goal of this study is to form a comprehensive meaning, definition, or answer on a specific subject matter. The aim of Wiki is sharing information between users, creating new ideas and building database of knowledge. The study was conducted among it/logistics companies in Kronoberg region. It’s aim is to provide answer on how is this sharing of information between users carried out and why it is different between different users and establishing what factors have a significant effect on this exchange. The study was performed using quantitive methods and are based on UTAUT (Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) model. The results of the study analyse factors that significantly affect motivation to sharing knowledge and its flow between users and what organizations have to know when they decide to create knowledge database, what factors affect sharing knowledge and how motivation influence creating new content and sharing knowledge.

Esta dissertação visa apresentar a trajetória e os resultados da análise da atividade oficina de construção colaborativa de textos multimodais em ambiente virtual wiki, ministrada a 52 usuários do Telecentro instalado na Biblioteca Pública Municipal Monteiro Lobato, na cidade de São Paulo. Os dados foram coletados de junho de 2008 a fevereiro de 2009, período de duração das cinco turmas da oficina. Utilizando os preceitos da teoria da atividade (Leontiev, 1978; Engeström, 1997; Nardi, 1996) e principalmente o conceito de contradições apontado pela teoria (Engeström, 1997) procura-se identificar, classificar e problematizar, na análise de dados, as contradições relacionadas a aspectos linguísticos, cognitivos, sociais, culturais e técnicos que surgem entre os elementos que compõem a atividade (sujeito, ferramentas, objeto, regras, comunidade e divisão do trabalho) durante a realização da oficina. A análise das contradições da atividade demonstra, contudo, que professora e alunos não encontraram soluções em todos os casos. Concluiu-se nesta pesquisa que a análise das contradições da atividade foi profícua para a compreensão detalhada das relações entre os componentes da atividade em todos os seus níveis. Também foi compreendido que uma análise dessa importância deve sempre motivar e ser seguida pelo planejamento e implementação de um modelo de reformulação da atividade que incorpore ações de transformação e inovação, que efetivamente levem aos resultados esperados. Embora o escopo desta pesquisa não tenha permitido que isso fosse feito, algumas sugestões de como se poderia tentar fazê-lo em pesquisas futuras são esboçadas e apresentadas no final do trabalho. / This dissertation aims to present the history and the results of the analysis of the activity: workshop for collaborative construction of multimodal texts in a virtual environment wiki, taught to 52 users of the Telecentro located at the Public Municipal Library Monteiro Lobato, in the city of São Paulo. Data were collected from June 2008 to February 2009. Using the precepts of activity theory (Leontiev, 1978; Engeström, 1997; Nardi, 1996) and especially the concept of contradictions, pointed out by that theory (Engeström, 1997), this research seeks to identify, classify and discuss the contradictions related to the linguistic, cognitive, social, cultural and technical aspects arising among the elements of the activity (subject, tools, object, rules, community and division of labor) during the workshop. The analysis done shows however, that teacher and students did not find solutions to all the contradictions that emerged. We conclude that this study\'s analysis of the contradictions of the activity was helpful for the detailed understanding of the relationship among the components of the activity, at all levels. An analysis of this importance should motivate and be followed by planning and implementing of a reformulation model that incorporates actions for change and innovation, and effectively, leading to expected results. Although the scope of this research did not allow it to be done, some suggestions on how one might do so in future research are outlined at the end of this study.

Unterschiedliche (lern-)kulturelle Hintergründe und Bachelorabschlüsse der Studierenden führen zu einem heterogenen Kursgefüge und zu großen Niveauunterschieden bei den Vorkenntnissen. Dem hohen Bedarf an individueller Förderung und der Notwendigkeit, die Wirksamkeit von Übungsaufgaben als Klausurvorbereitung zu erhöhen, kann mit dem Einsatz von E-Learning-Angeboten begegnet werden. Im hier vorgestellten Lehr-Lern-Projekt lag der Schwerpunkt auf der Erstellung eines Wikis als Lösungsskizze einer ehemaligen Klausur.

For many years universities communicated generic graduate attributes (e.g. global citizenship) their students have acquired after studying. Graduate attributes are skills and competencies that are relevant for both employability and other aspects of life (Barrie, 2004). Over the past years and due to the Bologna Process, the focus on competencies has also found its way into universities' curricula. As a consequence, curricula were adapted in order to convey students both in-depth knowledge of a particular area as well as generic competences (Bologna Working Group on Qualifications Framework, 2005, Appendix 8). For example, students with a Master's degree should be able to “communicate their conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously” (p. 196). This shift has been supported by the demand of the labour market for students that have achieved social and personal competencies, in addition to in-depth knowledge (Heidenreich, 2011). On course level, this placed emphasis on collaborative learning, which had led to “greater autonomy for the learner, but also to greater emphasis on active learning, with creation, communication and participation” (Downes, 2005). The shift to collaborative learning has been supported by existing learning theories and models (Brown et al., 1989; Lave and Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978), which could explain the educational advantages. For example, collaborative learning has proved to promote critical thinking and communications skills (Johnson and Johnson, 1994; Laal and Ghodsi, 2012). As Haythornthwaite (2006) advocates: “collaborative learning holds the promise of active construction of knowledge, enhanced problem articulation, and benefits exploring and sharing information and knowledge gained from peer-to-peer communication” (p. 10). The term collaboration defies clear definition (Dillenbourg, 1999). In this article, cooperation is seen as the division of labour in tasks, which allows group members to work independently, whereas collaboration needs continuous synchronisation and coordination of labour (Dillenbourg et al., 1996; Haythornthwaite, 2006). Therefore, cooperation allows students to subdivide task assignments, work relatively independent, and to piece the results together to one final product. In contrast, collaboration is seen as a synchronous and coordinated effort of all students to accomplish their task assignment resulting in a final product where “no single hand is visible” (Haythornthwaite, 2006, p. 12). Due to the debate about digital natives (Prensky, 2001) and “students' heavy use of technology” in private life (Luo, 2010, p. 32), teachers have started to explore possible applications of modern technology in teaching and learning. Especially wikis have become popular and gained reasonable attention in higher education. Wikis have been used to support collaborative learning (e.g. Cress and Kimmerle, 2008), collaborative writing (e.g. Naismith et al., 2011), and student engagement (e.g. Neumann and Hood, 2009). A wiki is a “freely expandable collection of interlinked Web ‘pages’, a hypertext system for storing and modifying information - a database, where each page is easily editable by any user” (Leuf and Cunningham, 2001, p. 14; italics in original). Thereby, wikis enable the collaborative construction of knowledge (Alexander, 2006). With the intention to take advantage of the benefits connected with collaborative learning, this doctoral thesis focuses on the facilitation of collaboration in wikis to leverage collaborative learning. The doctoral thesis was founded on a constructivist understanding of reality. The research is associated with three different research areas: adoption of IT, computer-supported collaborative learning, and learning analytics. After reviewing existing literature, three focal points were identified that correspond to the research gaps in these research areas: factors influencing students' use of wikis, assessment of collaborative learning, and monitoring of collaboration. The aims of this doctoral thesis were (1) to investigate students' intentions to adopt and barriers to use wikis in higher education, (2) to develop and evaluate a method for assessing computer-supported collaborative learning, and (3) to map educational objectives onto learning-related data in order to establish indicators for collaboration. Based on the research aims, four studies were carried out. Each study raised unique research questions that has been addressed by different methods. Thereby, this doctoral thesis presents findings covering the complete process of the use of wikis to support collaboration and thus provides a holistic view on the use of wikis in higher education.:Introduction Theoretical foundation Research areas and focal points Research aims and questions Methods Findings Conclusions References Essay 1: Factors influencing wiki collaboration in higher education Essay 2: Students' intentions to use wikis in higher education Essay 3: Facilitating collaboration in wikis Essay 4: Using fsQCA to identify indicators for wiki collaboration

No description available.