Concepts for Extending Wiki Systems to Supplement Collaborative Learning

The use of new media—multimedia elements and electronic modes of interaction—is at the core of contemporary efforts to enhance the learning experience of students at universities worldwide. This paper explores the use of general-purpose Wiki systems as a means to extend didactic scenarios in eLearning environments. Wiki systems are already used successfully in classrooms, and provide students with a novel means of learning, collaborating, and participating. Based on several classroom projects currently implemented at the Goethe-University Frankfurt, we identify important issues, success factors, requirements and problems, related to the use of Wikis as part of the classroom. These shape the basis for our concept to extend the standard Wiki functionality, in order to adapt the available technology to the e-enhanced classroom. A prototypical implementation is described that was developed as a basis for the implementation of the concept, and the summary illustrates current conclusions and lessons learned.