Tim Sawyer & Sheila Scutter

Using a Wiki to Develop First Year Engagement

Developing a sense of community in 1st year students is an important factor in retention and student performance (Jacobs and Archie 2008)

Involvement in social experience at University is related to academic success (Zhoa and Kuh 2004)

Academic & Intellectual engagement .. Peer engagement and Beyond class engagement (Krause and Coates 2008)

First Year Engagement

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Student Cohort

• Large class sizes

• Common courses

• More diverse student body

• Reduced community space

• Increased on-line learning

• Reduced student union activities

… Limited interaction between students

Modern University Environment

Hawke Research Institute Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societiesfor Sustainable Societies

Y Generation

• 13 – 26 year olds

• Access to Technology

• 75% have a Facebook or MySpace TM account

• 74% of text messages are sent by Gen Y’s

(McCrindle 2003)

Majority of Students

Hawke Research Institute Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societiesfor Sustainable Societies

Online community

• Mimic FaceBook/MySpace

• Easy to use text editor

• Import photos

• Allows discussion threads

• Private web site

• No distracting ads

First Year Wiki – Student’s perspective

Online community

• Free

• Easy to use

• Password protected

• Easy to add pages

• Easy to lock pages

• Moderate/Ban users

First Year Wiki – Educator’s perspective

• 98% student uptake

• Within first 3 weeks

• Incentives provided

• 3 iTune Cards

• 3 LED Flashlights

• 7 Corporate pens

First Year Wiki, 2008

It’s All About me

• Photograph

• High School

• Interests

• Sport

• Music

• Goals

First Year Wiki

International Students

• Home Country

• Studying Abroad

• Challenges

• Achievements so far..

First Year Wiki

International Students

• Home Country

• Studying Abroad

• Challenges

• Achievements so far..

First Year Wiki

• Calendar

• Academic Due dates

• BBQ, Pub Crawl, Camp etc.

Social Events

Threads

• 59 separate discussion topics

• Pub Crawl was the most active!

Discussion Board

• Uni Holidays

• Mid semester break activities

• Academic Issues

• Study Groups formed

Discussion Board

2008, Semester 2

• Usage dropped off after mid semester break

• Social groups formed

• Study groups formed

• New friends added to existing FaceBook

• Student Union activities increased

• Division of Health Sciences

• Medical Radiation

• Physiotherapy

• Pharmacy & Med Sciences

• Nutritional Food Science

• Total of 354 first year students

• 23% International

• 77% Domestic (Australian)

First Year Wiki’s, 2009

Features used by students

• About Me

• Discussion threads

• Events Calendar

2009 Results

Why students used the Wiki

• Get to know other students

• Find out about social events

• Student communication

• Tell others about me

2009 Results

Conclusion

First Year Social Wiki

• Easy to implement

• Engaging Web 2.0 tool

• Attains social & study group formation

Where to from here?

• Loss of more physical space there is even a greater need for a ‘virtual space’

• More ‘FaceBook’ like interface