Group construction of wikis in an environmental chemistry course provi
ded an effective framework for stu
dents to
develop and to manage collaborative communities, characterized by interactive projects
designed to
deepen learning. A sequence of assignments facilitated improvement of the stu
dents鈥?wiki construction and editing skills and these activities additionally spread the workload throughout the semester. Because the stu
dent groups selected their own topic for each assignment, the wikis provi
ded some opportunity for stu
dents to personalize their course content. The ability to track multiple versions of the wiki allowed the instructor to observe the
development of the final product and to attribute contributions to each individual stu
dent uniquely, a common concern regarding group work. Links created among the multiple wiki 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
class="extLink">http://www.clker.com/clipart-jigsaw-puzzle-4-pieces.html (accessed Sep 2014) for the table of contents image.