Using student designed wikis as open access resources

This poster introduces a simple way to combine pedagogical and technological innovations to enable students to fully engage with course content. A wiki assignment was set in a second year module Personality and Psychometrics, which is currently being taught in the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin, Ireland. This active learning experience divides students into small, groups of between 5 and 7 students who design their own content from the readings during the class, and create Wikis, thus enabling the students to be the architects of their own knowledge of the course material.The benefits of enabling students to be the creators of their own knowledge compared to the traditional lecture format included increased cooperation among group members while creating the summaries. This innovative approach allowed students to manage their own learning and catered for the diverse learning styles of the students by allowing the material to be available in a multi sensory format through the wikis. Students reported better understanding and retention of the material. Students were granted access to each other’s wikis and were able to use the wikis for revision for exam purposes. Feedback about the creative element to the activity, which really engaged the students, will be presented as will issues of technical training and support. The benefit of being able to use the wikis as revision resources was cited by the students as the main advantage of participating in the assignment. Examples of the student wikis will be highlighted as open access learning resource repositories which be shown.