Are Great Classroom Wikis Born or Made? Using Continuous-Time Data to Model Online Community Development

• In Event: Investigations of Wikis for Collaboration and Knowledge Building

Abstract

This study uses real-time, edit history data from classroom wikis to identify typical developmental patterns of high quality wikis, wikis that provide opportunities for students to develop 21st century skills. We examined 406 U.S. K-12 wikis drawn randomly from a population of nearly 180,000 wikis. We find that wiki quality trajectories are typically logarithmic: wiki quality increases in the first two wikis of a wiki’s lifetime, and then quality trajectories level off. We hypothesize that this pattern suggests that wiki users develop norms early on in each wiki’s development, and these norms prove durable over a wiki’s lifecycle. If great wikis are typically born, wiki-using educators should pay careful attention to early wiki development.

Authors

• Justin Fire Reich, Harvard University

• Richard J. Murnane, Harvard University

• John B. Willett, Harvard University