Students writing their own leactures: using Blackboard's wiki tool with a 'contributing

By Cath Ellis and Sue Folley, Huddersfield

TQEF Distributed Learning Project proposing that students work together to build things into
lectures that lecturers should do (eg outline debate, stimulate interest, excitement,
connect to real world events etc) as informed by Collins and Moonen (Flexible Learning in a
Digital World) as part of a paradigm shift from knowledge acquisition to a
contribution/participation mode, bringing together what lecturing should do, wikis, and
contributing student approach. Talked in detail (with lots of slides) about the wiki tool in
Blackboard saying it is 'the strength of the Blackboard suite' and is easy to use as
demonstrated by the fact that 50% of the cohort on the Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
module are mature female (and I'm quoting Cath Ellis here). The wiki was built into the
module design using a Jigsaw Model (Aronson at al 1978) in which each member is given a
distinct role and contribution and then work together to complete the big picture. This was
done by using the wiki for students to choose a topic and write a summary of it (to provide
info), as a glossary (to explain terms and definitions), and to showcase scholarship. This
produces a resource that can be rolled over. I didn't get a feel for any evaluation.