Guidance for wiki-supported collaborative learning and community knowledge building for an entire class: Enhancing learning environments during the COVID19 pandemic

The purpose of this study is to develop an instructional theory for scaffolding wiki-supported collaborative learning in small group projects and in collaborative knowledge development for undergraduate courses. The paper presents the instructional theory developed through two implementations and discusses how this instructional theory may enrich learning regardless of the constraints during the COVID19 pandemic, in which small-group meetings are possible but large-class meetings are moved online. Although, in theory, wikis should be a powerful technology to support collaborative learning, empirical research reveals challenges regarding student motivation, group dynamics, and assessment. To bridge the gaps between theory and practice, we used the design-based research approach (DBR) and collaborated with two expert practitioners to develop the instructional theory. The research process includes an initial theory, implementations in two cases, and theory refinement. Data collection and analysis involve literature review, multiple individual interviews with experts before and during implementations, weekly class observations, focus-group interviews with students during implementation, content analysis of class wikis, and focus-group interviews with experts for theory refinement. The results of the study presented in this paper focus on the refined instructional theory, which was grounded in theoretical work, expert instructors' heuristic knowledge, and local effectiveness. In addition, this paper includes design principles with some considerations to support learning in COVID19 environments. In other words, the success of using wikis to foster a culture of sharing, and to increase student motivation and participation in individual or group project work, as well as in community knowledge building for an entire class, may enrich learning during the pandemic by creating learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered learning environments.