Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Wikis as an effective group writing tool: a study in Taiwan

Wikis as an effective group writing tool: a study in Taiwan Purpose – Collaborative writing is an interactive process. It saves time and energy, and it integrates the knowledge of multiple writers. Wiki is a platform for collaborative writing in the Web 2.0 era. This paper's aim is to focus on the many benefits of wikis. Design/methodology/approach – To understand the effect of using wikis on collaborative writing, the authors conducted a laboratory experiment. They measured writing output under three user modalities (face to face, synchronous distribution, and asynchronous distribution) and with two writing tools (a wiki web site and MS Word). Findings – Compared to the use of MS Word, face‐to‐face collaborative writing with wikis led to significantly higher levels of participation, and externally evaluated quality of the writing product, and satisfaction with the product and process. However there was no significant effect on document length. Satisfaction is significantly higher with wikis than with MS Word in both distributed collaborative writing conditions, but this was not the case for document length and externally evaluated quality. Originality/value – The paper shows that the findings have important implications for business. First wikis do not require professional instructors to facilitate their use in meetings. Second the confirmation of wikis' effectiveness motivates the use of wikis toward a more open business environment. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Online Information Review Emerald Publishing

Wikis as an effective group writing tool: a study in Taiwan

Wesley Shu; Yu‐Hao Chuang
Online Information Review , Volume 36 (1): 15 – Feb 17, 2012
Download PDF
15 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/wikis-as-an-effective-group-writing-tool-a-study-in-taiwan-mmaprxxGSu

References (44)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1468-4527
DOI
10.1108/14684521211206980
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – Collaborative writing is an interactive process. It saves time and energy, and it integrates the knowledge of multiple writers. Wiki is a platform for collaborative writing in the Web 2.0 era. This paper's aim is to focus on the many benefits of wikis. Design/methodology/approach – To understand the effect of using wikis on collaborative writing, the authors conducted a laboratory experiment. They measured writing output under three user modalities (face to face, synchronous distribution, and asynchronous distribution) and with two writing tools (a wiki web site and MS Word). Findings – Compared to the use of MS Word, face‐to‐face collaborative writing with wikis led to significantly higher levels of participation, and externally evaluated quality of the writing product, and satisfaction with the product and process. However there was no significant effect on document length. Satisfaction is significantly higher with wikis than with MS Word in both distributed collaborative writing conditions, but this was not the case for document length and externally evaluated quality. Originality/value – The paper shows that the findings have important implications for business. First wikis do not require professional instructors to facilitate their use in meetings. Second the confirmation of wikis' effectiveness motivates the use of wikis toward a more open business environment.

Journal

Online Information Review – Emerald Publishing

Published: Feb 17, 2012

Keywords: Web 2.0; Wiki; Collaborative writing; Collaborative writing tools; Group writing; Personal communication networks

There are no references for this article.