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Wikis have emerged as an important Web 2.0 technology for facilitating collaboration in organizations. Although researchers have begun to analyze their use in organizations and develop metrics to study their usage, there has been limited statistical analysis of use data. In addition, much of the empirical analysis of wikis is based on Wikipedia. This paper mitigates those limitations in the literature by examining data generated from a large consulting organization, Accenture, to statistically analyze the relationships between different use variables.

This literature review explores the academic material comprising applications, cases, courses, and classroom-based research in higher education where wiki tools appeared as an instructional technology. The authors define and describe the wiki concept, outlining a framework for wikis deployed as instructional technology tools. Additionally, analyses and syntheses of the findings are described from an interdisciplinary research literature search across many fields, along with a number of illustrative, exemplary cases demonstrating the application of this tool to teaching and learning. The authors also identify research evidence that outlines the benefits and strengths offered by new wiki technologies, while highlighting challenges, weaknesses, and issues encompassing their application in courses. The authors also outline numerous theories of learning that can be associated with wiki work; new forms of wiki-based learning; patterns of wiki technology use; characteristics of learners using wikis; and the changing role of teaching and teachers who instruct with wikis. Finally, we conclude with a summary of the findings and suggested future directions for studying wikis in higher education (HE). Although no broad, definitive prognosis yet exists that can point to a cause–effect relationship between the application of wikis and increases in learning, a significant body of evidence has emerged that suggests that wikis positively stimulate the learning environment and increase the collaborative capabilities of learners when applied to course work.

This chapter provides an interpretive account of how a large student cohort deals with a major inquiry-based learning (IBL) assessment task in a first-year Marketing Principles subject in undergraduate business studies. It offers a practical example of IBL in action in a discipline that has hitherto received little attention in the IBL literature, namely business, specifically marketing. The chapter positions IBL within the various contemporary pedagogies. The context of Hutchings and O’Rourke’s (2006) study of IBL in action is extended for first-year cohorts, technology-enhanced teaching and the marketing discipline. Further, Hutchings and O’Rourke’s four-part method for describing IBL in action is followed: (1) the enabling factors for the students’ work are described; (2) the process for which they decided on the task is discussed; (3) the method of work is considered, namely ongoing collaboration in a wiki and (4) the outcomes produced are discussed. The chapter reflects on the effects of the IBL task on student learning from both students’ and instructors’ points of view. Material from the students’ work and feedback after completion of the IBL task is used to illustrate the process and inform the interpretive account. The main lessons to be learnt for educators are summarised.

We examine how digital technologies enable distributed actors to collaborate asynchronously on virtual projects. We use Wikipedia and associated wiki digital technology as the research site for our exploration. Our probe of the emergence of Wikipedia articles highlights a distinctive property of such digital technologies: in their very use, they generate a digital trace. This digital trace serves as a generative memory that facilitates ongoing cocreation, justification, and materialization of contributions from distributed actors. We examine the implications of such processes for virtual projects that embrace digital technologies with properties similar to the wiki technology used in Wikipedia.

Social media tools are in increasing use across higher education and Twitter hashtags, live blogs, Facebook events, and Flickr groups are becoming a regular feature of academic conferences and event. In this chapter the author reflects on the experience of planning, moderating, and analyzing social media amplification of the 2009 Beyond the Repository Fringe event. Based upon this experience several important issues regarding social media usage are considered and a series of practical guidelines for planning amplification of higher education events are proposed.

This chapter addresses the current state of librarian participation in the global lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ (LGBTQ+) Wikipedia engagement efforts and proposes an extended librarian advocacy to advance LGBTQ+ rights and concerns. The author provides a brief history of global LGBTQ+ Wikipedia engagement, librarian involvement in Wikipedia, and librarian participation in global LGBTQ+ Wikipedia initiatives. In the process, the author examines the underrepresentation and invisibility of librarians in global LGBTQ+ Wikipedia engagement efforts and Wikipedia initiatives in general, as well as the barriers that librarians face in becoming active Wikipedian librarians. Based on a review of the literature, the analysis of data gathered from Wikipedia, and the author’s own experiences as an LGBTQ+ Wikipedian librarian, the author recommends strategies for librarians to advocate for and include global LGBTQ+ Wikipedia engagement in their professional practice.