Collaborative Learning Supported with Mediawiki Platform in Technical University Environment

Abstract

According to several studies, student collaboration can be helpful in learning process. In this paper, we propose collaborative learning for students of a technical university as part of courses on “Computer criminality”. We have prepared a base platform, MediaWiki, to support the collaborative approach. The MediaWiki is a free open source platform originally used for Wikipedia. We also prepared a questionnaire for students about their opinion on using collaborative learning as part of the school courses. We assume, based on the responses given by the students, that they prefer knowledge sharing among other collaborative learning approaches. The paper summarizes findings about students’ attitude to collaborative learning and suggests some improvements for the design and development of a collaborative learning tool. A case study - a course on Computer criminality, is briefly described. Preliminary results indicate, that students can highly benefit from collaboration.