Implications for academic integrity of using web 2.0 for teaching, learning and assessment in higher education

Abstract

Student web 2.0 authoring in higher education involves a number of challenges and opportunities for assessment and academic integrity. In this article we describe an Australian project that is investigating how lecturers are using web 2.0 activities in university assessment tasks. In the first stage of the project we documented current web 2.0 assessment practices by conducting a survey and interviews with lecturers who teach in different discipline areas across Australia. Initial findings from this stage of the project are presented here, with a focus on using examples from the interviews to illustrate the opportunities and challenges that web 2.0 affordances introduce for learning, teaching, and assessment in higher education. Student authoring in web 2.0 environments can be quite different from traditional academic writing tasks. Using web 2.0 technologies, students can publish their work to an open audience, use different communication styles and texts, draw on their unique personal identity and experiences, co-create content with other students, and manage their content outside the confines of the university. Each of these affordances provides opportunities for enhancing students' learning in higher education, while simultaneously imposing new ways of thinking about scholarly writing and assessment that can be challenging for both students and staff.