Fostering Collaborative Learning with Wikis: Extending MediaWiki with Educational Features

Wikis are increasingly popular Web 2.0 tools in educational settings, being used successfully for collaborative learning. However, since they were not originally conceived as educational tools, they lack some of the functionalities useful in the instructional process (such as learner monitoring, evaluation support, student group management etc.). Therefore in this paper we propose a solution to add these educational support features, as an extension to the popular MediaWiki platform. CoLearn, as it is called, is aimed at increasing the collaboration level between students, investigating also the collaborative versus cooperative learner actions. Its functionalities and pedagogical rationale are presented, together with some technical details. A set of practical guidelines for promoting collaborative learning with wikis is also included.