Exploring the effects of experience on wiki anxiety and wiki usability: an online study

Information Technology is now pervasive in Higher Education institutions and developments in IT are changing the technological landscape at Universities. A recent phenomenon shaping such changes is the use of Web 2.0 tools in a pedagogical context. These tools are often included into a University’s IT mix without full appreciation of the possible negative emotions student users may have towards these tools. It is generally assumed that experience with the IT system will be enough to reduce any anxious feelings which may manifest in users about such systems. This study firstly aims to observe the relationship that such emotion may have on usability evaluation of a wiki system. It also aims to investigate the effect of experience on students’ negative affective reactions towards a wiki tool. Second year undergraduate psychology students (N=92) who were using a wiki to collaborate on course projects completed questionnaires measuring usability evaluation and anxiety towards the wiki both 2 weeks (Time 1) and 12 weeks (Time 2) into their usage of the system. The research found that wiki anxiety was negatively correlated to participants’ usability evaluations of the wiki at both time 1 and time 2. Further experience with the system had little effect on users’ negative emotions towards the wiki. Users also showed little change in their usability rating of the system with more exposure to the wiki. However any change in wiki anxiety over the study was negatively correlated with a change in usability evaluation. Possible interpretations of the relationship between wiki anxiety, wiki usability and possible effects of the type and quality of user experience on wiki anxiety are discussed.