(133c) Wiki Technology as a Design Tool for a Capstone Design Course

Web 2.0 technologies like wikis are becoming an integral part of a student's social and academic life. To reach our students, incorporating these technologies into the classroom will be beneficial to the educators and students alike. A wiki is a website that allows users to edit and add content as needed. Different users can add content, and review material added from other users. This provides enormous potential for collaboration within groups. In our study, we had groups of students from a senior capstone design course use a wiki to aid in their design process. By utilizing the wiki, the students were able to observe each others' progress, have a central location for reference information and file storage, and organize findings and information gathered. From the professor's point of view, we were able to observe the dynamic progress of each group and provide immediate feedback where necessary. Results from student surveys as well as our general observations concerning the use of wikis in the classroom will be discussed and summarized.