Student perceptions of working collaboratively during undergraduate study to produce a knowledge repository based on wiki technology

This study reports on student perceptions of working collaboratively to produce a knowledge repository. The repository was a novel use of a wiki in which a database of information was created progressively from student contributions over a period of three and a half years. The views of students in their final year of study were collected through a focus group and thematic analysis was conducted. The findings include student perceptions of working collaboratively and their views of the potential usefulness of the content for study and professional life. It was found that students prefer content that has been enriched with the personal research, ideas or experiences of the group of students, as it contains ‘added value’ over information readily available on the internet. Accuracy and currency of the content is a concern for students. Implications for educators considering using knowledge repositories are discussed and improvements for this implementation are identified.