Wikis first appeared in 1994 when Ward Cunningham invented the
concept and gave it its name. A wiki is a website whose content
any authorised person can modify, without requiring any
knowledge of web publishing software. Wikis are widely known and
used and have, in the past few years, been more widely adopted
in the academic world. The philosophy of wikis is to be an open
collaborative space and to encourage collective intelligence.
For these reasons, wikis can be an important tool for group work
where students can share their reflections and learning from a
lecture/text/assignment, and undertake group assignments by
collaborating on shared documents and submitting a final joint
report/assignment. The most common problems of group work can be
minimised by using a wiki. Common problems in group work include
misunderstanding about individual member’s responsibilities,
perceived lack of commitment of some members, the issue of free-
riders, issues about fair grading of each individual member and
personality and t