The Effect of Wiki-Mediated Collaborative Writing on Students’ Writing Performance

Abstract

The effects of wiki-mediated collaborative writing on the writing performance of 68 EFL students in an online (wiki) classroom were investigated in this study. There were 58 first-year engineering sections in total. Sections D1 for the experimental group and T2 for the control group were chosen randomly. There were 35 students in section D1 and 33 in section T2. For 10 weeks, participants in both groups took a non-credit essay- writing course. Students in the experimental classroom collaborated on  writing using the wiki, whereas students in the control classroom communicated face-to-face using exercise books, papers, and pens. Data from individual writing pre and post-tests were used to compare the writing performance of both groups. Tworaters scored the participants' pre and post-tests. Individual writing performance was assessed using paired samples t-tests in the pretest and post-test, revealing statistically significant differences in writing performance in the experimental group. The post-test scores between the two groups were likewise statistically significant, according to the independent sample t-test analysis. In comparison to the control group, the experimental group performed better. As a result, student-to-student  collaboration using technology should be promoted to improve students' writing performance.