R. Rodríguez-Hidalgo, A. Torres-Alfonso, C. Zhu, F. Questier, Wikis supporting research workshops in higher education, prospective use in Cuban universities, Proceedings of CISTI 2011, 6th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, Portugal, June 2011, pp 146-155 (978-1-4577-1487-0) http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?&arnumber=5974297

1. Wikis supporting research
workshops in higher education
Prospective use in Cuban universities
Authors
MSc. Roberto C. Rodríguez-Hidalgo Prof. Dr. Chang Zhu
Prof. Dr. Aida M. Torres-Alfonso Prof. Dr. Frederik Questier
Departamento de Tecnología Educativa Department of Educational Sciences
Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas (UCLV) Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Santa Clara, Cuba Brussels, Belgium

2. This presentation can be found at
http://questier.com
http://www.slideshare.net/Frederik_Questier

3. Frederik Questier
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Belgium

4. Roberto Carlos Rodríguez-Hidalgo
from UCVL, Cuba

6. 8 projects in the
programme with UCLV Cuba
1. ICT Infrastructure and e-administration
2. ICT in Education
3. Library development
4. Institutional policy and management capacity development
English for academic purposes in international collaboration
5. Improving the Quality of Programs in Plant and Animal Sciences
6. Education in Pharmaceutical Sciences
7. Education in Environmental Education and Clean Technologies
8. Research and postgraduate education in Computer Sciences

7. Intermediate results of
ICT in Education Project
➢ installation of training, development and support facilities
➢ improvement of the knowledge, skills and attitudes of UCLV staff
➢ improvement of the local developed 'SEPAD' learning environment
➢ development of a M.Sc. “New Technologies in Education”
– (2000 students 2007)
➢ development of a PhD Programme for ICT in Education
➢ improvement of research
➢ dissemination of results and experiences

8. Context of the study

9. Databases Sciences of Information career
networked learning wiki social software
collaborative learning
Web 2.0 Cuban higher education
teaching and learning process collaboration
graphs theory research workshop
social networks analysis peer learning relationships

10. Research background Hypotheses (1st pilot study)
1. the collaboration
supported by social
software reinforces the
peer relationships among
the students of the class
2. and improves the time
efficiency of the
stakeholders participating
on

11. Methodology
52. Z. Todd, B. Nerlich, S. McKeown, and D. Clarke, Mixing methods in psychology, Hove: Psychology Press, 2004.
53. I. Silverman, “Why social psychology fails,” Canadian Psychological Review, vol. 18, 1977, pp. 353-8.

13. Results – peer relationships
(Gephi Software)
before after

14. Results
Social Network Analysis
Metric Before After
Isolated nodes 5 1
Directed edges 36 102
Graph Density 0.095 0.268
Shortest Paths 123 326
Average Shortest Paths 2.528 1.995
Average Betweeness
0.055 0.126
Centrality
Average Closeness
0.987 0.450
Centrality
Modularity 0.389 0.435*
Clustering Coefficient 0.225 0.617
Number of Communities 7 3
Triangles 12 149

15. Results
Correlation scores and spent time?
N
N
IO
IO
AT
AT
EL
EL
RR
RR
CO
CO
O
O
N
N

16. Time spent without vs with ICT
CE T
N AN Descriptive Statistics
RE IC
FE NIF
N Min. Max. Mean Std. Dev.
D SIG
time_before 20 ,0 6,0 1,950 1,3659
O
IF
time_after 19 ,5 2,5 1,658 ,7275
N
Valid N
19
(listwise)

17. Students’ scores
Descriptive Statistics
N Min. Max. Mean Std. Dev.
Report 1 & 2 20 2 4,5 3,03 1,082
Report 3 19 5 5 5,00 0,000
topic_knowledge12 20 2 5 3,53 0,866
topic_knowledge3 10 3 5 3,90 0,568

18. Conclusions
• This experience is extensible in Cuban higher
education
– More engaged students
– Better quality of research reports
• Checking hypotheses
the collaboration supported by social software reinforces
the peer relationships among the students of the class,
and improves the time efficiency of the stakeholders
participating on

19. Limitations of the study

20. Recommendations for subsequent use
• Alternating the number of members and
membership of the research teams.
• Providing the students with various
collaboration strategies.
• Using the online forums of the wiki instead of
the e-mail.
• Using the RSS channels for controlling the
contributions and discussions.

21. Recommendations for subsequent use
• Promoting the use of references to the
resources for a better supporting of the
students’ contributions.
• Warranting the training of the students on the
use of this kind of tools.
• Decreasing the complexity of the tools for
analysing the classroom network.
• Improving and increasing the ways of
feedback between students and instructors.

22. Credits of pictures
• Maps of Belgium and Cuba: Wikimedia Commons, CC
• Logo and programme cycle, copyright VLIR UOS
• Santa Clara University
• Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• Picture Frederik Questier, copyright by Christophe Empsen
• The Logo of the Dokuwiki software by Esther Brunner

23. Obrigado
Thanks
Questions
This presentation can be found at
http://questier.com
http://www.slideshare.net/Frederik_Questier