Enhancing networking and proactive learning skills in the first year university experience through the use of wikis.

This paper discusses the introduction of blended learning strategies, a combination of traditional and online techniques, into the first year of a new preregistration nursing advanced diploma and degree programme at Bournemouth University (UK). During a ten week sociology of health academic unit, in the first term of a three year nursing course, wikis were introduced as a complementary learning technique to traditional lectures and seminars. Wikis, an online application, provided eleven student seminar groups (each divided into 4 online or elearning groups of 6-8 students) with the potential to communicate collaboratively "anytime, anywhere" (JISC, 2010) to discuss a sociology preparation activity for the preceding week. The implementation of this elearning tool was structured through the application of Salmon's five stage model (Salmon, 2002) and evaluated from 69 students' online contributions to wikis as well as questionnaires completed by both a sample of students and academic staff. As well as the many comments made by students the evaluation indicated that 45% of students' responses valued wikis as a communication tool and 33% believed it promoted or allowed the sharing of group views. The evaluation presents and critiques the initial project management using Salmon's five stage model and the engagement of students and academic staff. In particular it begins to show how wikis have the potential to structure academic learning and promote social networking in the crucial first few months of a course.