Formative challenges in the current University teaching: The use of Wikis and Wikipedia

Abstract

Smart education systems and methodologies are based on the deep integration of information technologies in the educational process. Genuine platforms, concepts and methodologies such as cloud computing systems for collaborative learning, massive courses (MOOC) or flipped classrooms have been incorporated at different educational levels, although the European Higher Education Space allows an easier implementation at university level. Among all the tools belonging to the environment of teaching technologies, wikis have been reported as ideally suited for collaborative learning. Thus, nowadays, several Universities around the world are running Projects and events about the use of wikis in higher education. Therefore, in this paper the authors justify the use of wikis in the higher educational institutions, being focused on a special case: the Wikipedia. Wikipedia presents special characteristics which make it perfect to reach not only the specific learning objectives of a certain particular subject, but also the transversal abilities so demanded today (such as teamwork or social responsibility). Finally, the authors analyze in more depth the experience on the edition of the Wikipedia made by students and professors of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) in the course 2017 and the obtained results are presented.