THE LEARNER AS A PARTICIPANT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONTENT THROUGH THE USE OF A WIKI IN A COMPETENCY-BASED PROGRAM OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

Recently a small number of health science programs at the Université de Montréal have adopted a competency-based approach in their curriculum. In the occupational therapy (OT) program at the School of Rehabilitation, Faculty of medicine, such an approach has replaced the traditional course lecture format and consequently the teaching methods and strategies have undergone a major transformation requiring faculty to use and integrate several of the latest Web technologies. The new competency-based program in OT requires that the student actively engage in knowledge acquisition and develop skills as a communicator, collaborator and professional practitioner.

The purpose of this paper is to present a pedagogical experience in the OT program that used a wiki to enable the learner to become a knowledge producer and actor of his learning. The integration of this technological tool in the teaching strategy aimed not only to facilitate individual student learning but also to promote and increase collective knowledge of the course content.

Although several Web tools for collaborative work are now available, wikis are one of the most promising because they provide a virtual environment for collaborative documentation by members of a community. A wiki is basically a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser. It is constructed by several authors/members through a collective effort.

Three courses were targeted to use the wiki as part of the teaching and learning method. Each course had different objectives intended for the wiki: learning to share different views, perform collaborative work on a particular topic and gradually build up a collective synthesis of occupational therapy knowledge. In these courses, teaching materials and discussion forums were accessible via WebCT (learning management system) and collaboration between and among students was offered via the wiki.

Following application of the wiki in these courses, the degree of satisfaction of students and professors and the impact thereof on the acquisition of skills was evaluated through an online survey. Initially, the goal of the survey was to assess the degree of appreciation of the wiki with students (n= 168) and to determine its influence on the development of their skills. Following this, the survey was submitted to the participating professors to determine whether the use of a wiki as part of their course had achieved the desired objectives and to assess their degree of satisfaction. The results obtained from both student and faculty clearly indicated that using a wiki as a learning tool contributes to the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills in this new competency-based program of occupational therapy.