Online collaborative writing technique using wiki: How effective is it to enhance learners’ essay writing?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of Wiki in enhancing learners’ skills in writing argumentative essays. This paper describes the implementation of the online collaborative writing technique (OCWT) through Wiki activities and aims at analyzing the effectiveness of the OCWT to enhance the learners’ argumentative essay writing. This study applied a descriptive method, involving a group of 29 students from the English Education Study Program at Universitas Terbuka (UT), Indonesia. In order to find out the effect of teaching material model on improving students' English writing skills, the researchers used two types of instruments, test, and non-test. The observation was also conducted to describe the process of implementing the OCWT. Based on the observation reports, the results of the statistical tests, and the analysis of the learners’ perceptions, the OCWT using Wiki integrated into Moodle has a significant influence in improving the learners’ argumentative essay writing skills, and as its implication, this approach is very appropriate to hone learners’ learning independence. Moreover, the results of the survey show that the learners were very enthusiastic in participating in OCWT.