Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams
Wikis, freely editable collections of web pages, exhibit potential for a flexible documentation and communication tool for collaborative design tasks as well as support for team design thinking early in the design process. The purpose of this work is to analyze dimensions of wiki technologies from a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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ASME International
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109149 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7776-3423 |
| _version_ | 1826188369214832640 |
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| author | Walthall, Carolynn J. Devanathan, Srikanth Kisselburgh, Lorraine G. Ramani, Karthik Hirleman, E. Daniel Yang, Maria |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Walthall, Carolynn J. Devanathan, Srikanth Kisselburgh, Lorraine G. Ramani, Karthik Hirleman, E. Daniel Yang, Maria |
| author_sort | Walthall, Carolynn J. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Wikis, freely editable collections of web pages, exhibit potential for a flexible documentation and communication tool for collaborative design tasks as well as support for team design thinking early in the design process. The purpose of this work is to analyze dimensions of wiki technologies from a communication perspective as applicable to design. A wiki was introduced in a globally distributed product development course, and the experiences and performance of colocated and distributed teams in the course were assessed through observations, surveys, and site usage analytics. With a focus on communication in design, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of using wikis in student engineering design teams. Our goal is to use wiki technologies to enhance support for design processes while exploiting the potential for increasing shared understanding among teams. Distributed teams used the wiki more as a design tool and were more supportive of its use in the course whereas colocated teams used it for documentation. The usage patterns, the number and type of files uploaded, and the wiki structure provided indicators of better performing teams. The findings also suggest ways to improve and inform students about best practices using the wiki for design and to transform the wiki as a support tool for communication during early design collaboration. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T07:58:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109149 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T07:58:35Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | ASME International |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1091492022-09-23T10:02:59Z Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams Walthall, Carolynn J. Devanathan, Srikanth Kisselburgh, Lorraine G. Ramani, Karthik Hirleman, E. Daniel Yang, Maria Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Yang, Maria Wikis, freely editable collections of web pages, exhibit potential for a flexible documentation and communication tool for collaborative design tasks as well as support for team design thinking early in the design process. The purpose of this work is to analyze dimensions of wiki technologies from a communication perspective as applicable to design. A wiki was introduced in a globally distributed product development course, and the experiences and performance of colocated and distributed teams in the course were assessed through observations, surveys, and site usage analytics. With a focus on communication in design, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of using wikis in student engineering design teams. Our goal is to use wiki technologies to enhance support for design processes while exploiting the potential for increasing shared understanding among teams. Distributed teams used the wiki more as a design tool and were more supportive of its use in the course whereas colocated teams used it for documentation. The usage patterns, the number and type of files uploaded, and the wiki structure provided indicators of better performing teams. The findings also suggest ways to improve and inform students about best practices using the wiki for design and to transform the wiki as a support tool for communication during early design collaboration. 2017-05-17T19:46:38Z 2017-05-17T19:46:38Z 2011-07 2010-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1050-0472 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109149 Walthall, Carolynn J.; Devanathan, Srikanth; Kisselburgh, Lorraine G.; Ramani, Karthik; Hirleman, E. Daniel and Yang, Maria C. “Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams.” Journal of Mechanical Design 133, no. 7 (July 2011): 071001. © 2011 American Society of Mechanical Engineers https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7776-3423 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4004115 Journal of Mechanical Design Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf ASME International American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) |
| spellingShingle | Walthall, Carolynn J. Devanathan, Srikanth Kisselburgh, Lorraine G. Ramani, Karthik Hirleman, E. Daniel Yang, Maria Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams |
| title | Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams |
| title_full | Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams |
| title_fullStr | Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams |
| title_short | Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams |
| title_sort | evaluating wikis as a communicative medium for collaboration within colocated and distributed engineering design teams |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109149 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7776-3423 |
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