Ibraheem Alzahrani began his studies at the University of Southampton in October 2010 and has recently had his corrections for his doctorate signed off which means he will graduate this summer with a PhD – many congratulations Ibraheem! Ibraheem was supervised by John Woollard (from SJIE) and Marcus Grace (from the Maths and Science Education – MaSE – Research Centre) who have enjoyed supervising Ibraheem and have learned a good deal from him during this time. John says: “Ibraheem has become a friend as well as a colleague doctor. We look forward to seeing future publications from Ibraheem.”
Ibraheem’s research investigated the impact of using wiki technology in learning biology. The research took place at Al-Baha University (ABU) in Saudi Arabia and explored students’ perceptions, knowledge, e-learning skills and attitudes. The use of e-learning in teaching and learning is seen as an alternative to traditional learning and produces knowledge through a variety of academic activities in many Higher Education institutions. The importance of this research arises from the need to provide a blueprint for future strategic developments in e-learning in Saudi universities, and thus improve policy and practice for the betterment of student learning. The research aimed to determine the impact of wiki technology on learning in the subject of biology among ABU students through their interactions with each other.
The study was divided into three stages: before, during and after the use of the wiki. Collaborative learning and constructivist theory was applied in this study in relation to the learning environment for the participants and used the wiki platform as a learning tool (http://wikibaha.wikispaces.com). The research used a case study approach and focused on individuals and teams at ABU. Mixed methods approaches were used to triangulate the results of the study and collect both quantitative and qualitative data from students. The qualitative and quantitative data were collected by using two types of questionnaire and weekly tests for the quantitative data, and by using interviews and e-comments to collect the qualitative data.
The findings of the study showed that students had positive attitudes and perceptions toward the wiki; these perceptions and attitudes varied from one student to another because of the different experiences using the wiki. The findings also revealed that the use of the wiki helped students to acquire e-learning skills through the use of the Internet and other electronic sources. With respect to students’ achievement of biological knowledge, the results revealed that the majority of students believed that the written and readable information on wiki pages had a major impact on improving their knowledge of biology. This reflects that students tended to learn biology using wiki pages more than by using the traditional learning method of a ‘lecture’. Finally, the study provides evidence that can help to implement change to improve conditions and learning opportunities in Saudi Arabian universities.
Ibrhaeem can be seen talking about his research at the 2013 Southampton Postgraduate Research Student Showcase, and a short summary of his work presented at the 2nd International Conference on E-learning and Knowledge Management in Malaysia (2012) can be viewed here. Ibraheem can be contacted at: I.Alzahrani@soton.ac.uk
