Wiki-mediated activities in higher education: Evidence-based analysis of learning effectiveness across three studies Panagiota Altanopoulou 1 , Nikolaos Tselios 1 *, Christos Katsanos 2,3 , Maria Georgoutsou 1 and Maria-Antonia Panagiotaki 1 1 ICT in Education Group, Dept. of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education, University of Patras, 26500 Rio, Patras, Greece // 2 School of Science and Technology, Hellenic Open University, Greece // 3 Dept of Business Administration, Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, Greece // galtanopoulou@gmail.com // nitse@ece.upatras.gr // ckatsanos@eap.gr // mariageorgoutsou@gmail.com // antoniapanag@gmail.com *Corresponding author Abstract A considerable interest in using web 2.0 technologies, such as wikis, in education is observed recently. Despite the advantages of the wiki technology, a number of questions concerning design of appropriate activities and their learning effectiveness remain open. In this paper, we present the results of three activities involving first-year University students using wikis to learn basic concepts related to information technology. Three activities of different classes were designed and delivered to the students using the framework proposed by West and West (2009). In all studies, one-group pretest–posttest design was adopted and results illustrated significant improvement in learning outcomes, in particular for students with low initial performance. The average students’ questionnaire score jumped from 39.0/100 to 57.3/100. No significant effect of both students’ role in the activity and their school stream on learning gain was observed. Finally, regardless of the activity’s class and learning goal a persistent pattern of high learning gain was observed. Keywords: Web 2.0, Wikis, Learning activity design, Project based learning, Collaborative learning Introduction The Internet and the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have a profound impact on our societies (Tapscott, 2009). As a result the mode of learning is changing rapidly in a digital age (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). During the recent years, a considerable interest in using web 2.0 technologies in education is observed. Web 2.0 describes web-based technologies which emphasize on user-generated content. The content is created collaboratively with the opportunity to be shared with peers. Web 2.0 technologies constitute a fertile ground for building project-based learning activities (Duffy & Kirkley, 2004) and create real learning communities because students participate actively in learning process (Pieri & Diamantini, 2014). In addition, engagement in web 2.0 mediated activities seems to positively influence both active involvement as well as one’s motivation, which are recognized as key issues affecting student performance and learning (Benek-Rivera & Matthews, 2004; Cole, Fields & Harris, 2004; Waycott, Bennett, Kennedy, Dalgarno & Gray, 2010a; Waycott et al., 2010b). Most participants report positive experiences when they use web 2.0 technologies (Ching & Hsu, 2011; Edirisingha, Rizzi, Nie & Rothwell, 2007; Janossy, 2007). Furthermore, studies suggest that usage of specific web 2.0 technologies can enhance student learning and collaboration (Carter, 2009; Cormode & Krishnamurthy, 2008; Greenhow, Robelia & Hughes, 2009; Papastergiou, 2009; Selwyn, 2008). On a broader context, a recent meta-study (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia & Jones, 2009) concludes that students in online learning conditions performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. Despite the positive aspects of web 2.0 technologies, a number of questions concerning design of appropriate activities and their learning effectiveness remain open (Gray, Thompson, Sheard, Clerehan & Hamilton 2010; Tselios, Daskalakis & Papadopoulou, 2011c; West & West, 2009). As it happens with other technologies used in education, there is an implicit perception that wikis could be instantaneously useful in the educational process without tackling the challenges related to their efficient integration in the educational context. For instance, Ching