Wikibooks in higher education: Empowerment through online distributed collaboration Gilad Ravid a, * , Yoram M Kalman b , Sheizaf Rafaeli b a Industrial Engineering and Management Department, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel b The Center for the Study of the Information Society, University of Haifa, Israel Available online 18 April 2008 Abstract In this case study, wiki technology was applied to the development of an introductory academic textbook on information systems. While the development, production and distribution of traditional textbooks are influenced by commercial interests, the wikitextbook was developed collaboratively by faculty and by students, and was made available online free of charge. After about two years of activity, the wikitextbook accumulated 564 sub-chapters, co-authored by undergraduate and grad- uate students in more than 20 classes offered by seven academic departments across three Israeli uni- versities. We discuss the potential of wikitextbooks as vehicles of empowerment to students, teachers, and the discipline. This type of collaborative online technology intimates an influence on the status- quo in academic education in favor of less empowered stakeholders. However, caution is advised in drawing premature conclusions from results reported here. The implementation of wikitextbook should be augmented by a careful study of cultural, societal, behavioral and pedagogic variables. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: E-book; Wiki; Empowerment; Education; Computer-mediated communication 1. Introduction This paper is about the incorporation of wiki technology as an alternative platform for textbooks. We discuss the role wikis may play in alleviating some of the drawbacks of the 0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2008.02.010 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 8 6472772; fax: +972 8 6472958. E-mail address: gilad@ravid.org (G. Ravid). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Computers in Human Behavior 24 (2008) 1913–1928 www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh Computers in Human Behavior