Assistant Professor Grace Lin of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education Department of Educational Technology received a first place Distance Learning Journal Article Award from the Association for Educational and Communications Technology (AECT). Lin’s article, “The tensions of transformation in three cross-institutional wikibook projects,” was published in Internet and Higher Education. It was co-authored by three colleagues from Indiana University and the University of Houston.
Lin initiated the research on the educational use of wikis in January 2007. The experiment began with two classes in Indiana and Texas and then expanded into international collaboration. Graduate students created wikibooks across institutional settings and were surveyed about their wikibook efforts. Based on survey results, as well as feedback from instructors about the obstacles and opportunities they encountered, more than two dozen cross-institutional wikibook issues were organized into five key themes.
“This was a longitudinal research project that evolved,” Lin explained. “I had the original idea, and Nari Kim carried it through with her dissertation a couple of years later. Two of our colleagues connected their classes throughout. It was a great team collaborative effort and I am honored to be part of it.”
The Distance Learning Journal Article Award is presented to the author of an outstanding journal article, published within the past three years, that deals with the research, best practices, or theory of distance learning. Nominated papers are judged by a panel of distance learning professionals. Criteria include contribution to the field of distance learning, clarity of the article’s purpose, logical and smooth organization of the article, use and quality of references and citations, and ability of the article to engage the reader.
