Wikis have a number of qualities that make them a form of social media particularly suited to the establishment of collaborative learning environments within Higher Education.

Wikis are therefore arguably a highly inclusive technology in the groupwork situation where collaboration between learners is being encouraged. Due to their asynchronous nature they also allow students with differing skills and styles to reflect and participate in a more meaningful manner than class-based groupwork.

Findings by Ruth & Houghton, (2009) in examining the use of wikis by both undergraduate (n=28) and postgraduate students (n=58) recorded that this social software effectively stimulated community building amongst the student cohort (complemented by Instant Messaging) and ultimately helped to create a community of learners. Students were bound together in their creation of the text and they ultimately support each other’s learning and become members of a ‘community of inquiry’ (Garrison, 2006).

In this sense wikis are potentially very important learning tools within the online social constructivist paradigm. Knowledge is constructed within the wiki development process rather than being a means to access a body of existing knowledge to absorb (Ruth & Houghton, 2009).