The concept of an online project space is not currently well defined in academic or other literature. With the help of Tatyana Dumova ⁽¹⁾, however it can be defined as a web based space where groups of learners can work together to achieve common goals. In the context of active knowledge making the result is the production of a knowledge artefact. 

Rather than provide an exhaustive list of all online project spaces currently being used in an educational context, the focus of this update is on wiki project spaces as this appears to be the most commonly used and reviewed. 

A wiki is defined by J Davies ⁽²⁾ as “web pages where everyone has rights to edit everything, and editing is not discouraged but encouraged…… As such it is a collaborative workspace where everybody has the ability to add to, amend and organise the content as they see fit.” The resulting wiki is essentially an online project space that by its nature of recording the work of the creators, produces a knowledge artefact created by those with access to the wiki ( the project ‘team’).

Below is a link from an elementary school educator whom has used Wikis extensively. ⁽³⁾ It’s worth noting that not all of the collaborative work on this project appears to have been done in the wiki and that programs such as Google Docs were also used, suggesting perhaps some weakness in the wiki platform. 

http://naturaldisastersandus.wikispaces.com/home

Additionally, below is an example of using wikis for collaborative group work in a higher education context. (4)

Further examination of the strengths and weaknesses of wikis in collaborative projects was conducted by Bower et al in their paper A Tale of Two Wikis ⁽⁵⁾. Their examination suggested that: 

• As a shared space for information and ideas the wiki was a valuable space. However when it came to actions that required immediacy e.g brainstorming, tools such as instant messaging or whiteboarding would have been more appropriate. 
• A majority of students preferred working face to face as they believed it was faster to talk than type and also that it created a stronger sense of group. Arguably a written response is more considered so whilst it takes longer to produce - may have greater value. However as Bower et al note “survey responses from group project participants indicated that face to face engagement was a valuable complement to wikibased interactions because it provided the opportunity to conduct richer interpersonal interactions and to create a stronger sense of group”. ⁽⁶⁾ Further supporting this argument, Davies hypothesises that “ A sense of community and therefore group history is important to wiki success”. ⁽⁷⁾

This concept of community is an interesting observation and raises the question of whether the wiki environment adequately addresses the fundamental social needs of students and humans. For example does it require more ‘getting to know you’ type functionality so that in the absence of the ability to have face to face contact it can still create a sense of community? 

_{1. Dumova, T (2009) Handbook of Research on Social Interaction Technologies and Collaboration Software: Concepts and Trends}

_{2. Davies, J (2004) Wiki Brainstorming and Problems with Wiki Based Collaboration}

_{3. www.lisaparisi.wikispaces.com/collaborations}

_{4.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRj5ABJ-IPY}

_{5. Bower M et al ( 2008) Wiki Pedagogy - A Tale of Two Wikis}

_{6. Ibid}

_{7. Davies, J (2004) Wiki Brainstorming and Problems with Wiki Based Collaboration}