Group Work with Wikis – Towards a Cooperative Education Model for the Design Studio

Collaboration and cooperation must be at the forefront of design education to prepare students for practice by reflecting the realities of the professional world. Yet in many design programs the Beaux Arts tradition of individualized studio teaching is still the environment in which students learn. In the globalized world of contemporary education and practice, future landscape architects must be educated in collaborative methods, which necessitate group work within the design studio. Group work can be problematic; focus on the individual within the group can be lost, resulting in subjectively too little or too much work by any member to occur. In such cases conjecture and hearsay are frequently the only methods available to track student work within the group. As a result, it is often less problematic to rely on conventional methods of design studio teaching, such as the master/apprentice model favored by most schools of design. Reliable tools, that are accessible by the majority of educators, must be made available which enable collaboration, foster teamwork, and promote team success, in order to overcome issues of the individual. Wikis are one tool that can enable this, and provide a pathway to a cooperative model for design education. This paper will evaluate and assess how Wikis can contribute to a cooperative education model for the design studio. A case study will be presented outlining how Wikis can be incorporated into design studios, to teach collaboration and negotiation skills within designer teams and between the designer and client throughout the design process, in order to better prepare students for contemporary practice.