Why Do Some Students Become More Engaged in Collaborative Wiki Writing? The Role of Sense of Relatedness

This study aims to investigate the role of sense of relatedness in students' engagement in using wikis in collaborative writing. Hong Kong secondary school students (N = 422) participated in the study and answered questionnaires about their sense of relatedness and their level of engagement when using wikis for open collaborative project work. Results from the regression analyses showed that students' sense of relatedness with their teacher and peers facilitated their engagement in the collaborative wiki writing environment. The results were also consistent with the educational psychology research findings in a traditional classroom setting. Most importantly, the result from this study showed the possible linkage between IT in education research and the educational psychology literature. Implications of psychological factors on students' learning in technologically-enriched learning environments are discussed.