Iowa Law Students Use Wiki Rather than Texts in Employment Class
University of Iowa law professor Lea VanderVelde didn’t want to use a textbook in last spring’s employment law class because the material can quickly become dated. Her solution: Let the students research the law themselves and post it on a Wiki.
VanderVelde told the Daily Iowan that the Wiki helped illustrate that each state takes its own approach to employment law. Each student was responsible for researching the law of two states and posting it on the Wiki.
“Several people expressed the view that it was the most fun class to come to,” VanderVelde said. “It wasn’t just reading the textbook, being called upon, or having the professor lecture to them.”
In an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, VanderVelde noted the debate on whether students are distracted by Web surfing while in class. “In this classroom, the laptop had a purpose,” she said. “I gave the laptop a job.”
There is one Wiki limitation, however, according to UI graduate student Nathan Culmer, who helped on the project. He told the Daily Iowan that the Wiki isn’t available to the general public because of privacy laws that bar students’ work from being viewed by others without the author’s permission.
VanderVelde told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the Wiki approach won’t work in all classes. Her property class is an example. Her students use a textbook—one that she wrote.
