This study examines the different ways male and female postgraduate students use wiki technology during online collaborative projects. A European Masters in Interactive Multimedia course module was examined based on the activity of two separate cohorts over successive years. The investigation found females make greater use of wikis than males by looking at the amount of edits made to the wiki pages. Conclusions are drawn on these findings and avenues for further study suggested.

This paper focuses on differences in male and female student participation rates during collaborative wiki-based group projects and how this could affect the technology’s educational use. It examines volume of student participation in the wiki based on gender. Other studies researching the use of social software such as forums and blogs will be addressed to see how their findings relate to the use of wikis. To achieve its aims the study examines wikis used to deliver a part-time postgraduate course to students based in a number of different European countries, English being the common language.