Mandy Talbot
School of Management and Business
Aberystwyth University
Identify an
issue
Revise
Review
Plan an
intervention
Implement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Course Aim: To address the
conceptual and practical nature of
tourism development and
develops students’ transferable
skills
Coursework Task : Students work
in small groups to identify and
evaluate tourism development
strategies in given tourist
destinations and compare these to
approaches being taken elsewhere
Course Approach: Student centred
Method: Classroom presentations
Assessment: 50% Coursework &
50% exam
Fiji
New Zealand
Greece
Zanzibar
Thailand
Dubai (UAE)
Maldives
Bhutan
Galapagos
Nepal
Egypt
The Issues:
 Lack of cohesiveness of student presentations: segmented
 Limited interaction/ discussion from students with each
others’ presentations
The Result:
 Lost the opportunity to engage with each others’ work
The Possible Reasons:
 Limited time to assimilate information and
to interact with each others’ work
 Shyness /Dominant individuals
 Lack of preparation / not sharing thoughts
Wikis are collaboratively created websites that enable
visitors to the site to question and comment on
content
Intervention aims:
To improve the cohesiveness of student group work
 To provide students more opportunity to engage with
each others’ presentations
 To improve the quality of students
work
 To develop new IT skills
 To complement presentations

Stage
Teacher’s role
1) Setting up the
wiki project
(1 week)
•Wiki IT training
(e-learning team)
•Example Wikis
•Wiki Guidelines
•Assignment info
Student’s role
2) Developing the •Site monitoring
wiki pages within - Teachers make
student groups
suggestions
(4 weeks)
•Wiki development
- Students
collaborate in
groups
3) Student
interaction
between groups
(7 weeks)
•Moderate wiki
sites and class
discussions
•Wiki interaction
•Presentations &
discussion
•Wiki development
4) Wiki -site
closure
Assessment
•Exam revision –
wikis = a resource
25% wiki
25% presentation
1) The history of international
tourism development
2) Current pattern of tourism
3) The economic significance of
tourism - an analysis of various
statistics
4) Governance of tourism :
institutional frameworks within
which tourism development takes
place
5) Problems associated with tourism
Analyse THREE specific problems
and show how the destination are
addressing them.
6) Give your assessment, of the
future prospects for the
development of tourism
7) Reference list
Sharing content and ideas:
Economic information

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Made by Charlie on 3/7/2012 at 3:38 PM, GMT
Hey Nikolas, I found a good PDF for this category for you! I will
send it to you on Skype when you come online!
IT Skills support:
Uploading pictures
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Made by Lucy on 3/23/2012 at 1:53 PM, GMT.
I have a graph I would like to put in, I have tried inserting it the
way we have been told though no success.
Made by Jane on 3/23/2012 at 3:10 PM, GMT.
Hey save the picture to your own documents on your computer.
Then on the wiki toolbar, there is an icon saying edit image,
click on that to download the picture
Organising content:
National Park
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Made by Hannah on 3/26/2012 at 9:39 PM, BST
Hey Helena - Should we make the National Park one special
subject as there is so much to it?
Made by Helena on 3/27/2012 at 8:42 PM, BST
We could do that, but do we need that much information about
the National Park when the focus is supposed to be on tourism?
Encouraging further wiki site development
Economic Contribution
 Made by Joanna on 3/27/2012 at 9:57 PM, BST

I'm surprised at the low contribution that oil and natural gas
contributes to Dubai's economy. Are there any older figures to
compare this to in order to determine if there is a shift to other
money generating sectors such as tourism?
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A good start: Galapagos
Made by Amanda Talbot on 3/28/2012 at 12:44 PM, BST.
A good start! Re: Between 2010 and 2011 over U.S.
$ 21 million was collected through visitor taxes: What
is this income used for ? Is it used effectively?
Re: A good start
Made by Helen on 4/3/2012 at 5:53 PM, BST.
Yes over 21 Million $ was collected 2010 - 2011, but
only 8 Million $ were used for the National Park and
1 Million $ for the Marine Reserve. The National Park
income goes to the State: Ecuador, that redistributes
it. You will find a diagram of this shortly in the
economics section. Also tourism has exploded
recently and the National Park is struggling to
manage this - there are problems such as rubbish.
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Visitor Numbers: New Zealand
In the graph showing visitor arrivals, there was a significant
increase in numbers from 2001 -2004 and a slow down
between 2007 - 2009. Why is this and what is the impact?
Re: Visitor numbers
Made by Katy on 4/27/2012 at 10:48 PM, BST.
Increased number in visitor arrivals in 2001-2004 was
caused by improving air -links to NZ, And the slow-down
noted in 2007-2009 was caused by the world's economic
break down – this difficult financial situation discouraged
tourists from expensive long-haul travels.
Re: Visitor numbers
Made by Lucy on 4/27/2012 at 5:49 PM, BST.
Increased numbers may also have been due to the Rugby
World Cup (which i have explained in the economic section),
It would have increased visitor numbers significantly and
boosted tourism business incomes such as
accommodation

How do you think tourism development in Bhutan compares
to Nepal? Although similar size and product they have
developed very differently?
Reply by Hannah on 4/25/2012 at 9:20 PM, BST:
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The uncontrolled, environmentally and culturally damaging
tourism the Royal Governing body of Bhutan (RGOB) saw in
Nepal has meant that Bhutan has chosen a different
approach to tourism in order to preserve their "rich heritage
and vibrant culture“ which is essential as this is a key reason
for visits to Bhutan (Brunet et al, 2001) .
In Nepal environmental degradation from large numbers of
tourists is well-documented e.g. Large scale deforestation
for fuel wood (Gurung 2008). As forestry is a key sector of
the economy in Bhutan, they ensure tourism’s usage does
not cause such severe impacts. Bhutan's economy has been
growing slowly and the country prides itself in its "restrictive
tourism policy " (Seeland, 2000) which enables growth and
development at a steady manageable rate.
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Effectiveness assessed through:
Student feedback on the wikis
Assessment of interaction: wikis & in class
Student coursework results
Wiki monitoring tools: site visits 40 – 200+
1.
The ability to interact with other groups
work:x5 ‘commenting on other people’s work’ ‘seeing
what others had done’
2.
The wikis provided an easy way to manage the
groups work: x 6‘ It’s easy to check and update group
work’
3.
4.
5.
6.
IT skills development: ‘x6 Learnt how to structure a
web page’
Doing research about new countries: x4
‘encouraged me to do wider research
Other positive:x2 ‘fun’ &‘useful for exam’
Negative: x2 Not necessary, presentation enough
Activity
yes
Why
Number of visits to
other sites
16/18
Number found other
site useful
16/18
Get ideas on structure and
content
Compare countries, draw
conclusions
Number commented
on sites
9/18
Seek understanding
Suggest improvements
Number didn’t
comment on sites
9/18
Answer already there
Not like to, no time, forgot
Number found
comments useful
9/18
Encouraged improvement and
extension of work
Some questions not useful as
answers in the text
Statement
Strongly Somewhat Total No
Somewhat Strongly
agree
agree
agree opinion disagree
disagree
a) Looking at other wikis
6%
improved the standard of
MY work
b) The wiki exercise improved 24%
my group work skills
c) Looking at other wikis
improved the standard of
our group work
d) The wiki exercise improved 12%
my technology skills
Total
66%
72%
12%
6%
100%
18
41%
65%
29%
6%
100
59%
59%
29%
12%
100
59%
72%
18%
12%
100
Date
Course work
breakdown
2011
Average
Individual
Score
55%
2012
60%
25% presentation: 59.8%
25% wiki:
60.3%
Result span 50-76%
50% presentation
Aims
Achieved: Evidence
1. To improve the
cohesiveness of students’
group work
• The wikis provided a collaborative
work space for students
2. To increase the amount of
student interaction with
each others’ work
• The wikis provided more
opportunity for interaction
• Students took advantage of this
3. To improve the quality of
students work
• 72% say yes
• Average student coursework
scores 5% increase
4.To improve transferable
skills
•How to create wikis,
•Improved group work skills 65%
Student feedback:
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Wiki software: a more user friendly wiki package
Wiki training: inductions in IT lab and instructions
Timing: start the project earlier = more opportunity for
interaction
Teacher feedback:
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Agree an amount of content before sites go live
Give students an idea of number of sites to interact with
Set tasks for students for greater interaction
1.
2.
3.
4.
Providing students with a meaningful, real world or
relevant task that will encourage them to engage
with each other’s sites
Equipping students with the relevant cognitive and
technical skills to complete the task
Pitching the activity at the correct level
Engaging students in establishing the ground rules
for working in groups and interacting with each
others work
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Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E.
(2008) Cooperation in the classroom, Edina:
Interaction Book Company
Richardson, W. (2006) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts
and other Powerful Web-tools for the
Classroom, Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
West and West (2009) Using Wikis for Online
Collaboration, San Francisco, Wiley