Travel Planning Wiki Page
THE ASSIGNMENT
As part of this travel and tourism course, students will work together to compile a travel planning page that can be used for planning in the future. This page, commonly known as a wiki, is a great resource for collaboration and allows for all students in this class to have access to many sample travel plans by doing a small share of the work. Through this wiki, students need minimal knowledge of building a wiki and can collaborate together to develop a repository of knowledge and links that users can continue to use well past the constraints of this course (Vanderbilt, 2019).
Learning Objectives:
1) Students will recognize the basic components of vacation planning, including travelers needs and restraints.
2) Students will be able to synthesize a variety of vacation destinations within budgetary, time and group constraints.
3) Students will appreciate working collaboratively in a team to create a finished project.
4) Students will develop the beginnings of a travel brochure.
Why a wiki?
A wiki was chosen for this project as it allows students to actively learn the information and share that information with others. Done alone, students would need to dedicate many hours to develop 16 different destinations/scenarios, whereas the wiki will provide access to the 16 while allowing each student to play a part. Students will be able to connect with their teammates and draw from the strengths of their team to put together a product that can be used even after the class is over (West & West, 2009).
Assignment details
For this assignment you will pretend that you are putting together vacation possibilities for a certain group. The teams will be as follows:
Team 1) Plan a 7 day 6 night vacation based on number of travelers.
Put together a vacation for a family with 2 kids, ages 7 and 9;
a vacation for a group of friends planning a bachelor/bachelorette getaway;
a vacation for honeymooners
and finally a vacation for an older couple without kids.
Team 2) Plan a vacation for a family of four for 7 days and 6 nights based on budget
Put together a vacation for $1000, $1000-2000; $2000-4000 and $4000+
Team 3) Plan a domestic travel vacation for 5 days 4 nights for two travelers based on time zones
Put together a HI/Pacific; Mountain, Central and Eastern
Team 4) Plan international travel for 5 days 4 nights for two travelers-
choose 4 separate countries/regions
Each team will be responsible for finding 4 SEPARATE vacation destination spots. Each team needs to include:
1) The locale of the destination, including pictures
2) The price of the vacation for the number of people and number of nights- estimate the cost of
the flight based on summer travel from our local airport
3) Food and lodging estimates for the destination, as well as suggestions for available options
4) At least 3 travel trips to consider when taking the vacation, dos and dont's for the region.
The Plan
Week 1: Teams will be assigned by the instructor. Each student will need to go to the sample wiki to post a quick paragraph of their favorite vacation as well as a picture of the destination, to show they are able to post to the wiki.
Week 2: Teams will meet for the first time with the instructor via zoom to plan the wiki and set milestones. Students will also return to the sample wiki and post an additional line to each classmates post. "Never been", "want to go" or "have been there" is acceptable to show how wikis can be edited, but students can post more if they choose to do so.
Weeks 3-5:Teams will work on wikis. Students can determine how they want to break up the work. Students can continue to work on the wiki components per group decision process.
Week 6: Final wiki is due to the page at the end of the week.
Week 7: Students will review the wiki of other groups. Students will need to comment on each of the other teams pages.
Week 8: Wiki assessment and travel brochure. Student will complete an assessment of the process, as well as a self-assessment of their own work and an assessment of the team's work overall. Students will use the wiki information to put together a sample travel brochure for a destination of the students choice, based on information from the wiki.
RULES of the Wiki
1) Wikis are meant to be collaborative. While the team may choose whether to select a team leader or not, all students should note that editing should be agreed upon- don't delete someone's contribution just because you do not agree with it. Everyone should feel engaged and as though they have some ownership of the page
2) Cite your work!!
3) Be creative- Add pictures, videos, color and fonts.
Rubric:
The wiki portion of the assignment is worth 60 points. See syllabus for more information about the travel brochure.
10 points- Wiki page is organized in a manner that makes sense to the viewer. Title is clearly
marked and the 4 points to include for each locale can be easily located.
5 points- Wiki page is mostly organized, but some items could be better placed for viewing.
0 points- Wiki page is disorganized, and no identifiable format can be noted.
10 points- Teams include all 4 points for all 4 destinations
5 points- Teams are missing 1-2 points of data
0 points- 3 or more data points are missing
10 points- Team data is well-planned for budget, travel group size, or locale. Attention is
"personalized" for the destination and the focus for the team.
5 points- Team data may meet the focus for the team but could be more well-developed for
the focus.
0 points- Team data does not meet the focus, or is very general. Data is not specific to region
or destination.
10 points- Wiki is colorful and inviting. Links are functioning and useful for a vacation
planner wanting to plan a vacation with the focus given.
5 points- Wiki has some pictures and links, but links may not be functioning in all places or
pictures and data may not provide a clear idea of the destination.
0 points- Wiki is bare. Links do not function or are not present. Pictures are minimal.
10 points- Students will complete an assessment of the wiki, providing a clear assessment of
what was learned, as well as an honest assessment of the student and group
contributions
5 points- Assessment is vague and instructor cannot understand what was learned or how
student or others on the student's team contributed.
0 points- Assessment is not completed.
APA format
10 points- Proper APA citations are used and all data is cited properly.
5 points- APA citation is used, but there are errors or a missing citation
0 points- APA citation is not used, several citation errors are present, more than 1 citation is
missing.
References
Vanderbilt. (2019). Wikis. Vanderbilt Center for teaching. Retrieved online April 10, 2019 from
cft.vanderbilt.edu/wikis.
West, J. & West, M. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
I like the reasoning provided for the use of the WIKI because it is learner-centered. Highlighting the amount of work required to complete the research project illustrates the benefit of working collaboratively not to mention, who would not mind planning a vacation.
ReplyDeleteThe notation about deleting group members work is something I had not considered as a rule of engagement. West and West (2009) address the issue of having “sticky wikis” where learners focus on their contributions and not that of the group. I agree it would be wise to include verbiage about conflict resolutions to circumvent any potential issues. Also, learners appreciate producing a finished product such as the travel brochure to demonstrate the effective use of the WIKI. Will the learners create the brochure in the WIKI as part of the project?
Thanks for your response. I think it is important to consider the "deletion" aspect as when I was planning this, I was considering this as 1) an introductory class and 2) as an intro class, I would assume that the students are a bit unfamiliar with each other and therefore the rules would need to be laid out ahead of time.
DeleteI would probably make the brochure as more of an independent final project that would come from the students gathering information from the wiki if I ever put a similar project together.
Your lesson plan is clearly laid out as to the expectations and activities each group is completing. I would feel comfortable picking up this 8 week course with limited questions. One of the questions that did come to mind is the context of the course. Is this part of a larger curriculum offering through a college/university? Is the course all online or just the wiki project?
ReplyDeleteI would imagine it would be a "side" project as part of a larger class. It could be part of a live class or an online class. (due to trying to maintain anonymity, this is just something I created in my head---I have no travel agent experience at all :))
Deleteksu1msm,
ReplyDeleteYou blog post makes me want to travel! I love this lesson plan you have designed, I want to do this assignment. The wiki assignment was well organized and the objectives are stated clearly. I liked the framing of its intent and the first 2 weeks of engagement you provided to the groups. Great job!
ksu1msm,
ReplyDeleteI agree that these lesson plans make me want to travel again. The lesson plans have been designed, so learners immediately engage and share where they have traveled before. I think that is a wonderful idea to use as an ice breaker with the group. Have these lesson plans been used before? Do you see an opportunity in the future where these lesson plans can be used?
Colleen
Thanks for reading! No, I am not a travel agent, this is just a class I created from my imagination to maintain anonymity. If anyone in the travel and tourism industry wants to use it, they are more than welcome to it. I just chose travel as I like to plan trips myself and there are so many considerations to make, I thought it would make a good assignment. :)
DeleteWhat a fun project! Now I want to travel. I appreciate the different scenarios that you assigned, you differentiated greatly in each. You rubric was clear and precise. You mentioned a travel brochure, is that a hard copy or online brochure?
ReplyDelete