Avenue Help Centre | Managing Wikis

Managing Wikis

Margarita Berezyanskaya

Last Update há um mês

A wiki is a course web page that students can create together.

Wikis start with one simple front page that students can edit. They can also add new pages and create links to them. This powerful tool enables students to construct the content of webpages collaboratively, while completing tasks assigned by their instructor. Students can construct these pages very quickly because they do not need approval from the instructor to add pages or content. The instructor can, however, remove what has been posted if needed. In fact, by using a wiki’s history function, it is possible to check all of the changes made to a wiki page, and even revert back to an earlier version if needed.

Wikis are used in some eunits, especially at the LINC 5 to 7 levels, for web-based collaborative research. They are also used to prepare for group presentations, and also to brainstorm collaboratively.

Although wikis are group activities, when using them, only one user can edit a page at any one time. This can make it challenging to do a wiki activity during computer lab time without some advanced planning. This planning could entail adding multiple pages to the wiki before the class begins. Using this more advanced feature of the courseware, wiki pages can be accessed by members divided into groups, and not the entire class in the same wiki. This feature will be covered in the Stage 3 training.

Exemplar

There are three wiki activities in the Stage 2/3 Exemplar course. They are called Sample Wiki, Job Search Wiki and Information Interviews Wiki.

Students Creating a Wiki Page

1. Navigate to a wiki from the course home page.

The first time a new wiki is opened, users are prompted to create the first page.

2. Read the Wiki task instructions.

3. Choose the HTML format.

4. Click on the Create page button.

Parts of a Wiki

The wiki editor parts are:

page title
wiki instructions
wiki tools drop-down
editor (tinyMCE)
tags

Editing a Wiki Page / Adding a Table of Contents

1. Navigate to a wiki from the course home page.

Note: The first page of the wiki is displayed.

2. Choose Edit in the editing drop-down menu to reveal the editing tools menu.

Note: The tinyMCE editor appears.

3. Click on the Reveal or hide additional toolbar items icon reveals more editing icons.

5. Type a title for this page, e.g. Introduction.

6. Select the title you typed.

7. In the tinyMCE editor menu, click on the Format option.

8. Click on Paragraph styles in the drop-down menu.

9. Choose a suitable size, in this case Heading 4.

Note: If you use these heading styles in a wiki, it will automatically create a Table of Contents page.

Developer's note, the following styles are missing in Avenue 4.5

Heading 1
Heading 2

8. Click on the Save button.

Note: The student view appears.

Adding a Wiki Page

New wiki pages are added by inserting text inside double square brackets, i.e. [[XXXX]].

1. Choose Edit in the editing drop-down menu to reveal the editing tools menu.

2. Type the new page name inside double square brackets.

3. Click the Save button.

The updated page is displayed in the View tab. The new link, Page 2, is red because it links to a page that does not yet exist.

4. Click the link to the newly added page.

The options for adding the New page appear. Enter the name in the New page title if needed. Use the default Format, HTML.

5. Click the Create page button.

The page editor appears for this new page, Page 2.

6. Edit the new page. Avoid using the Heading styles on pages unless you want a separate Table of Contents for each page. Use the double brackets to create a link back to first page. Put the name of the page you want to link to in the brackets.

7. Click on the Save button.8. The View tab becomes active. Note that the new link
is NOT red. This indicates it is a working link. If it is red and you entered the page name, go back and make sure it is named/spelled correctly.

Note: The View tab becomes active. Be aware that the new link
is NOT red. This indicates it is a working link. If it is red and you entered the page name, go back and make sure it is named/spelled correctly. In the example below, the World Health Organization wiki page was created previously.

9. Click the (blue) hyperlink to go to the front page (named "World Health Organization") wiki. The front page appears.

Commenting on Wiki Pages

1. Navigate to a wiki page.

2. Choose Comments in the editing drop-down menu to reveal the comments screen.

Note: The Comments page is displayed. If there are any comments previously added by course participants, they are displayed.

3. Instructors cannot change student comments. They can only delete them.

4. If an instructor wants to comment on a comment, they should click on the Add comment link.

5. Type the comment and click Save changes to post it.

Using the Wiki's History Tab

1. Navigate to a wiki page.

2. Choose History in the editing drop-down menu to reveal the wiki history screen.

Note: A list of the history of the wiki Versions or changes to that wiki page appears, including when the version was added and by whom. The Version numbers are hyperlinks to previous versions of the wiki.

Developer's Note, this is not working well in 4.5. It should reflect the users as it did in 3.10. I left the old image to show how it should look

3. Click a version to display it, e.g. version 3.

Note: The page displays the version and who edited it. The (Restore this version) link changes the wiki back to this version.

Comparing wiki versions.

4. Click the Back button.

5. Use the radio buttons in the Diff (difference) column to select the two versions of the wiki page.

6. Click the Compare selected button.

The two versions appear side-by-side.

The changes made in version #5 (right side) are shown in red and green. Navigation links at the bottom can be used to display different versions.

The Map Tab

1. Navigate to a wiki page.

2. Choose Map in the editing drop-down menu to reveal the wiki map screen.

Note: The Map page appears. The Map menu drop-down can be used to filter/modify the Map page view. All of the pages in this wiki appear in alphabetical order in the

The Files Tab

1. Navigate to a wiki page.

2. Choose Files in the editing drop-down menu to reveal the wiki Files screen.

Note: The Files page appears. It is used to display any files uploaded into a wiki. One file has been uploaded to this wiki.

The Administration Tab

1. Navigate to a wiki page.

2. Choose Administration in the editing drop-down menu to reveal the wiki Administration screen.

Note: Older pages and orphaned pages can be viewed and deleted here.

Resources

Moodle Documents: Wiki Activity

Moodle Documents: Wiki FAQ

Moodle Documents: Using Wiki