A
wiki is a course web page that students can create together. There are wiki tasks provided in the LINC 4 to 7 courseware.
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 the courseware, 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.
Note that, 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.
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.
Editing a Wiki Page / Adding a Table of Contents
1. Navigate to a wiki from the course home page.
The
first page of the wiki is displayed.
2. Click on the
Edit tab.
3. Selecting the
Show / hide advanced buttons icon reveals more editing icons.
4. Edit the wiki page.
Use the tool bar to edit a wiki page.
5. Type a
title for this page, e.g. Introduction.
6. Select the
title you typed.
7. Select
Heading (large) in the Paragraph styles drop-down menu.
If you use these heading styles in a wiki, it will automatically create a Table of Contents page.
New
wiki pages are added by inserting text inside double square brackets, i.e. [[XXXX]].
1. Click the
Edit tab on a wiki page.
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.
9. Click the (blue)
hyperlink to return to the front page (named “Environment Wiki”).
The front page appears.
1. Navigate to a wiki page.
2. Click the
Comments tab.
The Comments page is displayed. Comments previously added by course participants 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. Click the History tab.
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.
3. Click a
version to display it, e.g. version 2.
The page displays the
version and
who edited it. The
(Restore this version) link changes the wiki back to this version.
We can compare version #5 with version #2 (or any two versions).
4. Click the
History tab.
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.
1. Navigate to a wiki page.
2. Click the
Map tab.
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 Page list.
1. Navigate to a wiki page.
2. Click the
Files tab.
The
Files page appears. It is used to display any files uploaded into a wiki.
One file has been uploaded to this wiki.
1. Navigate to a wiki page.
2. Click the
Administration tab.
The Administration page appears. It is used to
delete wiki pages and older versions of pages.
