What is a Wiki?

Wikipedia defines a wiki as "a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content" as well as an "effective tool for mass collaborative authoring." Wikipedia itself is an example of a wiki.

Pulse now offers a Wiki Tool which will allow you to bring collaborative authoring to your course.

There are two types of wikis that can be added to a course; course wikis and group wikis. The course wiki is open to all members of the course and is turned on by default. The group wiki, which we will cover later in this tutorial, is set up by the instructor. The instructor assigns students in the course to the wiki and it only allows for authoring by those students.

The Course Wiki (Wiki Tool)

When you access a course, the course links are on the left-hand side of the screen (see image 1). In this example, the links are set up as text links, but some courses may have them displayed as buttons. The Wiki Tool is located in the Tools section of the course (see image 2).

Image 1 The Wiki Tool is located in the Tools section of the course.

Image 2 Inside the Tools section, there are a variety of course tools, including the Wiki Tool. The Wiki Tool is turned on by default.

Image 3 shows a newly created wiki. Lets get started by going over the main features of the Wiki Tool and then we will show how some of those features work.

A - The main area is where wiki edits appear. B - The privacy section lets users know who exactly has access to this wiki. C - Edit allows you to update the current page. New will let you create a new page within the wiki. Delete will delete the current page. Delete is grayed out in this example because you cannot delete the Home page. History allows you to view previous versions of the current page and revert back to them if needed. Print opens a printer-friendly window. This can include comments to the page if you click the w/ comments link instead of the print link. D - Search allows you to search the wiki. (read more about searching Pulse) E - Site navigation contains links to all the pages within the wiki. Home is grayed out in this example because you are currently at the Home page. F - Page list opens a small window that lets you navigate to any page within the wiki. The difference between page list and site navigation is that page list gives some additional information, such as the last modification date of the page and how many times the page has been revised. Export site will download the entire wiki to your computer in the form of HTML files. This might be useful for archiving purposes or if you want to display the wiki on another website. Note that these files are static HTML files.

Image 3

To update the current page, click on the edit link (see image 3, item C). This will bring up an edit page where you can change the Page Name, as well as the contents of the page (see image 4). The editor is currently empty because this is a new wiki and it hasn't had any text added to it yet. Note that the edit box has a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. This WYSIWYG editor is NOT available using the Safari browser on a Macintosh. If using Safari, you will get a generic text box like you normally do when using Pulse.

To update the current wiki page (in this case, the Home page), complete the form and click the Save button.

Image 4

Edit the page by completing the form and clicking Save. The current page is blank because it is a new page that has yet to be edited.

After entering some text and clicking the Save button, the wiki page is updated. Keep in mind that the wiki is a collaborative workspace, so even though student #1 may add some text to the page, student #2 can later modify that text. We will show an example of that shortly. Also notice the Comments link on the page. This allows wiki members to read and post comments regarding this page.

Image 5

The wiki page is now updated.

Now that the Home page has some text on it, it is possible for another student, or the instructor, to update this page. Remember that if you click on the edit link (see image 3, item C), you will go to the edit page, but instead of the editor being empty, this time it contains the text from the current page (see image 6).

Image 6

Clicking edit will allow members of the wiki to edit the contents of the current page.

Now lets add a link on the Home page that links to a new page in the wiki. This new page doesn't currently exist, so you will need to create that new page as well.

Click on the Insert link button to create the link (see image 7). This opens the Create link window with three options; create a link to a new page, an existing page, or an external website. Since you want to create a new page within the wiki, click on the first option, give the new page a name, then click the Insert button. The link now appears in the WYSIWYG editor (see image 8).

Image 7 Insert a link on the current page using the Insert link button.

Image 8 The WYSIWYG editor now shows the newly added link.

Once you finish updating the page, click the Save button. The updated page now replaces the previous version in the wiki (see image 9). Remember, if you ever need to revert back to a previous version of the page, click on the history link to do so (see image 10).

Image 9

The updated wiki Home page replaces the previous page.

Image 10

The history link will allow you to view previous versions of the page and revert back to them if needed.

If a wiki member wanted to comment on the wiki entry, they would click on the comments link (see image 11). This will cause a text box to appear on the screen. You will see that it is a scaled-down version of the WYSISYG editor. Safari users should take note that, at this time, the text box will appear, but you can not type in it.

Type your comment in the editor and click the Add Comment button to add your comments.

Image 11

Click the comments link to add a comment.

If comments have been added to a wiki page, the comments link will show you how many comments there are (see image 12). Now if you click on the comments link, you will see those comments above the WYSISYG editor (see image 13).

Image 12 The comments link shows you that there has been 1 comment added.

Image 13 Click the comments link to see the comments.

Lets return to the What is a wiki? link that you added to the Home page (see image 9). Clicking on this link will take you to the new What is a wiki? page (see image 14).

Image 14

This is the new What is a wiki? page you created.

Click on edit link and enter content on the new page, as you did for the Home page earlier (see image 3, item C). Note that the WYSIWYG part of the editor has been replaced with a browser error. This is what Safari users will see when adding and editing content in the wiki (see image 15).

Image 15

Edit the new page. Note the error for Safari users.

For Instructors and Organization Leaders: Course Wiki (Wiki Tool) Settings

There are a variety of settings for the Wiki Tool that can be modified by the instructor. To do so, the instructor must first go to the Control Panel and click on the Configure Wiki Tool link in the Course Tools box (see image 16).

Image 16

Click on the Configure Wiki Tool link to modify its settings.

Image 17 illustrates the variety of settings available for the course wiki and it also shows you the default setup of the Wiki Tool. Most of these options have been discussed in detail earlier in the tutorial, but there are a few that might need further explanation.

Allow Users to Edit the Wiki
If you plan to use the course wiki, note that this is set to No by default. You will want to change this to Yes, otherwise your students won't be able to edit the wiki.

Comments
If you don't want students to be able to comment on wiki entries, you can disable that feature.

Public References to Students
You can choose how the wiki entries are signed. In our examples above, we used Person Name.

Image 17

There are a variety of settings for the Wiki Tool.

For Instructors and Organization Leaders: Group Wikis

An instructor has the option of setting up wikis that are assigned to smaller groups of students. To do this, the instructor must first go to the Control Panel and then to the section of the course where they want to add the group wiki (e.g. Assignments).

Once in the location where you want to add the group wiki, you need to use the toolbar at the top of the page (see image 18).

Image 18

Navigate to the area you want to post the group wiki and find the toolbar at the top of the page.

Click on the pull-down menu at the far right of the toolbar and select Wiki (see image 19), then click the Go button to the right of the pull-down menu.

Image 19

Select Wiki to add a group wiki to the course.

This will take you to the Create Wiki page (see image 20). On this page you will add the name of the wiki, a description of the wiki, and assign the groups or students who will have access to edit the wiki. Note that the default setup on the Create Wiki page is to allow all students in the course to read the wiki. To prevent this, and only allow group members to access and read the wiki, you must set up date restrictions in the Options section of the Create Wiki page (see image 20).

Image 20

The Create Wiki page.

At the bottom of the Create Wiki page is a section to create a Gradebook entry for this group wiki (see image 21). This will put a column in your Gradebook and you will then need to grade each student manually based on their performance.

Image 21

Group wikis can be added to the Gradebook in order to assign grades to students for their work.

Once you click the Ok button at the bottom of the Create Wiki page, the group wiki is now added to the course. Image 22 shows the student view for accessing the wiki.

Image 22

Student view for accessing the group wiki.

Lets take a quick look at the grading feature of the wiki, specifically tracking performance. If you return to the Control Panel, you will see that there is a link directly under the Configure Wiki Tool link that says Access Wikis (see image 23).

Image 23

Click the Access Wikis link to track performance.

If you click on Access Wikis, you will get a list of each of the group wikis that you've created (see image 24). Click on View Participation to see each students' participation in the wiki.

Image 24

Access Wikis shows you all of the group wikis in the course. Click on View Participation to see each students' participation in the wiki.

Image 25 shows an example of what the View Participation page looks like

Image 25

An example of the View Participation page.

If you have any questions, please contact Chris Braster at Chris.Braster@jefferson.edu or 215-503-3120.