For Staff: Wikis
What are Wikis?
Wikis are websites that allow you to create and edit pages in your web browser. These are simple wikis which allow your students to collaborate and build multifacited websites within your module/organisation area.
Students can cooperatively write, critique and publish their work online, create shared knowledgbases for their module/organisation, upload multimedia, link to external websites, all without touching a website authoring program.
In Blackboard, you can turn a wiki into a challenging groupwork activtiy and use built in tools to assess student participation.
Examples of using wikis in teaching:
Help your students
Why not make life easier for your students by linking to the guide on wikis. We have produced a series of ten tips to help improve your module, part of which has further advice on how you can aid students by providing instructions and links to further guides.
How to add a wiki
Make sure Edit Mode is ON from the top right hand corner of the module/organisation area you wish to add the wiki to.
Select the Add Interactive Tool action link and click Campus Pack Wiki.
You can also add a module/organisation wiki to the module/organisation menu. However, this is not recommended as if your module/organisation is copied for future cohorts, the module/organisation wiki will not copy.
Wiki description and settings
- Name & Description - Give the wiki a title and add any descriptive text.
- Make the wiki available - You can make the wiki available immediately, or select No if you wish to work it and release it at a later date.
- Select the value to use to reference users - Choose a format convention for users' names. There is no 'correct' option. A Person name is likely to be more recognisable to your students than a username, however having both may be more useful to you!
- Text direction - The convention is left to right.
Member settings
You can allow all module/organiastion members to access the wiki by default, however an option does exist for specifying who can access the wiki:
You can select individual members of groups on the left hand side of the list and use the arrows to add and remove them to and from the Selected Members list on the right.
Members can have additional permissions assigned for entry deletion, exporting and commenting:
Date and time restrictions can be added to control when and for what period the wiki can be edited. This is especially important if you are grading the wiki.
Non-member settings
Settings for non members are also available which allow them to view, write and delete comments.
Grading the wiki
You can elect to grade a wiki. A gradebook (grade centre) entry must named and categorised. If adding a gradebook entry you can select whether to show the eventual grade to students or not.
To add the wiki click OK.
Add pages
To enter a wiki click View.
To add an entry select the New link on the top right hand menu.
Editing pages
Click the Edit link on the right to modify an entries content.
The text editor is a very rich environment which gives similar functionality to an HTML Editor or Word:
Each tool icon on the menubar includes a mouseover hint (place your mouse cursor over the icons and wait for the hint to display) so you can easily see the function:
If you are familiar with word processors or html editors you should feel at home. Browse the tools to familiarise yourself with the editor.
Linking to other pages within the wiki
The links tool 
allows you to add internal and external links:
You can link to existing pages by selecting the page name from the entry list. You can also create new pages in the tool by simply naming a new page.
Adding files and multimedia to your wiki
To upload a file select the upload tool 
and browse for the it on your PC.
Browse to the file you wish to upload and then select the upload button.
Note
Files are stored in the wiki database and are not included in the Blackboard content system.
Multimedia files such as Videos or Flash applications can be embedded with the embed 
tool:
The embedding tool supports the following file formats:
- Flash
- Quicktime
- Shockwave
- Windows Media
- Real Media
Enter the name of the page in the box and type your entry. When you finish click Save.
History
The wiki history allows you to review the changes that were made to the page by clicking on the History on the right hand side of the screen under the title 'Page'.
A new page will open and you will be able to see who modified the page, the date the changes took place, the number of revisions and finally you can compare the differences between any of the version by clicking the View Diff button.
On the View Diff page, changes are indicated in three colours: Green for new content; Yellow for changed content; and crossed out for deleted content.
You can move to Previous and Next Differences by clicking on the arrows in the toolbar. You can always go back to the version you are currently viewing by clicking on Revert.
