Wikis
Overview 
A wiki is a type of website that permits users to edit available content. Wikis are designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes and through collaboration, difficult to make mistakes. The theory is that a large audience will overall provide more accurate information than a single expert or source. An example of a wiki is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia in which users can edit and change information in the encyclopedia. The communities of users ensure that the information is accurate and updated. Users who abuse the system are restricted from the ability to make changes to the encyclopedia.
Some popular free Wiki websites and applications include:
Wikis
Application to All Courses
The primary benefits of wikis will be similar in regular, large enrollment and online and hybrid courses including as a method of providing information, a method of assessment, and a method to garner participation and communication between students. Some of the benefits of wikis include:
- Allows for access to posted information at any time from any location.
- Allows for the posting of multimedia including links, images, music, and videos.
- Allows the instructor to track submissions and changes to group projects.
- Useful in collecting data from groups of students.
- Allows students to collaboratively write reviews of courses or assignments.
- Provides a low-cost but effective communication and collaboration tool.
- Promotes the close reading, revision, and tracking of drafts.
- Allows students and instructors to collaborate to create simple websites.
- Allows groups of students to peer-edit and evaluate documents for group projects.
- Allows groups of students to group author papers and projects.
- Can be used in place of presentation software such as PowerPoint.
- Reduces the amount of paper-based assignment submissions. Additionally, wiki posts are time and date stamped allowing for instructors to enforce submission due dates.
- Tracks revision history allowing for users to go back to former iterations or undo changes.
Teaching Methods
Some ways in which a wiki could be utilized in regular, large enrollment or online & hybrid courses include:
- Create a repository of information such as definitions, descriptions of theories, encyclopedia entries, research data and more.
- Use as a platform for group projects thus allowing for revision history, tracking of who is contributing to a project, and the provision of a collaborative interface.
- Utilize as a repository of information across courses or semesters.
- Utilize as a training manual such as how to perform tasks. Allow student to edit the manual to improve it for future students.
Examples:
Wikis
Getting Started
Creating a Wiki
There are many free websites that will allow users to register and create wiki pages for private or public view including:
Each of the aforementioned wiki sites will require a username and password. Each site will offer different tools, features, and storage space for the user.
Editing an Existing Wiki Page
- Most wiki sites will require a username and password.
- Login to the wiki to edit the page.
- The tools to edit the wiki are usually similar or the same as the tools in a text editing program.
- Most wikis will monitor the wiki site to ensure that entries and changes to the wikis are accurate. However, if you create a wiki using a free wiki program you can set the wiki to private to ensure that only the instructor and the students have the access to view and edit the wiki.
Wikis
Additional Resources
Articles - Journal and Academic
- Collaboration at a Distance: Using a Wiki to Create a Collaborative Learning Environment for Distance Education and On-Campus Students in a Social Work Course: A report from the "Journal of Teaching in Social Work" outlining how a wiki was utilized to create collaboration among distance and on campus students.
- Feedback as dialogue: exploring the links between formative assessment and social software in distance learning: A scholarly article from the journal "Learning, Media and Technology" exploring the relationship between formal assessment and social software including social software such as social citations, wikis and blogs.
- The appropriation and repurposing of social technologies in higher education: A scholarly journal article from the "Journal of Computer Assisted Learning" discussing a study of three courses that utilized blogs and wikis, the pedagogy behind them, and the implications for future courses. Full article is available through the University of Florida libraries journal collections.
- Utilizing Wiki-Systems in higher education classes: a chance for universal access?: A scholarly article from the journal "Computer Science" investigating the perceived success of wikis in higher education in comparison to student incentives.
- Wiki uses in higher education: exploring barriers to successful implementation: A scholarly article from the journal "Interactive Learning Environments" exploring barriers to implementation of wikis due to the influences of non-constructivist learning experiences on the part of the student.
Articles – Blogs, Websites, Wikis
- 10 Best Practices for Using Wikis in Education: A blog article with suggestions how to successfully integrate wikis into a course or assignment.
- Compare Open-Source Wiki Software: A blog article with a comparison of free and open source wiki software.
- How Wikis Work: An article from howstuffworks.com
- Sakai at UF Wiki: The FAQ page for the wiki feature in Sakai, the University of Florida's learning management system.
- Wikipedia: A popular wiki encyclopedia website with detailed definitions and examples of wiki entries.
