Using Wikis

Why?

A wiki is a website where multiple individuals add and edit content collectively. Multiple related pages may be linked within the site.

Wikis can be used in teaching for:

Encouraging students to build a collaborative knowledgebase
Facilitating research coordination and collaboration
Group portfolios

Other wiki uses:

Encouraging students to build a collaborative knowledgebase
Facilitating research coordination and collaboration
Group portfolios

Benefits of wikis for students include:

A sense of class identify
Peer interactivity
New modes of assignment submission/completion
Ownership of content

Wiki Advantages

No lag time - edits are instantaneous
Content sharing does not have to take place over email
All contributors can access wiki content anytime, anywhere
Version Control – everyone contributes to the same document with changes/contributions easily tracked

Common Wiki Concerns

Plagiarism copyright concerns: who validates content?
Monitoring/policing content
Wiki vandalism
Reliability of content

Public wikis can be inviting to hackers and people looking to vandalize its content. By taking advantage of wiki history and versioning control, the general public can view who made changes and remove any errors or malicious edits. In most wiki applications, you can require your contributors, e.g. colleagues and students, to create accounts in order to edit wiki content. If you are using wikis in your class, you can also require that your students cite the material they contribute to a wiki simply by establishing guidelines or policies.

Tips for Implementing Wikis

Consider why you want to use a wiki. Is it for the whiz-bang factor or is it because it truly is the best tool for the class/project/research? A wiki will work best if the collaborators are engaged with the content, not the means that the content was delivered by.
Explain your expectations of the wiki and include examples of these expectations if possible.
Provide your own tips on using wikis for your students/collaborators. If you decide to use an external Wiki (something that WPI does not host), at the very least you should provide your students/collaborators with a link to the Wiki, how they should sign up, and some basics about the Wiki tool you have selected.
If using a wiki as a collaborative knowledgebase, establish wiki citation guidelines to ensure information that is posted is accurate and reliable. The Library has a great resource for evaluating sources that can be viewed here: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Help/Self/Evaluate/.

Examples of Use

Barnard College: Prof. Lisa Gordis’ Advising Hours
Bowdoin: Romantic Audiences Project
Brown: Great Controversies in Neurobiology - example of course content being used as a Wiki
Cal State, Fullerton: English courses
Drexel University: Organic Chemistry -
Eckerd College
University of British Columbia: Health Library Wiki
University of Washington Bothell: Using Wikipedia to Re-envision the Term Paper

Articles on Wikis

Sunsten, Cass R: A Brave New Wikiworld
Educause: 7 Things you Should Know about Wikis
Harper, Chelsea & Watson, Kate: Supporting Knowledge Creation: Using Wikis for Group Collaboration

Free Wikis

myWPI (WPI supported)
SharePoint (WPI supported)
@wiki
Google Sites
On-Wiki
pbWiki
Scribblewiki
WikiDot
WikiHost
WetPaint
WikiSpaces (Education sites are free)
ZoHo Wiki

Maintained by itweb@wpi.edu
Last modified: Mar 27, 2009, 07:38 EDT