After you set up a wiki for your class or individual learners, you can start creating new wiki pages. As you start using the wiki, you and your learners will be inspired to find creative ways to present and use wiki content. This is where the fun begins!
Your new wiki page includes a number of features you and your learners need to familiarize yourself with. Looking at your wiki page, Moodle first displays the summary located above the tabs, as shown earlier in Figure 9-3. Above the main text area are five tabs you and your learners can click to interact with your wiki. Here are descriptions for the tabs and what they do:
The History tab also offers three more cool functions:
Each time you see a profile picture and name of a learner's activity, you can access his or her full profile by clicking the name.
Accessing your wiki is simple. Moodle takes you right to your first page when you set up the wiki, or you can go to it by clicking the wiki icon from your front page. Then you're ready to take these steps:
You can copy and paste text from Notepad or another plain-text document into the editing box, or use the Clean Word function in the editing box, as described in Chapter 5. But you can't copy and paste text straight from Word or other word processing software because you will copy HTML code, which will make your page look messy.
For example, earlier in the chapter in Figure 9-4, I placed brackets around the words [Difference Engine], [Analytical Engine], and [Ada Lovelace]. (Note: I highlighted the words in yellow so they are visible in the figure. Moodle software does not highlight the text.)
Moodle refreshes the page and thanks you for your contribution.
In the center, you can see your new text with a red question mark next to the word or phrase you enclosed in brackets. This is a link to your new wiki page.
You or your learners can add content and create as many new links and wiki pages, from every new page, as you need.
For the successful evolvement of your wiki, and so that you and your learners can experience the wiki as a fun and collaborative activity, you need to assign administrative duties to your learners. A lot of learners will get a kick out of being “wiki wardens.” If you use wikis in your course or in groups, choosing group leaders with specific tasks will help manage the wiki. Administrative tasks include monitoring new wiki pages, keeping an eye on most updated pages, testing links between wiki pages and to external resources, and removing wiki pages (called stripping pages). For example, you will want one of your learners to help with removing old versions of all wiki pages, or the database can quickly fill up. Every time someone adds a link, attachment, or any other file to a wiki page, Moodle saves the old version.
There are three wiki management tools you will want to familiarize yourself with. They are the Search Wiki, Choose Wiki Links, and Administration tools located under the Moodle navigation bar. Each is described in more detail here.
For instance, you may want to look for orphaned pages using the Search Wiki links tool discussed earlier, and delete them or reconnect them. Orphaned pages are wiki pages that are not linked to or from another page, or have no links in them to go to another wiki page — they are stand-alone pages that no one would find. Learners may leave orphaned pages if they frequently update and add files to wiki pages. Too many orphaned pages can quickly take up database space, and you may find your Moodle course using up your allocated server space.
Page Flags | Page Flag Properties |
TXT | Allows the wiki page to contain text. |
BIN | Allows binary (graphics) content. |
OFF | Short for offline. The page is there but can't be read if learners don't have editing permissions. |
HTM | Allows HTML content instead of wiki default text. |
RO | Short for read-only. Learners can read the wiki page but can't make changes. |
WR | Means read-write or writable. Allows anyone in the course to make changes. |
Note: Students can work simultaneously on the same wiki but not on the same wiki pages. Moodle informs students if a wiki page is being used (it is locked), and they'll have to try later.
Be sure your learners know that it's important to save after editing because if they open a page and forget to save the changes, the opened wiki page is locked, and no one else can view or edit it. You or IT support can change permissions, allowing learners to override locked pages. See Chapter 13 for advice and information on how to change permissions.