Usage scenarios for the Wiki activity
The free, collaborative nature of wikis allows for very easy and creative use in pretty much any course environment. Almost any group process can be supported and even simplified by a wiki.
Example: A course may contain many resources (working materials) and as an aid to the managers provides a wiki where all resources are listed and possibly even links to materials in external course rooms. The wiki links prepare these resources and thus provide a reference point for working through the topics/ materials. The start page can be designed as an individual trainer page and thus offers an overview page adapted to one's own needs.
Contents:
1. Group notes
2. Projektmanagement in groups
3. Brainstorming
4. Collaboration with other wiki systems
Usually, notes of courses, such as lectures, are matters of individuals. Often most of the students take notes or the notes are exchanged among each other. But it can happen that one or the other student misses an important point in the transcript. For some students, it is also difficult to decide which contents are actually important and which contribute to a better understanding or represent examples.
A wiki in the course room provides students with the opportunity to work on and compile their notes collaboratively during or after a classroom event. Those who are missing important information can extract it from this shared note and perhaps add other points missing from the note. In this way, the group as a whole helps decide what information is important and what content should be considered examples and additions.
Group notes can be created by all students or in small working groups. Group notes can also be compared with each other.
2. Projektmanagement in groups
The simplest application, following the concept of wikis the most, is to use a wiki as a group collaboration tool for group projects. You as the manager create a wiki and set the group mode to "Separate groups". Students can now collaborate within groups. This means that groups can use their group wiki to document their results, coordinate timelines, and develop a common final product. Managers can set a submission time, at which point they remove editing rights to the wiki from students and grade the work. They can then switch the wiki's group mode to "Visible Groups" so that groups can view each other's results.
Brainstorming is a free, unevaluated process in group work that allows group members to explain any ideas about a topic that are deemed important to the work or solution of a group effort. In a face-to-face meeting, a facilitator typically stands in front of the group and writes participants' ideas or thoughts on a whiteboard or tapes notecards to a presentation wall. You as the manager can model an online version of this process by setting up a wiki for all students or for working groups and asking them to enter their thoughts on the brainstorming topic into the wiki. This gives everyone the opportunity to contribute their ideas and add further explanations, e.g. by linking to a new page.
4. Collaboration with other Wiki-systems
Another collaborative option is for you as a manager to encourage your students to participate in other wiki systems such as Wikipedia or Wikiversity. The topics for such participation can be very diverse: from a course topic, perhaps organized in several small groups, or a complete course project if the number of participants is small enough and the topic area can be sufficiently covered. The challenge is for students to work on a topic that they then want/need to make available to the public. To work out and prepare the topic, the Moodle wiki is used. Here everyone can work together on the topic and the final article. In the end, the content can be transferred to the public wiki system.
This type of task offers many advantages:
- For the students, it provides additional motivation to do their best, as they know that their work will subsequently be publicly viewable and discussed in the relevant community. In such cases, the criticism no longer comes from you as the manager, but from others.
- Such an assignment is well suited at the end of a course to create a joint final project.
- The students are more motivated because they know that their work will be used and not just created for assessment and then archived somewhere.
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