Using Moodle, 2nd Edition

Chapter 10. Wikis

This chapter covers the following MTC skills: 5.8 Wiki

A wiki is a collection of collaboratively authored web pages. A wiki starts with one front page. Students can edit the page or add more pages to the wiki by creating links to new pages that don’t yet exist. Old versions of each page can be viewed by checking the page history.

Moodle’s wiki is built on top of an older wiki system, called ErfurtWiki (http://erfurtwiki.sourceforge.net/).

In Moodle, wikis can be a powerful tool for collaborative work. The entire class can edit a document together, or you can create group wikis which are only editable by group members.

Creating Wikis

Creating a wiki is relatively simple and involves far fewer steps than the lesson module. Most of the work involved with creating wikis becomes easier once you start using them.

To create a wiki:

1. Click the “Turn editing on” button.

2. Select Wiki from the “Add an activity” drop-down menu in the course section where you would like to add the wiki.

3. On the “Adding a new wiki” page, as shown in Figure 10-1, give the wiki a descriptive name.

4. In the summary field, describe the purpose of the wiki and what you expect students to contribute.

5. Select the wiki type: groups, student, or teacher. The wiki type interacts with the groups setting for your course, resulting in nine options, as shown in Table 10-1.

   Table 10-1. Wiki group permissions

   	No groups	Separate groups	Visible groups
   Teacher	Creates a single wiki that only the teacher can edit. Students can view ...