Blackboard Wiki

From TeachToolsWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

What is a Blackboard Wiki?

A wiki is a website composed of one or more pages that allows people to add and edit content collectively. Your wiki starts off with one page: the homepage. You can add new pages at any time and link them together.

The difference between the Blackboard Wiki and other Wikis is that the Blackboard Wiki is private to your class. Only the members of your class can access the Blackboard Wiki. In the Blackboard Wiki, you can assign different levels of access. For instance some students can edit one wiki, while other students can only comment on that wiki.

Also, within Blackboard, when the work on the Wiki is finished, there is an assess Wiki tool that allows the instruct to see who has participated, how much she did, and if needed the specific contributions she made.

Diagram of how a wiki works

Why would I use The Blackboard Wiki?

The Blackboard Wiki Promotes Active Learning

Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.

Your students can use the Blackboard Wiki to:

  1. Annotate a text
  2. Build an annotated bibliography.
  3. Review and edit peers’ essays.
  4. Post journal entries on an assigned reading
  5. Develop an online glossary for an assigned reading
  6. Collaborate on a project.
  7. Co-author a paper or story

Who Is using the Blackboard Wiki?

From Frank Gaughan: "[My composition class] used the wiki as a space to collaborate on a 2-3 paragraph definition of a key term from the class. (Another section wrote a summary of Hamlet.) At this early stage, I just wanted the students to get used to the wiki interface. I used some of the sentences therein as occasions for mini-lessons on sentence-level revision. Afterwards, the class divided into groups and collaboratively researched and annotated bibliographies. Each student found one source and posted the bibliographic reference and a 1-2 sentence annotation. Afterwards, each student picked one other student's source from the bibliography, read it, and added to the annotation.

This activity was the foundation from which the class drafted researched essays.

I'll definitely use the wiki again. Most students seemed to like the projects. Next time, I'll probably start to stress more hypertext, asking students to create links to different places in the wikis and on the Net.

The [assess] wiki tool is fantastic."

How do I use the Blackboard Wiki?

Set up a Blackboard Wiki:

Navigation:

  1. Enter a course.
  2. Click a content area link in the course menu frame.
  3. Click the Edit View link located at the top right of the page.
  4. In the drop-down Select field, select Wiki.
  5. Click the Go button.

Steps:

Wiki Information
  1. Enter the name of the wiki in the Name field.
  2. Enter the description of the wiki in the Description field if applicable.
  3. If you want students to access the wiki, select Yes as the Make the wiki available option.
Member Settings
  1. Select the Wiki members option.
  2. If the Specific groups and course members option has been selected, select groups from the Course Groups box and/or from the individual students from the Individual Course Members box.
  3. Click to move the group or member to the Selected Members box.
  4. Select the Allow students to permanently delete wiki pages checkbox if applicable.
  5. Select the Allow members to export the wiki checkbox if applicable.
  6. Select the View Comments checkbox if applicable.

If this option has been assigned, select the Write Comments checkbox to allow members to add comments.

  1. If you want to allow edits during a specific timeframe, select the appropriate Allow Edits After and Allow Edits Until options.
Non-Member Settings
  1. Select the Allow non-members to view the wiki checkbox.
  2. If you want to allow viewing access a specific timeframe, select the appropriate Display After and Display Until options.
  3. Select the View Comments checkbox if applicable.

If this option has been assigned, select the Write Comments checkbox to allow non-members to add comments.

  1. Click the OK button to finish.

Click the OK button to continue.

Contribute to a Blackboard Wiki

After you have created a wiki, you can add text, hyperlinks, images, and embedded media.

Note: Students will be able to contribute to the wiki when Yes has been selected as the Make the wiki available option. They can contribute if to the wiki if they have been selected as a member of the wiki.

Navigation:

  1. Enter a course.
  2. Click a content area link in the course menu frame to locate a wiki.
  3. Click the View link for the wiki.
  4. Click the Edit link in the wiki sidebar.

Steps:

Adding Text
  1. Enter information into the text box.

If you copied text from a Microsoft Word document, click and press the ctrl+v on your keyboard to paste in the text from the Paste from Word window. Select the Insert button to insert the content into the blog.

If you copied text from another type of document, click (ctrl+v) to paste in the text.

Inserting Hyperlinks
  1. Click the Edit link in the wiki sidebar.
  2. Highlight the text that you want to link to another page.
  3. Click .
  4. If the link is to a new internal page, select the Link to a new page option and enter the page name in the Page Name field. This action creates the new page and the link to that page.

If the link is to a page that was created previously, select the Link to an existing page option and select the page from the list of pages.

If the link is to an external web site, select the Link to an external web site option and enter the address in the URL field.

  1. Click the Insert button.

If done, click the Save button

Inserting Local Images
  1. Click the Edit in the wiki sidebar.
  2. Click .
  3. If the image is stored on your computer, select the Upload an image option and click the Browse button.
  4. In the file upload dialog box, navigate to and select the image.
  5. Enter a description in the alt text field.
  6. Click the Upload button.
  7. Click the Insert button.
  8. If done, click the Save button.
Inserting External Images
  1. Click the Edit link in the wiki sidebar.
  2. Click .
  3. If linking to an image on another website, select the Include an image from an external web site option.
  4. Enter the address in the URL field.
  5. Enter a description in the alt text field.
  6. Click the Upload button.
  7. If done, click the Save button.
Inserting Embedded Media
  1. Click the Edit link in the wiki sidebar.
  2. Click .
  3. In the Type field, select the type of media being embedded.
  4. Enter the address in the URL field. (PLEASE NOTE: If you are trying to embed a Youtube video, the url that Youtube provides is the link to the entire page. You need the link to the video itself that is part of the "embed" information and the height and width parameters that are also part of the embed information. FCS 3-6894 will be happy to help you embed a Youtube video.)
  5. Enter the width and height in the Dimension fields.
  6. Click the Constrain proportions checkbox if applicable.
  7. Click the Insert button.
  8. If done, click the Save button.

View Wiki History

Reviewing history allows you to view all the revisions made to any wiki page, to compare changes between different versions of the page, and to revert to any previous version.

  • Green highlight indicates text has been added
  • Yellow highlight indicates text has been modified
  • Red highlight and strikethrough indicate has been deleted

Navigation:

  1. Select a course.
  2. Click a content area link in the course menu frame to locate a wiki.
  3. Click the View link for the wiki.
  4. In the History link in the wiki sidebar.

Steps:

Selecting a Participant Version
  1. Click the View Diff button for a participant.
  2. To view a previous version, click the Prev Diff button if applicable.
  3. To view a newer version, click the Next Diff button if applicable.
Returning to Participation Area
  1. Click the Back Up button to return to the wiki participation page.

Monitor Participation

By reviewing participation, you can access student contributions to a wiki by total pages saved and by total lines modified. You can also see change history for any page and compare versions of the pages.

Navigation:

  1. Enter a course.
  2. Click the Control Panel link.
  3. Click the Assess Wikis link.

Steps:

Selecting Participant Detail and Change History
  1. Click the View Participation button for a wiki.
  2. Select the View Detail button for a participant.
  3. Select the See Change History button for a page to review the revision history.
  4. Select the View Diff button for a version of the page.
  5. To view a previous version, click the Prev Diff button if applicable.
  6. To view a newer version, click the Next Diff button if applicable.
Returning to Content Area History
  1. Click the Back Up button to return to the page history.
  2. Click the Go Back button to return the student participation detail page.
  3. Click the Go Back button to return the members participation page.


Where can I find additional resources?

Online Mini-lesson
How to setup a wiki Video demo

Follow along as a group of students collaborate online to develop a class project; see how Teams LX aids the instructor in assessing the group’s work.

Creating a Wiki

Contributing to a Wiki

Viewing and Adding Comments

Viewing Wiki History

Monitoring Participation

Training Classes

Where can I get help?

Faculty Computing Services is here to help you. Please contact us:

  • IM Username: HofstraFCS
  • Phone: 516-463-6894

Back to Blackboard

Retrieved from "http://hofstrateach.org/octopus/index.php?title=Blackboard_Wiki"