UML “Wikify Your Courses and Projects” Institute

Date, Time, Location

Tuesday, June 2, 2009
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
North Campus, Olsen 310 (Food location: across the hall in Olsen 311)
Instructor: Fred Martin
Sponsored by the Faculty Development Center!

Synopsis

This hands-on institute focuses on the basics of wikis using wikispaces.com. The institute is for beginners and assumes no prior knowledge (only interest!). We will introduce the concept of a wiki and discuss how wikis can be used in coursework and for collaborative project management. Examples of how wikis have been integrated in UML courses will be discussed.

Beforehand

Please bring the following to the workshop:

an idea of the project for which you would like to create your wiki (e.g., a course web site or a personal web site)
a Word file from a class syllabus, assignment, or other similar document to convert to the wiki
one or several image files to upload to your wiki

Agenda

Introduction (30 mins)

Nuts 'n' bolts intro
Personal introductions (everyone)
What is a wiki?
Why would you use a wiki?
Where is UMass Lowell's campus wide wiki? (it's at www.wiki.uml.edu)
What are the features of our wiki's great visual editor? (It's easy: bold, italics, bullet lists, and styles)
What is the difference between a space and a page on the wiki?
How do I choose a name for my wiki space?
How do I choose a permissions level for my wiki?

Getting Started (45 mins)

How do I create a new account on the UML wiki?
How do I make a home page or project or course space?
Uploading and linking images
How do I add pages to the space?
What about the navigation menu?

Discussion (20 mins)

What kinds of things do people want to do with their wikis?
What advanced features are people interested in learning about?

More Hands-On Work (45 mins)

Things to do:

Signing up for a wiki account vs. joining a Private or Protected wiki
Lost in spaces (how to navigate among them)
Using the help—you are transported to the special “help space,” so you might want to use a separate browser window
Using the floating toolbar when the page gets too long
Using the table-of-contents feature ([[toc]]) and learning about the wiki markup
Inviting members to join your space so that they can work on your pages too
Printing pages—go into “Manage Space,” then “List Pages,” then click on the print links
What else?

Closing Discussion (20 mins)

How to involve students in co-constructing wiki content
Avoiding namespace collisions—include all the structure into the page (or space) name, including author's name
Using wikispaces' discussion feature
FAQs for faculty/staff and FAQs for students
Ways that things can go awry and how to avoid that (do not leave spaces public)
Using the history feature
Please add your comments to the discussion page for this workshop

Table of Contents