Collaborate with OU wiki

A wiki is a collaboratively designed webpage or series of webpages. Each of the edits and amendments in a wiki becomes a revision so the contribution of each group member can be monitored. You can use wikis to provide students with collaboration, production, discussion or investigation activities.

The OU wiki activity in Moodle enables you to support the development of:

1. module wikis to which all the students can contribute.
2.  group wikis to which each group contributes as part of a project or group work. For group wikis you can create a template in advance to provide consistent pages and guidance to each of the student groups.

As each member of the wiki has equal editing (and therefore deleting rights) you might find it useful to set some ground rules with your students before you start with this activity. To help students engage with group work on a wiki it can be useful to assign them or ask students to self-select a wiki-role. Ferriter (n.d.) has produced a useful guide on wiki roles for student groups which provides an overview of the different types of roles that you might want to use.

Related guidance

The other options to consider are:

1. Turn edit mode on.
2. Open the relevant section, select Add an activity or resource.
3. Choose OU wiki from the Activities tab.
4. Give your wiki a meaningful Name.
5. You can provide a description in the Description field. Please note that the Description will not display on the module page, even if you check the box to Display description on module page.
6. From Wiki settings, the Sub-wikis drop-down menu provides three options:
   • Single wiki for course: All students on the module have access to and equal editing rights on a module wiki.
   • One wiki per group: Members of each group see an entirely separate copy of the wiki (sub-wiki) specific to their group. Students can only see pages created by people in the same group. If students are in more than one group, they have access to a drop-down menu to enable them to move between group wikis. It is useful to apply a template to this type of wiki so that each group gets the same wiki structure to start. Review the guidance create and apply a wiki template before you select this option.
   • Separate wiki for every user: Each student gets an individual wiki. It is useful to apply a template to this type of wiki so that each group gets the same wiki structure to start with. Review the create and apply a wiki template guidance.
7. Annotation system: This enables lecturers on the module to add inline annotations to wiki pages. It's the wiki equivalent of a red pen! Select Yes to enable and No to disable. Students can also use the annotation system to discuss edits before they are made.
8.  Set Time allowed for editing from the drop-down menu. If you select a timeout, people editing the wiki are only allowed to edit for the allocated time. The wiki locks pages while they are being edited (so that two people can't edit the same page at once), so setting a timeout is useful when you have a large group of students working on a wiki.
9. Allow editing from: If you enable this option, students cannot edit pages until the date is reached.
10. Prevent editing from: If you enable this option the wiki, students cannot edit pages after this date.
11. Template: A template is a predefined set of wiki pages to provide structure and consistency to group or individual wikis. To create a template, create the wiki and add the pages required. Review the Index page and select the Save wiki as template. To learn more about creating a template, review the create and apply wiki template guidance. 
12. Show word counts select Yes if you want the word count to display on each wiki page and No if you do not want the word count to display.
13. Check Link to import pages to add the ability to import pages from other wikis on the module into the current wiki.
14. If the wiki is being graded, set a grade type.
15. Group mode must be set to No groups unless the sub-wiki option is set to One wiki per group. If you have selected one wiki per group, change Group mode to Separate groups if group members should only see their own group or Visible groups if you want each group member to participate in their own group and to see contributions from other groups.
16. Select Save and return to module.

You can use the Restrict access settings to control the availability of content and activities based on one or more conditions, including date and group. 

Activity completion allows you to set completion criteria for a specific activity or resource.

Activities or resources with a completion criteria display a circle next to them in the Module index. The circle turns green (and is filled in) when the student meet the criteria. On the main module page, a tick and the word "done" appears against the item when the student meets the criteria. This helps students manage their progress on a module and staff can easily review student engagement and progress against key activities.

You can combine Restrict access and Activity completion to provide structured pathways through your module.

Apply the settings

1. Open the activity or resource.
2. Select Settings from the contextual navigation menu above the module name. This opens the activity settings.
3. Change the settings required.
4. Select Save and return to module to save any changes made.

Related guidance