Moodle collaboration guide

A wiki is a collaboratively developed series of webpages. Each time a person makes changes to a page, that revision of the content becomes the current version, and an older version is stored. Edits can be reverted if necessary. You might be asked to work on a class wiki, a small group wiki or you might be required to develop an individual wiki.

As each member of the wiki has equal editing (and therefore deleting rights), if you are working on a wiki as a group,  you might find it useful to set some ground rules with your collaborators about who does what before you start with this activity.

1. Select the link to the wiki from the relevant section on the module.
   • You can find also select the link to OU Wikis from your Module Dashboard.
   • On Grid format, open the Block drawer and navigate to the Activities block, select the link to OU Wikis
2. The Start page and the activity instructions will display. 
3. Your lecturer may have created additional pages or sections and these will display underneath Start page.
4. To see a full list of the contents, select the Wiki index link at the top right corner of the wiki page.

1. Select the title of the page you want to edit.
2. Select the Edit page link below the page title, or select the Edit tab above the page name.
3. Type your text into the HTML editor. You can add links to documents, websites or add images.
4. Once you have finished adding/editing and marking up the content you can choose to Preview or Save your work.

If you are using the wiki collaboratively please note that:

• All users in your group can edit pages created by other users. Be careful to avoid unintentional deletion or editing. You might want to use the annotate functionality to agree on changes before you make them. If enabled by your lecturer, this option will appear next to the edit page option on top of a wiki page.
• You cannot edit a page if another user is editing the page or any section within the page. You will be informed who is editing and you can choose Try again or Cancel. 

There are two ways in which new wiki pages can be created and linked to existing pages. The first method is easier and saves time if you are adding multiple wiki pages, while the second method can be used for creating one new page.

Method 1

1. Select the title of the page where you want to add and link a page to.
2. Select Edit page link below the page title, or select the Edit tab above the page name.
3. Navigate to the section where you want to link the page and then enter the name of the new wiki page inside [[double square brackets]]
4. Once you have finished you can choose to Preview or Save your work.
5. The new page will display linked to the current wiki page. Selecting the link will give you an option to create the page.
6. Select Create to create and start editing the new page.

Method 2

1. Select the title of the page you want to add and link a page to.
2. Input your page name in Create New Page input field and select Create.
3. To link the newly created page to the current page, select the Edit page link below the page title, or select the Edit tab above the page name.
4. Navigate to the section where you want to link the page and then enter the name of the new wiki page inside [[double square brackets]]
5. Once you have finished you can choose to Preview or Save your work.

Sections enable you to layout a wiki page coherently and make it easier to edit long pages. There are two ways to add a new section: 1) creating custom HTML headers on a page, letting you add multiple sections at once or 2) using the Add new section to this page
 

Method 1

1. Navigate to the wiki page where you want to create a new section.
2. Select the title of the page to which you want to add a section.
3. Select Edit to open the HTML creator. Type the text of your section and select it. Choose the style of heading from the format dropdown menu in the Text editor.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save changes.

Method 2

1. Select the title of the page where you want to add a section.
2. Select Edit page to open up the HTML editor.
3. You can divide a page into sections using headings - choose the level of heading from the drop-down menu in the HTML editor.

Alternatively, you can type the section you want to add in the Add new section to this page input field which is available at the bottom of each page and select Add.

1. Select the title of the page on which you want to view the history.
2. Select the History tab at the top of the page.
3. Select View to review older versions.
4. To compare different versions select the versions, check the boxes next to the relevant versions.
5. Select Compare selected.

The older version is shown on the left and deleted text is highlighted. Added text is indicated in the newer version.

6. To revert the changes made, select Revert.

Notes

• The Wiki changes link at the top of the screen shows you a list of all edits made to the whole wiki.
• The date, time, page title, a link to view the version or changes and the person who edited it are all displayed and linked in the table.
• You can also view contributions listed by different people.
• Revert is not available under Wiki changes.
• The My participation link at the top of the screen shows you a list of all wikis you have participated in.