When to Use a Wiki?

The Online Community Report provides some suggestions on when wikis might be best used. Although I think the suggestions are aimed at groups outside the class context, many of the suggestions are equally useful for instructional contexts. For example (there are more details at the Online Community Report site):

1) Wikis work well for groups that already know each other.

2) Projects requiring different individuals to contribute different pieces of a whole lend themselves well to wikis.

3) Wikis work well when a clear nucleus is provided. Users are more likely to "edit" than "create", so providing an instructive starting framework offering examples (and even stubs, encouraging people to edit from there) is helpful. This is very helpful for students.

4) Wikis work well with a clear final product in mind.

5) Wikis work well in documenting consensus rather than opinions. If you seek an archive of opinions tied to authorship, a message board is more effective.

These suggestions resonate with my experiences supporting instructors and students using wikis for teaching and learning.

Tomorrow I'll be leading a workshop on Instructional Uses of Blogs and Wikis as part of the DELTA Instructional Services workshop series -- 9:00-10:00am in the ITTC labs in DH Hill Library. Can you register here.  Posted by klducket ( Jul 23 2007, 01:35:21 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [2]