From DDL Wiki

Revision as of 16:41, 29 December 2007

A wiki is a type of website that provides a framework for users to interactively and collaboratively build a database of interrelated information quickly and easily. Wikipedia, currently featuring more that two million articles in English alone, is the most well known wiki, but wikis can also be targeted to smaller audiences, such as an engineering class. We will discuss our use of wikis in teaching a capstone senior design course and graduate courses in design optimization and small scale heat transfer. In all three courses, a wiki provides (i) logistical benefits to the instructor compared to a traditional webpage, and (ii) an interactive and collaborative online-environment in which students can drive their own learning experience. In addition to discussing the benefits of course wikis to both instructors and students, we will also describe the process of setting up and maintaining a wiki on a web server.

For the course instructor, the wiki provides a web environment in which to disseminate information about the class. Like a regular website, the course schedule, homework assignments, and important documents can be made available. The wiki interface provides a convenient way to update and modify information, as the editing can be done directly online. Course notes can be posted, and the “talk” feature of the wiki can be used to solicit student questions and feedback. Students may also subscribe to receive email alerts and/or RSS feeds to monitor updates and changes to course material.

The active experience that a wiki offers students is its strongest feature. In the capstone senior design course students used the wiki in teams to collaboratively write design project reports, including pictures and videos to document use and functionality. The wiki enables increased student-to-student and instructor-to-student interaction. Students can be asked to post comments critiquing the work of other teams and can observe the work of other teams to benchmark and build ideas. Instructors can monitor student progress in real time, foresee potential problems in time to offer corrections, and have access to a full history of team member contributions to support individualized feedback and grading of team projects. In the graduate heat transfer course, students developed their own wiki pages on the course fundamentals, and then worked with other students to improve both their initial pages and those of others. This collaborative activity developed community within the class, and provided a series of wiki pages that can be used in subsequent teachings of the course at a level suitable to the students. In the graduate course on optimization and product development, students engaged in independent research on a topic related to the course but beyond what was covered in class, writing a wiki page as a report on the topic and presenting it to the class.

In all three courses, the wiki is designed to grow in subsequent offerings, providing a basis and standard for future students.

Introduction

Wiki software

Most wiki software is open source code, where numerous wiki engines are freely available. The most popular one is MediaWiki, which is the same program for running famous Wikipedia. MediaWiki is written in hypertext scripting language PHP incorporating database management system. We choose and also recommend using MediaWiki to setup classroom learning website for several good reasons. First, it has large-scale database capability and high operation reliability. Second, installation and maintenance process are relatively simpler and friendlier than other wiki software. Third, MediaWiki has its own wiki offering users the comprehensive instructions about installing, maintaining and updating MeidaWiki. Fourth, MediaWiki offers integrated math-formula display function. This important feature, especially for scientific and engineering courses, provides a convenient protocol to display mathematical symbols and formulations on wiki page.

Linux is recommended for the OS platform of a wiki system not only because it is a freely open source system but also has better security mechanism. Prior to the installation main wiki program, the PHP interpreter, HTTP server (e.g. Apache web server) and database server (e.g. MySQL) are to be installed first. The detailed installation procedures can be found in the correspondent websites.

A well-designed wiki program should be easy to maintain by administrator. Upon our experience, the maintenance works for a classroom learning wiki include: 1) user account management, 2) wiki page management, 3) database and file backups, 4) system updating and 5) security issue handing. For the management works, MediaWiki provides well-design web interface for wiki administration. The backup and update works can be done by following the procedures from MediaWiki website. The last part, security issue handling needs help of additional tool. A plug-in program reCAPTCHA developed by Carnegie Mellon University is strongly recommended to wiki administrator. reCAPTCHA can effectively block maliciously automatic registrations and spam.

Course management

Information dissemination

Course notes

Solicitation of student input

Email alerts

Student interaction

Collaborative writing

Peer-to-peer interaction

Student-instructor interaction

Monitoring student progress

Contribution history

Community-building

Information growth, consolidation and sharing

Summary and conclusions

References

• Park, K.R., and Chao, J.T., (2007) "Wiki as a Teaching Tool," Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge and Learning Objects, 3, 57-72. [1]
• Elgort, I., (2007) "Using wikis as a learning tool in higher education," Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007. [2]