Debbie's e-Portfolio

I had an opportunity to participate in the week’s discussions using a wiki space instead of the usual format in WebCT Vista.  One observation I noted was that there was much less interaction on the wiki than there usually is in a given week.

Advantages of Using a Wiki

The ability to edit in the wiki was handy as you can move, consolidate or delete comments along the way. The format also allowed for the creation of tables to synthesize the information that had been contributed by my peers.

Challenges of Using a Wiki

I am still learning HTML coding, so the formatting of a wiki entry was a bit challenging at times.  By contrast, Vista has no such formatting challenges.

Also, since it’s not possible to put a title on a post, it was necessary to scroll through other posts to find those that related to a particular topic or train of thought.  This issue was partially addressed by the indenting structure initiated by a classmate.

Also, I noted that posting a reply took more time.  In WebCT Vista, I can hit “reply” and start typing my response.  In the wiki, I had to hit “edit”, find where I wanted to add my comments, and format them appropriately using HTML coding.  I also had to manually add my name, the date and time to each posting whereas Vista does this automatically.

I also appreciate the count of new messages when I log into Vista and the identification of which thread(s) contains the new messages.  By contrast, I had to scan the wiki entries and search by date and time to identify the most recent contributions by my peers.

Finally, perhaps it was just my computer, but it took more time for the wiki to load.  WebCT Vista is very quick to load, meaning that I can start reading posts straight away.