Wikis: Fast, free, and simple!

What exactly is a wiki?

Wikis are basically simple websites that do the coding for you and allow multiple editors. The word “wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “fast,” and they are indeed that! Since wikis use a simplified coding language, you don’t have to be a webmaster to create an online site – anyone can create a wiki, just as with blogs.

Probably the most famous use of a wiki tool is Wikipedia. It was created as a free, online, collaborative encyclopedia.  Any user can quickly and easily contribute to update the site content.  That’s right… you could update a Wikipedia article.

But unless you are an expert on Karmichael Hunt or the events of November 21, you are more likely to use wikis to collaborate on smaller-scale projects. Because they’re available online and editable by anyone who has the right permissions, they’re perfect for

• group projects
• taking class notes – easy way to get the notes from last week when you were, um, indisposed.
• sharing thoughts
• organizing events – everybody sign up for what you’re bringing to the party next weekend!
• using all the great features of a website – hypertext linking, media sharing, easy page organization – without having to know any HTML coding.

There are lots of free wiki sites out there, and most are pretty easy to use. There are occasional issues with cutting and pasting from (or into) a program like MS Word, and sometimes the “back end” – where the magic takes place – does formatting things you don’t want it to do. If you’re using wikis simply for group collaboration and then will hand in a final project or paper in another format, you can copy and paste information from the wiki over to some other program, but sometimes the formatting will require a little correction. But for publishing your information online, 99% of the time, wikis are the fastest, cheapest and simplest way.

NetworkEducation

1. Go to PBWorks.com – a particularly easy-to-use, free wiki site.
2. Choose “For Personal” from the menu, and take a few minutes to read through the Overview, Features, and Resources pages.
3. Click Sign Up Now!
4. Create your wiki. For this project, why not make it a study wiki?
   a.  Choose one class or your whole program.
   b.  For your account, use an email address you can access right away (and put the password in your Password Manager!)
   c.  Create a wiki name that reflects what you will be putting into the wiki.
   d.  Agree that it is for use “For individuals” and non-commercial.
5. Go to your email account and click on the link to confirm your registration.
6. Log in to your wiki page and click on the “Edit” tab at the top to change the pre-loaded message (“Welcome to PBWorks. This is a real workspace…”)
7. Type a brief outline of what you’re going to put into the wiki and save it.
8. Think about organization. Is this wiki for all your classes, several assignments in one class, or just one assignment? What are some logical sections?
9. Go to the “Pages and Files” tab:
   a.  Click New, and click “Create a folder.” Make folders for each of your sections – maybe one per class, or one per assignment.
   b.  Also under New, click “Create a page.” Type in the name of your first page (Class Notes? Term paper ideas?). In the drop-down menu, “Put this page in a folder,” choose the matching folder. Repeat this process, making one page for each of your sections.
10. Go to the “Users” tab.  Choose “Add more users” and enter the emails and names of your classmates, note-taking buddy, whomever. PBWorks will invite them.
11. Go back to the “Wiki” tab.
    a.  On the right-hand side, see where you can also “Create a page” or “Put this page in a folder” from here.
    b. Another really cool tool is to “Upload files” from here – try Word documents, PDFs of research articles, whatever makes sense. You and your workmates can now access that file by logging into this wiki from any Internet connection!
    c. In the Navigator box on the right-hand side, you should also see your folders, as well as any individual pages you made that aren’t in folders yet. Click on one of your folders. You can see the page(s) you created inside. Click on any page you want.
12. Go ahead and start adding ideas (via “Edit”) on whichever page you want!

Links:

Wikis in Plain English video from the Learning Commons website

Top 10 Organizational Wiki Tips (and how to use them)

This lesson was created for the Digital Media Project, a joint project of UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies and the Irving K Barber Learning Centre.  This post was modified from its original form.