The parts of a wiki

These elements comprise a wiki:

• First, you create the wiki topic so that course members can contribute their ideas, research, and thoughts. The wiki topic is the theme that connects multiple wiki pages. In a wiki topic, related wiki pages are collected in one place.
• Next, you can create wiki pages within the topic. A wiki page is a more specific prompt or subject related to the more general theme of the wiki topic. For example, if a wiki topic is Mid-Century Architecture, one of the wiki pages in that topic might be Frank Lloyd Wright.
• The wiki listing page shows all wiki topics created within a course or group.

Create a wiki topic

To get started, you need to create a wiki topic in your course. Your students and other course members can add pages to that topic.

1. Go to Control Panel > Course Tools > Wikis and select Create Wiki.
2. Type a name and optional instructions. Make the wiki available to students.
3. Select the Display After and Display Until check boxes to enable the date and time selections. Display restrictions don't affect the wiki availability, only when it appears.
4. Choose the Student Access option. You can change the student access at any time.
   • Closed to Editing: Select this option when you're the only one who contributes pages or to prevent further page edits by users. Select this option when you're ready to start grading the wiki contributions. All course members are allowed to view wikis that are closed to editing.
   • Open to Editing: Allows users to modify any wiki page. In a group wiki, a user must be a member of the group to edit a wiki page.
5. In the Wiki Settings section, select No grading or the Grade option and type the number of Points possible. After you enable grading, a column is created automatically in the Grade Center. The wiki is permanently gradable, and you can't change it to No grading.

   More on grading wikis

6. If you want, select the check box for Show participants in needs grading status and select the number of pages required. If you apply this setting, the Needs Grading icon will show in the Grade Center. The pages will appear in the queue on the Needs Grading page after student activity meets this threshold.
7. Add a rubric if you want.
8. Select Submit.

Wiki topic page

A wiki topic page is the home page where all other wiki pages are collected. The home page is automatically displayed first when a user visits the wiki.

1. Select Create Wiki Page to add a page to the wiki topic.
2. Wiki Instructions are expanded by default, but you can minimize them. Select Alignments to add alignments.
3. In the sidebar, you can expand the Wiki Details section to display information such as the type, creation date, and number of pages and comments. Select the right-pointing arrow to collapse the sidebar. Select the four arrows icon to view the wiki in full screen.
4. To view a summary of student activity, select Participation and Grading for graded wikis or Participation Summary for wikis with no grading. Both links open a Participation Summary page where you can view participation for the students who have contributed to the wiki.
5. In the sidebar, the wiki pages appear in alphabetical order after the home page, indicated by the house icon. The home page always appears first in the list. Select a wiki page title to view it in the content frame. Access its menu to view the page history. The Page History page displays all versions of a wiki page, with the most recent version appearing first. From this page, you can delete versions. If you delete the latest version, then the version next in line becomes the most current version and is the page viewed in the wiki. You can delete more than one version of a wiki page, but at least one version must remain. When you delete a version, all participation history for that version is deleted.
6. To view all users who contributed to the wiki, select All to expand the menu and select a member. Optionally, select Show All Members to also view users who haven't contributed to the wiki.
7. For graded wikis, icons designate the status of a user’s activity. The Needs Grading icon indicates that a user has met the minimum activity for grading you set for the wiki. The In Progress icon appears when a user has some activity but hasn' yet met the minimum number required to trigger needs grading status.

Wikis listing page

After you create a wiki, the wiki topics appear in alphabetical order on the Wikis listing page. Select a column title to sort the contents.

1. On the Wikis listing page, select a wiki title or select Open in a wiki's menu.
2. To change a wiki's availability or student access, select one or more check boxes and use the Availability and Student Access lists.
3. The Type column lists whether a wiki is for the course or for a group.
4. Select Edit Properties in a wiki's menu to change a wiki's name, instructions, and settings.

Wiki pages

Each newly created course or group wiki requires a home page. When you access a new wiki topic for the first time, you're prompted to create a home page. The home page always appears first in the wiki page list and the content is displayed when a user navigates to the wiki. Because the home page is first, you may want to add instructions here.

You or any course or group member can create the home page. No one can delete the home page, but if the wiki is open to editing, any course or group member may edit it.

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