"How to" Guideline series is coordinated by Helen Mongan-Rallis of the Education Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to improve these guidelines please me at e-mail hrallis@d.umn.edu.

Using Wikis in Moodle

[Last updated: October 10, 2007 ]

When you create a wiki in Moodle, it is very important to set the type of wiki to be group, and not student (even though it seems logical to have it be set to student if you want students to enter their ideas. Once you have set up the wiki, you no longer have the option to change the setting from student to group. The difference between the two types:

• Student wiki creates one wiki for every student in the class. When you click to view the wiki, what you will see an option at the top of the page that says "Other wikis" with a drop down menu nest to it. If you click on the drop down menu, you will see list of all the wikis, and can view each separately. There are certainly times when students may want to have or create their own wiki, such as if they want to work on a shared group project and wish to use a wiki to collaborate on their findings. However:
• Group Wiki: when you want students all to contribute to the same wiki so that there is only one wiki that everyone sees, then you should create a group wiki. Note: this may be a temporary flaw in Moodle, but when you create a group wiki, in some cases (and I'm not sure yet why), when students post to the wiki, it doesn't show up when others view the wiki. However, if visitors to the wiki click on the "edit" tab, if there are any entries on the wiki, they will show up in the edit box. You can then click on the "save" button even without making any changes to the wiki, and all the previous wiki entries will miraculously appear! Note that even though these entries show up following the edit -- save step, next time you visit the wiki, they will have disappeared, and you have to click edit--save once again. Clearly, this is not what is supposed to happen, but it works. DO alert students to this eventuality!

As you continue to set up the wiki, the last section, common module settings, leave at "no groups." This is confusing, since under wiki type in the first section, you said groups! However, trust me on this one:). The reference to common module setting refers to if you want your students to work in groups, and you create group wikis, in the same way that you might create discussion groups. In this case, you will create the groups by using the Group setting on the main level of your course site (more of this in another set of guidelines coming to my site soon! :)

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