Wiki Instructions

A "wiki" is a tool for quickly editing web pages and creating an open, collaborative environment. It is ideal for group projects or any other use where collaboration is essential. Very little technical knowledge is needed to use a wiki.

The basic characteristics that make a wiki are:

Anyone can edit any page (most wikis allow you to override that to some extent). The wiki in Sakai is restricted to only allow your students to edit or view the pages.
You have a complete list of all changes made to a page, and can restore any previous version. This allows you to undo any unwanted changes.
You can compare the difference between different versions of a page, and see exactly what any one person changed.

Wikis are extremely flexible, and an ideal solution for group projects where several students must contribute to one report. The wiki alleviates the coordination of the group writing process, furthermore the instructor can track individual contributions to the group project by reviewing the history of changes and revisions. To use a wiki for a group project, the instructor should either set up the page structure (create a new page for each group), or give explicit directions to the students about what to name their new pages and what identifying information to include in the text. This corresponds almost exactly to the instructions an instructor normally gives to students about formatting and titling a report that is turned in on paper.

As of January 2006, a wiki tool is built-in to https://sakai.rutgers.edu/. We strongly recommend that you use Sakai for your wiki.

Please note, if you set up a WakkaWiki on RCI prior to May 1, 2005 you should update your WakkaWiki software or move to Sakai. WakkaWiki has serious problems that can affect RCI performance. Please contact us at 932-7466 for assistance in updating your WakkaWiki pages. If you want to continue using "WakkaWiki" on your own RCI account, you should immediately download a replacement for WakkaWiki. Two possibilities are Uniwakka (http://uniwakka.sourceforge.net/HomePage) or WikkaWiki (http://wikkawiki.org/HomePage). Uniwakka supports mathematical expressions, but WikkaWiki is probably the better option (it has been updated with bug fixes far more frequently).

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