Oncourse Wiki allows students to work on collaborative group assignments

This year, Oncourse became a lot easier to use.\nAt the beginning of the fall semester, IU unveiled a new tool called Wiki for both students and instructors to use on Oncourse CL, the University's online class-management tool. Wiki is named after the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and allows for collaborative authoring and creating simple Web pages.\nThe tool allows users to "freely create and edit Web-page content using any Web browser," according to www.wiki.org. \nUsers unfamiliar with HTML can create Web pages through Oncourse. The collaborative-authoring feature will also allow for easier group work and homework administered by the instructors. For example, students working on a group paper could use the program to create and individually edit the same paper from different computers.\n"The nice thing about Wiki is it keeps the history of changes made to the page," said Lance Speelmon, manager of the Oncourse team and a University Information Technology Services staff member. "Wiki also allows users to link resources in Oncourse much easier than before with hyperlinks and whatnot."\nSpeelmon said Oncourse users familiar with Wikipedia might notice some differences between that Web site and the Wiki tool in Oncourse. On Wikipedia, a user can edit any of the pages as long as that user is registered with the site. With Oncourse Wiki, the creator of a particular page is able to require user authentication, a change to help eliminate Wiki vandalism.\nSpeelmon said he and his co-workers have been using the tool since it was implemented on Oncourse.\n"We are using it to maintain shared knowledge, like setting meeting agendas," he said. "By collaboratively editing a Wiki page before a meeting, we are all on the same page when it is time to meet."\nJunior Gabe Landis was unaware of the new Wiki tool in Oncourse but thinks it could be beneficial.\n"I would use it for group projects or if the teacher recommended us to use it," Landis said.\nDespite Wiki's accessibility, novice users still might find Web-page authoring to be difficult, because Wiki, like HTML, involves mark-up language. Speelmon points to the Wiki online tutorial, www.kb.iu.edu/data/atyc.html, which simplifies the programming. Landis said he is not worried about having trouble with the tool.\n"I'm familiar with HTML and tools like Wiki. With HTML, I am able to be more creative when designing a site, but as far as Oncourse is concerned, Wiki is a better use of time," Landis said. "I'm sure students will have no trouble using it"