WIKIs for online documents and textbooks

Resumé

In this paper we describe ways to use the Wiki-platform as a tool for learning. In our teaching we have used Wiki's as an on-line text-book, for student collaborative work and as the practical course presentation. The choice of optimal software for a WIKI (e.g. MediaWiki, or Wikispaces) depends on the intended use, we describe our experiences with various software in the three cases above. No matter the overall purpose for the use of the Wiki, it has a great functionality that it easily updatable, it is used widely thus the format is known to the students. Besides printed literature more and more teaching material is available in a digital version and accessed either via special software or an internet browser, the same way a wiki is accessed, this automatically integrates the various learning material and gives easy and fast access to relevant information for the students.

If you are not a computer expert it is not easy to set up a private web server to host a wiki, however, this can in many cases be avoided by choosing a commercially available Wiki's.

We conclude that Wiki's implemented for online educational teaching material help a large part of the students to structure their studies and attain the intended learning outcomes and at least for some students in their collaborative work the learning outcome is above expected for the course.