February 25, 2005

Using Moodle in non-orthodox ways

Using Moodle wiki activity for student web sites

[subject of AECT presentation Using Wikis for Web Sites ]

Course Activity:

Faculty (Matthew Price) wants to have students do a web site each about their research on a selected enzyme.
He wants them to be able to use graphic images from the web but he doesn’t want to have to faff about with obtaining copyright permission for everything they might use.

Problem:

In a previous semester I set up a web site for Bill Buskirk called Natural history of Whitewater valley

This was basically a frame which loaded in a page from student’s web area. The student used a dreamweaver template to create a cookie cutter web page with fixed sections. They could link their own graphics but had to use dreamweaver. A considerable amount of setup was required (with php), students used graphics from the web but without permission.

Using a Wiki :

The Wiki feature in moodle when combined with the HTMLArea makes is very straightforward for students to create their own free form web pages and link them together easily. Uploading graphics is straightforward, the Wiki activity is easy to setup and the learning curve for students is shallow. Finally, since everything runs in the browser (Firefox) the student does not need Dreamweaver to work on the site from the dorm room.

Setting up a Wiki Activity:

  • Wiki types:
    There are three wiki types : Teacher, groups & student. with three group modes no groups, separate groups and visible groups for each. Very flexible.
  • HTML Mode:
    Formatting of text in a wiki can be done in two different ways. The more ‘traditional’ is to use the built-in wiki character formatting (such as * being bold, etc) but in the Moodle wiki, HTMLArea can be used. We will use this.
  • graphics.
    Easy to upload and to link graphics
  • Binary files : can upload and link to any binary file. Useful.
  • Wiki auto-linking:
    By default new pages are automatically created in wiki when a word in ‘CamelCase’ is typed. Camelcase is a word with a Capital letter in the middle (the hump).
  • Page Name:
    this is the default name for the first page
  • Initial page:
    You can create a template page to be the inital page of every student’s wiki
  • Administration:
    Do not allow ‘set page flags’, ‘strip pages’ or ‘revert mass changes’
    Allow remove pages.
Posted by markp at February 25, 2005 05:00 PM