---
title: "Wikis"
canonical: "https://helpcentre.macewan.ca/space/ETS/2629566465/Wikis"
format: markdown
---
**AUDIENCE: ****FACULTY**** | ****STAFF**
A **Wiki** is an activity where students can create a collaborative document by building pages together. Wikis do not publish to the grade book, grade items will need to be created in the gradebook and grades for this activity must be entered into the gradebook manually. While Wikis are usually collaborative, students can also create Wikis for individual use.
This tutorial will explain how to create a basic wiki and how collaborative and individual wikis differ.
## Adding a Wiki to the Course and Basic Settings
1. On the course page, navigate to the section to add the Wiki, click **+ Activity or resource**, and then select **Wiki **from the list.
2. You must add a name for the Wiki and a description (optional). Select **Collaborative wiki** or **Individual wiki **in the drop-down menu adjacent to **Wiki mode**.
In the box adjacent to the *First page name, *provide a title for the first page of the wiki.
**Note**: this page **cannot** be changed later. Wiki mode cannot be adjusted once the first page is created.
3. In the **Format** settings, leave basic HTML as the editing choice unless familiar with either **Creole** or **NWiki**, which are wiki markup languages. To set up group mode at the activity level, go to **Common module settings**. For information on this functionality, please refer to the **Groups***** *****tutorial**.
4. To adjust the **Restrict access**, **Activity completion**, or **Tags** refer to (information on these settings is in the *Assignment Overview* tutorial); otherwise, click **SAVE AND DISPLAY** to begin creating the wiki.
## Create Pages and Link Them in the Wiki
1. After clicking **SAVE AND DISPLAY**, on the next page, click **Create Page**. This will create the landing page for the wiki, which is named in the activity settings in the previous section.** Note**: The editing style can also be changed to Creole or NWiki if not already done in the settings.
2. To make a one-page wiki, enter the content in the HTML editing box on the next screen. Images, embed videos, and various other digital resources can be added.
3. To make multiple pages for the students (when they begin collaborating on the wiki), create more pages for the wiki by using wiki markup codes. To add a new page to the wiki, use two square brackets [[Example title]] on either side of the word(s) that will serve as the title for any subsequent pages. In the example below, we are creating new Pages called Unit 1, Unit 2, and Unit 3.
Click **SAVE** when finished.
**Note**: Students will also have the ability to add new pages.
4. The created links to three separate pages are now within the wiki. To actively create the pages, separately click on each of these links (which will appear in red) to create the actual page.
5. When clicking on one of the links, a prompt to **CREATE PAGE **will be asked.
**Note**: Once you click **CREATE PAGE**, the page cannot be renamed. To make changes to the page, it will need to be deleted, and a new page must be created.
6. To add content to the second page, start by adding navigation to the already existing or planned pages. Links work by using the **exact** name of the page linked to in the wiki, surrounded by double square brackets. In the example below, we start by linking to the bracketed pages: **Home Page**, ***Unit 2***, and ***Unit 3***. Even though Units 2 and 3 have not yet been created, once they are, they will automatically be linked on this page.
The **Home Page** was the page we created in Step 1. Use double square brackets to link items in the wiki: **[[Item to link]]**. When you are finished editing, click **SAVE**.
7. The **View** of Unit 1 will now show on the next page with the set **Home Page. **To set up the pages for Units 2 and 3, follow the same process as Steps 5 and 6.
## Reviewing and Navigating the Wiki
To review the wiki after or during the creation of its pages, use the various review tools to ensure it displays as desired.
### **Comments**
If comments are enabled for the wiki, it will show in the **Comments** section from the drop-down menu.
### **History**
Under the **History** tab, it keeps track of who has edited which page in the wiki. Under **Version, **it will show the version of the wiki with the edits and the option of reverting to a different version.
### **Map**
Under the **Map** drop-down menu, it will show how the pages interconnect and link to each other by clicking the **Map menu **on each page of the wiki:
**Contributions**: specific contributions of authorized contributors across the wiki.
**Links**: reviews links to, and where it is from.
**Orphaned pages**: pages that were created but are not actively showing in the wiki. This is usually because of a mistyped name of the page in a link.
**Page index**: shows all pages in the wiki in a table of contents format and how they appear in the order of the wiki.
**Page list**: shown as an alphabetized list of all pages in the wiki.
**Updated pages**: a list of recently updated wiki pages.
## Files
Under the **Files** drop-down menu, the files added to the wiki can be managed here.
### **Administration**
Under administration, remove pages from the wiki or delete specific versions of pages.
## Wiki as a Collaborative Activity and as an Individual Activity
Settings in the wiki must be specified as either *collaborative* or *individual* (as explained at the beginning of this document). This section will explain the difference between these two options.
### **Wiki as a Collaborative Activity**
Using this wiki mode, all users who have access to the wiki in the course shell can edit it. Their edits will be tracked and reviewed using the administrative options described in the previous section.
### **Wiki as an Individual Activity**
Using individual wiki mode, one wiki activity can be created in the course, and then students can build their own wiki that will only be viewable by them and the instructor. To review these wikis, click on the wiki where it resides in the course shell. Then select the student’s name from the **User **drop-down menu.
On the student side of the activity, when they click on the wiki activity, they will be prompted to create their first page. The name of this first page is predetermined by the user when the wiki is created. The student can then build their own wiki using the activity's tools.
> Macro (details)
>
> **Related Keywords**
>
>
>
>
>
> | Related Issues | |
> | --- | --- |