Information for Faculty
From WolfWikis
Wikis are becoming increasingly popular tools for collaborative work such as preparing jointly edited documents, building knowledge bases, completing group projects, and more. This page provides answers to some basic questions about using WolfWikis in a course setting. If you have additional questions, please consult the FAQ or MediaWiki Handbook.
Please note that the general Wolfwikis environment is viewable by anyone on the Web and entries can be edited by anyone with an NCSU Unity ID.
How can I use WolfWikis in my courses?
Wikis can be a good platform for collaborative work among your students. They can be used as informal collaborative spaces for students to work together on a project or be used more formally as a collectively developed website to share with a broader community. Instructors have used wikis to allow students to develop class-created glossaries, work collaboratively on projects, and build websites centered on course content.
See Examples for instances of instructional use.
Wolfwikis are available for public view on the Internet and can be edited by any NCSU Unity ID holder.
What privacy-related laws and policies apply to the instructional use of WolfWikis?
Under the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and NC State's FERPA regulation, a student's "education records" are protected from disclosure to third parties. As described in the Rule for the Use of NCSU Libraries "WolfBlogs" Service, which also governs the use of WolfWikis, the inherently public nature of WolfWikis means that students must provide written consent for any required wiki participation in a course setting. Please ask your students to download, fill in and submit the FERPA Consent Form for Course Wiki Participation to you before completing any required wiki assignments.
Is a FERPA Consent Form ever unnecessary?
All changes made to WolfWikis pages are identified in the page history by Unity ID, without exception. Because of this lack of anonymity, students must invariably provide written consent before participating in any required wiki participation in a course setting by signing the FERPA Consent Form and submitting it to the instructor.
Can I restrict who can view my WolfWiki?
No. WolfWikis can be read by anyone, anywhere. Viewing rights cannot be restricted to any individual or specific group. Because WolfWikis are public, they may also be indexed by search engines like Google.
Can I restrict who can contribute to my WolfWiki?
No. Any registered user with a Unity ID can edit a wiki. However, the wiki technology makes it possible to revert changes that have been made to a wiki page.
How are WolfWikis different from the Discussions tool in WebCT Vista?
An important difference between the two is the public nature of WolfWikis. While some courses may be better conducted within the protected environment offered by WebCT Vista, a WolfWiki may be appropriate for a class in which public viewing and participation can contribute to the learning experience.
A second difference is the nature of authorship in either technology. Discussion board postings in WebCT Vista are authored by individual students and shared with the group. Discussion boards display postings as a linear thread of conversation between participants. Wikis can be collaboratively authored and edited by anyone with the latest changes reflected on the page. This collaborative content development results is a collective voice, making wikis useful for group projects.
What is the difference between a blog and a wiki?
Blogs and wikis lend themselves to different kinds of uses. Blogs support linear interactions: one individual posts a message; another individual comments on that post; a third individual adds another comment or makes a new post. All the posts are juxtaposed on the blog (usually in reverse chronological order), and more recent posts do not supplant earlier ones.
Where blogs stimulate dialogue, wikis support collaboration and speaking in a collective voice. Wikis allow multiple contributors to compile information and jointly edit the content. While the linear progression of additions and edits can be viewed by clicking on the "history" tab, the wiki pages themselves display only the most recent version of the content.
There are similarities between blogs and wikis, however. Both tools make it easy for users to publish content on the Web without needing to know HTML or how to upload/FTP pages to a particular server. Both WolfBlogs and WolfWikis can be used from any computer with an Internet connection.
Where can I get help using WolfWikis?
For assistance with setting up WolfWikis for instructional purposes, please contact Kim Duckett, Principal Librarian for Digital Technologies and Learning, 513-3653, or the Learning Technology Service. For technical support, please contact the NC State Help Desk.
Where can I find answers to additional questions?
Please consult the WolfWikis FAQ or MediaWiki Handbook.