Wiki ITNow article
From TheStudentWiki
This page illustrates how a wiki can be used for collaboration on a group project. This is an article, being written by three students in two different faculties, about the wiki that is being submitted for publishing in the IT Now which is distributed to 56,000 IT professionals.
The provisional title of the article is Wiki goes to university
Last September, IT Now reported on the development of the Student Wiki (www.thestudentwiki.org) at Leeds Metropolitan University, led by BCS Student Member Andy Mitchell. In this article, we review the progress made on the project since then.
Contents |
the developing Student Wiki
Since its conception one year ago, the Student Wiki has grown and evolved into a mainstream resource centre for students and staff at Leeds Metropolitan University. The new kid on the block in terms of university social media, the Student Wiki certainly has taken its strides to be acknowledged by the Leeds Met community. It was also the first site in the university to issue a series of social podcasts (needs ref) This ‘kid’ has certainly made its mark and a lasting impression on campus.
With no set boundaries for its scope, 'virtual' volunteers are encouraged to contribute written articles, hold discussion forums, upload images, or blog their ideas. As student Andy Mitchell said in interview in September's issue of IT Now, the Student Wiki truly is “a fantastic place for people to share information altogether."
Andy now say "the Wiki team have marvelled at its development, with more than 10,000 hits, over 170 subscribers and 110 + articles. The team is more than confident that the Wiki will continue to grow from strength to strength and are extremely proud of its accomplishments to date."
Summary of articles in the Wiki
Living 32
Wiki 17
Student experience 15
Bars/socialising 15
Academic departments 15
Events 14
Student societies 7
Sport 7
Theatres/museums 6
Work 3
Launching the wiki
piece about how we launched the wiki. Photo of Rosie and Jess from the ice rink. Taking it to the RUN.
As PR students launch parties are a subject very close to our hearts. We therefore set about discussions for a party that would launch the website with style.
We had the initial idea of holding a party in Leeds Millennium Square. We later discovered that at the time we planned our launch there would be a huge outdoor ice rink on the site of choice. "Even better", we cried! So our launch night was born, we were to hold a party on ice to officially launch and celebrate the Student Wiki.
The night dubbed 'Skating on Thin Ice,' (as the team thought that was exactly what they had been doing for the past year) was host to British ice hockey demonstrations, speeches from the vice-chancellor and others plus a free skate to 300 invited students and supporters of the Wiki. The skaters whizzing around on ice was streamed to the giant plasma screen in the Suare intersperced with promotional podcasts filmed prior to the launch.
The night proved to be a great success, a good time was had by all in attendance (and there was a lot in attendance, as students very rarely turn down anything free!) and the Student Wiki message was heard loud and clear.
Publicising the wiki
Before hosting the impressive Launch Party at Leeds Millennium Square’s ice rink, the word had to be spread about the arrival of the StudentWiki.
The Wiki team has been able to spread the word through many channels, including; their professional affiliates & peers, articles in the university’s paper, The Met website links and VC reflective notes online. These have all proven to be a positive outlet for singing the Wiki’s praises.
We also issued a series of podcasts that were available to download. These podcasts gave information about the Wiki, how to use it and its implications for the future. One of them even featured our very own Wiki advert composed by another 'virtual volunteer.' This was by far the best method as we were the very first student iniative to create podcasts within the university, so the StudentWiki will definately go down in university hisory.
The Student Wiki holds great potential and its team is exploring a wide variety of avenues to further spread the word. We are currently looking to explore the avenues for the Wiki, one idea is to create an online debate forum for issues that are affecting our campus at the moment, encouraging students to constructively express their views of whats good and whats not about university life. Another idea will be to expand the Wiki in the review section, maybe partnering with some local businesses in order for reviews to be written about their establishments and them gaining some free publicity on our site.
Ultimately it is hoped that the student Wiki will expand to Leeds Met’s affiliated higher institution and then on a national scale as it becomes a resource tool that each Higher Education Institution would wish to have.
Using it for course assessment
As the Wiki develops students from a range of courses have been involved and got to put all the theory they have learned into practise. Rosalind O'Rourke and Jessica Cook, two PR students in charge of the launch, comment, "The involvement we have had in publicising the student wiki has been extremely beneficial to us in terms of experience and using the work for our 'portfolio' which we must submit with real pieces of PR work we have completed througout the year.
Our Wiki involvement has given us first hand experience in creating and managing our own publicity campaign and launch party. Our stint as a 'virtual volunteer' is somethng we will definately take with us later through our professional life."
Nathan Snowden used his Music Technology skills to compose music and adverts for the Wiki which have been shown on the big screen in Millenium square and are also available as visual and audio podcasts from the Wiki site. Also the Wiki has adopted Entertainment Management student Matt Jezusek as a staff writer as part of his learning module.
Diana Hodge a Business Information Management student has been able to focus on the Wiki for her INN Show piece. She marvels that the project has been absolutely delightful; “working with this project for my show piece is truly spectacular. The work that I am engaged in can not be more realistic, challenging and self rewarding. As an innovative student pipeline the Wiki project is destined to go places.”
What's next for the wiki
The BCS Schools' IT competition featuring wiki on a stick
We have high hopes for the Wiki expanding into a useful source of information not just for students from Leeds Met but from universities everywhere. We believe with our continued efforts to publicise the Wiki and get more and more people contributing and writing articles we will be able to achieve this over time.
We are also running a Schools IT competition along with the BCS featuring Wiki on a stick to get even more people involved and signing up.
Return to Main Page
