The term Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word for quick, because it is a quick and easy way to create a website. The best-known wiki is Wikipedia ( www.wikipedia.org ). Wikis within Blackboard make it possible for faculty and students to collaborate, organize, and present their work (knowledge bases, papers, research, etc.) within a safe secure web-based dynamic environment. Instructors can easily monitor wiki activity to see who is contributing and what they are contributing. 

Wiki’s can be incorporated in your course in various ways, located below are examples:

• Set up a course wiki as a collaborative space for the entire class to create a study guide or a knowledge base to help them prepare for upcoming tests, midterms, and final exams.
• For group and individual projects, students can construct their wiki’s during a set timeframe then the wiki’s could be opened to the rest of the class for comments.

Group wikis are enabled by instructors. Any course member can read the group wiki, but the user must be a member of the group to edit a page or make a comment on a group wiki page. Instructors can change the default setting to allow only group members to view a group wiki. When creating the group, you will need to select Wiki under Tool Availability.

1. Open your course in Blackboard

2. Ensure Edit Mode is ON

3. Under the Control Panel, click Course Tools

4. Click Wikis

5. On the Wikis listing page, click Create Wiki on the Action Bar

8. Select the Yes option to make the wiki available to the students

9. Use Display After and Display Until date and time fields to limit the availability of the wiki (if desired).

10. Set the Wiki Participation options.

Select the Student Access option. Student access can be changed at any time.

1. Closed to Editing: Select this option when the instructor will be the only one contributing pages or to disallow further page editing by students, such as when the wiki pages are set to be graded. Wikis can still be viewed when Closed to Editing.
2. Open to Editing: Allows students to modify and wiki page. In a group wiki, a student must be a member of the group to edit a wiki page.

Select the Student Comment Access option.

1. Closed to Commenting: Select this option when you do not want students to comment on the wiki page. Wikis can still be viewed and edited when Closed to Commenting.
2. Open to Commenting: Allows students to comment on a wiki page.

 11. Select No grading or Grade and type in the number of Points possible. Points possible will apply to one or more pages added and all edits by the student.

Note: Once the wiki is set to be graded, a column is created for it in the Grade Center. It is permanently gradable and cannot be set to No grading

 12. Optionally, select the box and the number of page saves required to show participants in Needs Grading status. Applying this setting will show the needs Grading icon in the Grade Center and place the entries in the queue on the Needs Grading page after the specified number of page saves has been made.

15. Click Submit to complete to wiki setup process

Note: This takes you back to the list of wikis created for your course. The wikis appear in alphabetical order on the Wikis listing page.