Is the default wiki a mistake?

Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Marty Boogaart -
Number of replies: 8
I am one of the faculty at my campus testing alternative LMS's. I have experience with TLM and WebCT.

I like Moodle and I loved that it had a wiki. But now I tell people, "If you are choosing Moodle because it has a wiki, then you are making a bad decision."

The manual does not answer my questions, and I see pages and pages of postings here about wikis, but most of them appear unanswered...no reply.

It is too late now, but should I have avoided the default eWiki and loaded up some other module like nWiki?

I've only been using it for a few days now, but here is what sucks about eWiki (maybe it wouldn't suck if I could figure it out):
  • I checked all of the Student admin options (Allow: 'set page flags,' 'remove pages,' 'strip pages,' and 'revert mass changes'), but students receive a "Sorry, but you do not currently have permissions to do that (Manage wiki settings)" message.
  • Sometimes links to external web pages work, and sometimes they don't. There seems to be no rhyme or reason.
  • Seeding the wiki with a page name for the first page doesn't work. The students still get a 'blank slate' when they first enter their wiki.
  • Students can't seem to upload a graphic to their wiki. Somewhere along the line, as a student, I was able to upload a file, but the 'location' that I was told that it was stored in, was of no value in its retrieval. So if the student's graphic goes into my database and they can't use it, then what is the point?
Am I doing it all wrong, or are these known problems with the Moodle wiki?
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In reply to Marty Boogaart

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Steve Hyndman -

moodle.org doesn't even use the Moodle wiki for Moodle documentation...it uses MediaWiki black eye. http://docs.moodle.org/en/MoodleDocs:About

Does that answer your question?

"If you are choosing Moodle because it has a wiki, then you are making a bad decision."

I would say your advice is spot-on!

Steve

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In reply to Marty Boogaart

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Michael Penney -
If you haven't started using wikis yet--start with nwiki-it has it's problems but it is much nicer and adds great tools. It gets basic wiki things (like page locking) right.

By the way, the use of mediawiki for the docs is an entirely different issue-mediawiki's administration tools are primitive (to say the least) and limited--it is suited for a site wiki (like wikipedia or docs.moodle.org) run by techies, but it is not at all suited for multi-level permissions and groups that a course based wiki required.

nwiki is going to be very nice, IMO we should all vote for it to be shoved into the 2.0 branch.
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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Steve Hyndman -

mediawiki's administration tools are primitive (to say the least) and limited--it is suited for a site wiki (like wikipedia or docs.moodle.org) run by techies,

Hummm...primitive and only suited for techies mixed.

but it is not at all suited for multi-level permissions and groups that a course based wiki required.

Well, that's one opinion, but I've been using Mediawiki in one of my courses for a couple of years...works great for me. That's not the point here anyway...no one said anything about replacing the Moodle Wiki with Mediawiki. The point is, Moodle has a wiki (or 2 or 3) but none of them are good enough, it would seem, to handle the moodle documentation task. 

I wouldn't find this strange if Moodle didn't have a wiki, bit it does and chooses not to use it...there is a message there if you choose to see it wink.

The test of how nice nwiki is will be whether it's used by moodledocs...we'll see. But until then, I still agree with the poster's advice: "If you are choosing Moodle because it has a wiki, then you are making a bad decision."

Steve

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In reply to Steve Hyndman

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Michael Penney -
Hummm...primitive and only suited for techies mixed.

Not sure what you mean here? I'm using 'primitive' as in rudimentary, e.g. mediawiki has a primitive interface for administering users, groups, and permissions. I meant it as descriptive, not pejorative.

The test of how nice nwiki is will be whether it's used by moodledocs...we'll see.

I also don't understand your reasoning here, why would this be the test? Seems to me that how well it fits the needs of teachers using it in courses would be more important than whether it is used by docs.moodle.org?





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In reply to Michael Penney

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Steve Hyndman -

why would this be the test?

Pretty simple...if "Moodle" doesn't have enough confidence in its own product to use it, then, well, if I have to explain....wink

I'm sure you understand more than you let on, but I understand partner status can be "blinding" smile

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In reply to Steve Hyndman

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Michael Penney -
Sorry, I'm still not understanding you? I said in reference to the original question:

If you haven't started using wikis yet--start with nwiki-it has it's problems but it is much nicer and adds great tools. It gets basic wiki things (like page locking) right.

How exactly is this 'blinding' or 'blinded'? I've always done my best to give folks here open, honest, straighforward answers...when I've failed in this it has been in my lack of skill in communication, not in any decision on what to 'let on' or not.

As far as what is used for docs.moodle.org, if this was switched to nwiki today, it wouldn't be a good test of whether nwiki is ready to use in courses-it wouldn't test course based functions such backup and restore, grading, group management, student files, etc.
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In reply to Marty Boogaart

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Marty Boogaart -
Hello all,

Thanks to you all for your replies. My course is already going, but next time I will explore the nWiki option. We will get by with the eWiki option for now.

I have used Moodle as an Athabasca University student for about a year and a half now, and I like it. This year I installed it on my own server, so now I am also Administrator/Teacher. I have to say this, "There is a LOT to like about Moodle." I am using features that my AU experience did not expose me to.

Having also used WebCT3 and 4 as a teacher and many versions of The Learning Manager as teacher/administrator, I feel somewhat qualified to compare these three LMS product lines. My opinion? Moodle rocks! At the end of this year, I will be comparing it with my compatriots who are now testing WebCT6 (sold under some Blackboard alias), Blackboard, and Sakai. It will be interesting to find out if they will be able to list as many good reasons to switch to their LMS experience.

Cheers,

Marty

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In reply to Marty Boogaart

Re: Is the default wiki a mistake?

by Ludo (Marc Alier) -
HI Marty,
if you dare NWiki will migrate your ewiki contents. But make the proper backups before.
Cheers
Ludo



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