Workshop M6: OER Collaborative Content Development Training Using Wiki Platforms - Report
Introduction
The OER Foundation Zambia facilitated Workshop M6 at the 5th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, eLearning Africa 2010 in Lusaka, Zambia. The half-day workshop on OER Collaborative Content Development Training Using Wiki Platforms was conducted on 26th May, 2010 as one of the pre-conference events.
The workshop aimed at building capacities of participants in the development of OER using WikiEducator.
The workshop was attended by participants to the eLearning Africa 2010 Conference which took place from the 26th to 28th May, 2010 (see participants list). Twenty participants registered for the workshop but on the day of the event, only ten were in attendance due to logical challenges in locating the meeting room for the workshop.
Workshop Proceedings
The Face2Face workshop was preceded by an online version of the workshop, EL4C39 which ran from the 10th to 21st May, 2010 during which most of the participants successfully completed the creation of WikiEducator accounts and registration. The initial agenda for the Face2Face workshop was however amended to included components from the online version as most of the participants did not complete the tasks from that workshop.
The half-day workshop started with introductions from the participants followed by a brief on WikiEducator and Commonwealth of Learning facilitated by Mr. Victor Mensah, OER Foundation Zambia. Each participant had access to a computer with reliable Internet connectivity. Mr. Brian Sikute facilitated the next session on the workshop which included creating accounts, registration, editing basics, uploading media, etc. Participants who did not take part in the online workshop created accounts and completed the registration process.
The following lessons were covered during the workshop:
- How to register and create account in the www.wikiEducator.org website;
- How to edit a format text within Wiki;
- How to create internal and external links in Wiki;
- Uploading images in media Wiki
- How to communicate on the wiki and to using the discussions and talk features on
- WikiEducator; and
- How to manage collaborative editing with the ability to fall back to earlier edited wiki version and inherent WikiEducator features that prevail against content vandalism.
The participants then embarked on an exercise in which they created sample content by way of collaborative content development while employing the above learnt skills. The participants were grouped into three groups namely
The participants in the groups shared sub-topics on which the added content collaboratively and just a few minutes, the articles were completed. The participants did very well.
Workshop outcomes
Participants were eager to learn more but been a half-day workshop, time was really a constraint. Contacts were established for further collaboration on the development and use of Wikis for OER development.
Lessons Learned
The workshop was a success having met all the objectives. The success was due to the following:
- Good desktop computers running Ubuntu 9.10 and Firefox 3.6 with reliable Internet access in a spacious computer room;
- Good Internet skills on the part of participants;
- Exceptional workshop facilitation by the workshop facilitators;
The lessons learnt include the following:
- Preceding a Face2Face with an online version of the workshop helped participants better familiarise themselves with the WikiEducator website;
- With good Internet connectivity and good participant Internet skills, it is possible covered a three-day agenda in one day.
References
[1] [http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/Online_schedule/eL4C39/Participants
[2] http://wikieducator.org/User:Mhambira/How_to_manage_stress
[3] http://wikieducator.org/User:Oscaromondi/Culture_in_Business
[4] http://wikieducator.org/User:Dkunda/Application_of_Computers_in_Primary_Schools
