Creating and linking my content page

Preknowledge

Before creating the home page for your content project, you should: be clear on the type of content resource you want to develop; have completed your planning sheet; and have completed your first draft of the structure for your resource.

Introduction

Linking to my content page.

Image courtesy of Robert Brook

In this section we consider options on where to start your content page, but more importantly how to link this to other content nodes. Linking is important because it will:

• help users find your content;
• promote collaborative editing and feedback for your content project; and
• encourage WikiEducators with similar interests to form networked communities.

Where do I start my page?

A wiki is a collection of web pages and the technology provides you with the ability to link your content page from any other page in the wiki. This provides authors with unlimited flexibility and makes the wiki an ideal environment for the collaborative development of all types of teaching materials. So you can start your content page anywhere in the wiki.

There are two approaches you can consider:

	Considerations
Creating a subpage from your user page (With this option you create a temporary draft area before moving the page into the main wiki area)	Anything that is linked from your user page (called the "User name space") tells the community that you are still experimenting with your design as a "personal" project. This is a good approach to use if you are still gaining confidence in your wiki skills. This disadvantage is that you will need to copy-and-paste all the content over to the main wiki area at a later stage. It's best to avoid building resources with a complex structure with multiple sub-pages in your User namespace. This will create unnecessary work because when you copy the text over to the main wiki area, many of your internal links will need to be redone.
Creating your content page in the main wiki (This is the wiki way. It is quite acceptable to incorporate first drafts in the main wiki)	Creating your content page in the main wiki area maximises the potential for collaboration; When starting a content resource you can add the work in progress to tell the community that your content page is still under development. You will need to link your new content page to the relevant pages in WikiEducator. Instructions are provided below.

Creating your content page

The easiest way to create your content page is to decide on a descriptive title for your page and to insert the link from your user page. There are other methods to create new pages, but for brevity we don't cover them here.

Activity

Creating your content page in the main wiki Step 1: Go to your user page Step 2: Add a new subheading called "My content pages". Use the following syntax: ==My content pages== Step 3: Create a new page as a link from your user page under the heading "My content pages". Use the following syntax: [[Name_of_content_your_page_goes_here]] Step 4: Click on the red link and add the work in progress template to your page and insert a message that you will be working on your content soon. To add the work in progress template, add the following syntax to your page: {{WIP}} Step 5: Insert the suggested introductory content for your page. See below.

Tip:

• This method will create your new page in the main wiki, and is not a sub-page of your user page.
• This method will ensure that you do not loose your page before linking it to appropriate sections in the wiki.
• You can consult the tutorial on creating new pages for further information.
• If the page already exists in the wiki you will need to choose a slightly different name for your page. Do not delete the content of someone else's page!

Suggested introductory content

It is important to tell the community what your project is about and what you are planning to develop. The best time to do this is when creating the page.

• List the teaching objectives you specified in your planning sheet
• Using a bullet or numbered list, copy the draft structure you have designed for the resource on this page.

The subsections listed above may become separate sub-pages of your resource at a later stage of the development cycle, but this will provide vistors to your page with useful clues about the content you are planning.

To do list

• Screenshot example?
• Clear instructions on how to link the content development to the relevant content listings in WE.
• To add a new subsection covering COOL features for content authoring and how to use them:
  • Template:MyTitle
  • Template:ShortTitle
  • Others?

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.