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The Ohio State University
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PILOT TEST: Wiki Service

ATTENTION: This project is a time-limited trial of wikis for use in education. Although participants from the Ohio State community are currently using and evaluating the service, we have not opened this service for general use.

During the Winter and Spring quarters of 2008, we are pilot-testing a university-supported wiki service for use in teaching and learning.

Participants will have some ability to customize the look of their wiki space, as well as control enrollments and page access. We will facilitate a community of practice for pilot participants and provide a basic level of technical support.

Participants are expected to provide feedback on the usability of the wiki application, desired levels of integration with Carmen and other university systems, and best practices and user-training models.

For additional information, please contact us at wikis@osu.edu.

Project History

TELR initiated this wiki pilot in response to campus-wide interest in a university-sponsored wiki. A team of TELR staff members reviewed nearly 40 wikis, evaluating each on robustness, security, stability, usability and functions, and technical requirements for implementation on a large scale. Through a process of elimination, we arrived at three wikis: Confluence, DekiWiki, and JSPWiki.

Faculty and staff who had expressed interest in wikis were invited to evaluate ease-of-use of these wikis. Evaluators provided feedback on navigation structures, communication options, user interface, and access controls. Staff from the Web Accessibility Center also reviewed these options.

Based on the information gathered, Confluence (http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/) was selected for the pilot test.