We’re making a push here on both blog and wiki use in classes, but finding that while there’s many posts on this and that blog/wiki project in higher education, that
- There’s not many lists compiled that show a variety of examples across many disciplines and institutions.
- Many of the examples we continue to use are quite old, giving the appearance of a wave that that broke around 2011.
I’d like to compile a list for my faculty of the best examples from each discipline of blogs and wikis utilized as a core part of traditional for-credit classes. I know the big ones that we all talk about all the time; I want the ones a level below that.
Can you help me out in the comments? Just a link to your favorite project that needs more recognition, and write a line or two about what you like about it.
All projects welcome, but bonus points for: projects in the hard sciences, projects involving data gathering, projects that engage with a local community, projects involving first-year students, cross-course projects, anything that wasn’t at UMW (we love UMW, but too many examples from UMW raise concerns that the model is not generally transferable).
Hapgood 
Mike–I’ve quickly drawn up a Google Sheet to give you some examples from various disciplines at OU. I’ll add more as they come to me… https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nlIt5uvnmB5xG1VMy9r3dCwpiFihH5sHBpcaHc8Fc_k/edit?usp=sharing
Most places to find this stuff will take a lot of sifting. This seems the kind of stuff one might find in Merlot, some seat of the cuff searches (one of their filters is by platform, and wiki is listed)– but you get mixed in a lot of stuff about using blogs and wikis as a subject.
Lovely URLs they bottle at merlot!
https://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?fromAdvancedSearch=true&keywords=wiki&keywordselectorsradio=on&allKeyWords=true&anyKeyWords=false&exactPhraseKeyWords=false&title=wiki&url=&description=&category=2605&cat1=2605&cat2=-2&language=&cefr=&materialType=&technicalFormat=&audience=&contributorName=&contributorEmail=&contributorOrg=&dateRange=nodates&_hasPeerReviews=&_hasEditorReviews=&_hasComments=&_hasRatings=&_hasAssignments=&_hasCollections=&_hasSercActivitySheets=&_hasCourses=&_hasAwards=&_isContentBuilder=&_hasEtextReviews=&createdSince=&createdBefore=&sort.property=relevance&submit=
https://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?fromAdvancedSearch=true&keywords=blog&keywordselectorsradio=on&allKeyWords=true&anyKeyWords=false&exactPhraseKeyWords=false&title=&url=&description=&category=2605&cat1=2605&language=&cefr=&materialType=&technicalFormat=&audience=&contributorName=&contributorEmail=&contributorOrg=&dateRange=nodates&_hasPeerReviews=&_hasEditorReviews=&_hasComments=&_hasRatings=&_hasAssignments=&_hasCollections=&_hasSercActivitySheets=&_hasCourses=&_hasAwards=&_isContentBuilder=&_hasEtextReviews=&createdSince=&createdBefore=&sort.property=relevance&submit=
What about Wikiversity?
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Category:Courses
What about UBC Wiki?
http://wiki.ubc.ca/Course
For blogs it might mean sifting through the places (NO UMW) that do a lot of hosting,
https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/sites/
Not Harvard
http://huit.harvard.edu/services/course-blogs
Penn State
https://sites.psu.edu/
It’s miss and hit out there.
Thank you! Is it OK to document these on wiki?
Absolutely. No problem.
I liked the field botany course, this one mixing social engagement and events in the community just started but is interesting in lots of ways, another art/social engagement class that was interesting, a music class that just got started but is doing well. I liked this alternative navigation of sociological theorists that had multiple course levels in one space and the whole mother blog thing going on.
I think there are also elements of other courses which are simple (and imperfect) but are getting better – students photos of particular gestalt theory they find, students capturing grave markers photos & data from a local African-American cemetery (next up will be serious work on site design & dataviz), an ornithology class photographing birds/recording songs . . . This urban bicycling course did some decent work in a short time and this anthropology of the crowd course reflection is a good read.
All imperfect in their own ways but hopefully interesting.
The lack of response may come from using the “best” even with qualifiers. Best is a high bar. I think I’ve given you things that are good and getting better.
Hi Mike! My OU courses don’t show up on Adam’s list (they predate the OU Create project), but you can find them here:
Mythology and Folklore
hub: http://3043.mythfolklore.net/index.html
Indian Epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata
hub: http://4993.mythfolklore.net/index.html
I’ve taught both courses since 2002. They have evolved pretty dramatically in that (long) time. I document how the courses work here:
Anatomy of an Online Course
http://anatomy.lauragibbs.net/
No bonus points: they are Gen. Ed. Humanities courses, upper-division, mostly seniors. I’m always glad to share ideas and brainstorm with people interested in blog-based courses, especially writing-intensive courses. 🙂
Hi Mike! My OU courses don’t show up on Adam’s list (they predate the OU Create project), but you can find them here:
Mythology and Folklore
hub: http://3043.mythfolklore.net/index.html
Indian Epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata
hub: http://4993.mythfolklore.net/index.html
I’ve taught both courses since 2002. They have evolved pretty dramatically in that (long) time. I document how the courses work here:
Anatomy of an Online Course
http://anatomy.lauragibbs.net/
No bonus points: they are Gen. Ed. Humanities courses, upper-division, mostly seniors. I’m always glad to share ideas and brainstorm with people interested in blog-based courses, especially writing-intensive courses. 🙂
I think my last comment got stuck in spam but I’ve revised an examples site we use. I think you’ll find some of them interesting and I’ll keep adding to them. They do run across the spectrum deliberately because I’m hoping that the examples will be approachable for a variety of people.
http://rampages.us/examples/
Thank you so much! I’ll write-up some of those example sin my own space!
I guess my comment was stuck in spam also; here is what shows up as awaiting moderation:
Laura Gibbs
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
February 25, 2016 at 8:24 pm
Hi Mike! My OU courses don’t show up on Adam’s list (they predate the OU Create project), but you can find them here:
Mythology and Folklore
hub: http://3043.mythfolklore.net/index.html
Indian Epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata
hub: http://4993.mythfolklore.net/index.html
I’ve taught both courses since 2002. They have evolved pretty dramatically in that (long) time. I document how the courses work here:
Anatomy of an Online Course
http://anatomy.lauragibbs.net/
No bonus points: they are Gen. Ed. Humanities courses, upper-division, mostly seniors. I’m always glad to share ideas and brainstorm with people interested in blog-based courses, especially writing-intensive courses. 🙂