Staff wiki help
From RSCWMWiki
Contents |
Help Introduction
This page is for internal RSC staff and is designed to cover the basics of wiki page creation, editing, using the template, house style, etc.
What this wiki contains
This wiki has been set up for two primary principles;
1. As an area to support our face to face training sessions. In this respect we will use specific pages to host supporting documents for our events.
2. To allow us to collate and disseminate information, advice and guidance on all of our areas covering ICT for learning and teaching. This wiki forms part of a suite of web based tools that help coordinate information delivered to West Midlands learning providers. This wiki compliments the RSC West Midlands Web site, our individual blogs and our RSC VLE Moodle.
In addition to the above two primary principles
The RSC West Midlands wiki serves as a supplementary resource to the website, yet will be available for our target audience to view. However, it can only be edited internally and should be used only for the following information types:
- ‘How to’ tips, FAQs ie. using PowerPoint creatively
- Supplementary information about RSC services (ie. ILT Healthcheck, Assistive Technology Training)
- Supporting documents (ie. word, pdf, powerpoint)
- Supporting event information (directions, links, resources, speaker presentation slides)
- Legislations, regulations and policies (ie Disability Act, Ofsted reports). NB. If the policy, report etc is held on an external website, don’t re-invent the wheel. Offer a short summary paragraph and then link to the information instead of re-producing it
- Links to free software and resources
- National case studies (NB regional case studies will be available on the RSC website and QIA Excellence Gateway)
nb. The wiki should not be used for news items, internal RSC only information (ie. conference plans, event feedback), personal reflections, content that already exists on the RSC WM website (ie. links to JISC services).
The above is excerpted from RSC WM editorial style guide.doc, stored on the "R" drive. Please refer to that documnet or consult with Kirsty Hill for clarication.
How to create new articles
This section covers the basics of creating a new page/article.
We have already decided upon the first two navigation levels of this wiki to ensure logical aggregation and commonality of elearning/ICT subject areas. You as an "article" editor can only add pages within and below the subject levels we have already defined.
The primary subject (navigation) levels are;
- Teaching and Learning
- E-learning Resources
- E-learning Management
- E-learning Technology
- RSC-WM Event Wikis
- RSC-WM Staff
Existing sub page
Within each of these pages we have created a set of sub categories that point you towards the subject area to add an article to. Navigate to a second level to begin adding an article. You can see this by accessing the E-learning Technology page, which has a subheading of learning software. This sub section has alaready begun to be populated with related articles. If you want to add to an exiting article, then just begin editing. Each of these subpages have been created from the house template, therefore it's a simple case of creating a new sub heading and adding content. Each new subheading will be added to the contents for that page. When these pages become too long to navigate, we will split them into further sub pages.
New sub page
If you want to add a totally new article in to this sub page, first of all you must run a search on the page heading you are intending to add. This is to ensure you are not duplicating existing article entries. If the intended article page head does not exist you will be prompted to create a new page. Accept this option, add page heading and click the 'save page' button. You now have an empty article/page that you will need to add and format text. Use the house template to do this as described below.
NOTE: Once you have created a new page and then created a link to it, do not edit the hyperlink in any way or the link will not work.
How to edit and format pages
This section covers the basics of editing and formatting wiki pages.
1. Using the RSC WM house style template
The RSC West Midlands template has been created to ensure consistency, and ease of page creation across all wiki subpages. Access the template here
To use this template;
- Follow the template link above
- click the 'edit' tab (top of page)
- Select all the text inside the edit box (Ctrl+A)
- Copy the text (Crtl+C)
- Navigate back to the sub page you have just created
- click the 'edit' tab (top of page)
- Within the empty text box paste in the clipboard contents (Crtl + V)
- Edit the placeholder subheadings and body text as approproiate
- Choose 'save page' button (bottom of page). That's it.
2. Simple formatting
Text formatting can be acheived in two ways;
2.1 using the formatting bar at the top of the edit box (bold, italics, hyperlinks). To format text simply highlight a piece of text and apply the formatting, as per standard word processors. All of this formatting must be done within the editing area, then click "save page".
2.2 Using a set of simple text combinations you can add links, bullets, subheadings, etc. Again, all formatting using keyboard shortcuts must be done within the editing area, then click "save page". A page of these keyboard shortcuts can be located here keyboard formatting
Further wiki tutorial pages can be found here;
NOTE: Remeber that there is "rollback" or history feature. This allows moderators or administrators to revert a page back to an earlier edited status. This feature is useful if unauthorised changes have been made to text. It's worth having a practice using this feature as it has it's quirks.
Writing Style
Within this wiki we are attempting to replicate the primary style of wikipedia, i.e. by creating a short text based contextual introduction,contents, followed by the main text body, and finally any associated information. Hypertext linking within text body is encouraged to ensure all relative information is fully referenced. Follow this article guide for further information
Also refer to Kirsty's house style document in the "R" drive.
RSC contacts
Relevant RSC staff
Further assistance and technical advice can be obtained from these primary RSC contacts
- Matt Gallon [1] 01902 518985
- Kevin Brace [2] 01902 518931
- Kirsty Hill [3] 01902 518749
Config' settings
Known issues
Uploading a large image will result in media wiki being unable to display it. It is therefore reccomended that uploaded images are no bigger than 0.5 Mb in file size or 640px X 480px in dimensions.
