Collaborative Content Creation

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  Content creation should not be recondite. It should not be this bizarre arcana that only experts and gold-plated computer science gurus can do.  
-- Brendan Eich, inventor of Javascript, Innovators of the Net


What role can web-based tools for collaborative content creation play in supporting:

  • the development of educational content?
  • student and faculty research?

Contents

The Role of Software Tools

  • Traditional:
    • Support content creation
      editors, analytical tools, visual display, ...
      Blackboard supports WebDAV-based CCC:
      "WebDAV is an Internet standard used for sharing files via the Internet regardless of platform (Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Sun Solaris, and so forth). When put into use with the Blackboard Content System, WebDAV is a means for each user to access content from the Content System as if it were in any other network drive or folder.
    • Content storage and retrieval
      wp
  • Second Generation Internet
    • Target audiences increasingly expect web access
      "Publishing for the Web"
    • Collaborative web content creation
      Blogs and wikis
    • Data portals
      online selection and analysis of data

Wikis and Wiki Engines

  • Wiki website = Wiki Engine + Policy + Add-Ons + Extensibility
  • Not all wiki engines are created equal
  • markup language
  • extensibility
  • integration with other tools
  • scaleability
    • namespaces, categories, access privileges, administrative and maintenance tools ....

Two Successful Wiki Engines

pmwiki-32.gif [1]
50px-Wikimedia-logo.svg.pngMediaWiki

Wiki Sites at Princeton

Blackboard has a "collaborative wiki-like tool":

Wikipedia, MediaWiki, and QED

  • Wikipedia is intended to be an encyclopedia of existing knowledge written by anonymous authors.
    • mantra: "no original research"
  • QED is intended to support research and education by identified authors.

MediaWiki

MediaWiki was selected for QED for numerous reasons, including:

  • exceeds core requirements (see above)
  • sophistication, e.g.
    • internationalization (Wikipedias in 183+ languages)
    • well-developed administrative model and tools
  • widespread use in colleges, universities and research organizations (Wiki Sites)
  • Princeton's OIT supports MySQL and PHP
  • de facto markup standard
  • maturity and stability
  • content is not at risk (but conversion may incur costs)
  • "open source"
  • "free software"
  • "free" enhancements
    • rapid evolution (e.g. RSS/Atom feeds)
  • successful use for Mapping Globalization project

Several extensions, notably for controlling read/write/protect access, have been successfully implemented.

Issues under Investigation

  • One OIT-supported CCC website or many?
  • Access policies
  • Permanence of permalinks
  • Copyright
  • Google map extensions
  • Security issues preclude unleashing the full power of many software tools on QED pages
  • Ajax
  • Streamlining of data upload/download procedures with MySQL database
  • Should all "media files" be placed in the same namespace?

Limitations

Wikis, MediaWiki and QED have numerous limitations as vehicles for supporting educational content creation and research, e.g. current limitations of QED include:

  • Editing is not WYSIWYG
    • but section editing and previewing largely mitigate this
  • There is no support for any kind of interactive educational assessment
    • but two types of interactive quizzes are supported — Help:Quizzes.

Questions

  • What makes one {blog, wiki, CCC} more successful than another?
  • What role should OIT play?
  • What are your requirements?

See also

Retrieved from "http://qed.princeton.edu/main/OIT/Collaborative_Content_Creation"
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