WikiStudent Blog

OK, here’s a screenshot of one of the Unisa module pages on the new WikiStudent. (Just the top part: the table of contents which lists the 10 headings I mentioned earlier).

Notice the picture on the right? That’s new! I thought it would be a nice thing to have students upload a picture that’s representative of the subject in question. You could use a picture of a pie chart for a Statistics module, a drawing of Shakespeare for an English module, a dissection of an insect for a Biology module… you get the idea! The picture above is of one of my coffee mugs which has a photo of Alan Turing on it  (a mug-shot, haha). Alan Turing is someone who featured a lot in COS301, so I think it’s very suitable. If you don’t like it and have a better picture to represent the module… well, it’s a wiki so you know what to do!

This has to be said again! I’m sure everyone will agree that making the site navigation revolve around Unisa modules is better than organising the site by site sections, such as textbooks, notes, polls, past papers…

Think about it: If you are registered for three Unisa modules, you will only need to go to three pages on the wiki. These pages will be directly accessible from the home page and you will find all you need on them. 

Who wants to be on a page with loads of items (e.g. past papers) for over 500 course codes that you’re not interested in? It means you’d have to narrow your search down further, i.e. more effort.

Another thing I like about this new structure is that if you’re on a page, e.g. for ACN101M, and you are there because you want to buy the textbook, you will find other areas on this wiki page that need editing and hopefully make a tiny contribution to the page yourself! Well, if you’re registered for the module in question you should be able to add something to the page…

Now, for the third time, I’ve re-organised the headings for each module page.

1. Introduction to <module name>
2. The syllabus
3. Prescribed textbook
4. Pros of <module code>
5. Cons of <module code>
6. How to pass <module code>
7. Useful links
8. Unisa assignments
9. Study notes
10. Past exam papers

What’s different here is I’ve replaced the “Class of 2009″ with a “Unisa assignments” heading. Assignments are such an important part of your studies - I can’t believe I never thought of this before!!

I spent this weekend transferring all the content from the old wiki to the new one. Lots of copying & pasting!! What I need to do next is read through it all and integrate this old text into the new page headings. 

Here they are:

1. Introduction to <module name>
2. The syllabus
3. Prescribed textbook
4. Pros of <module code>
5. Cons of <module code>
6. How to pass <module code>
7. Useful links
8. Study notes
9. Past exam papers
10. Class of 2009

When creating a new page, you’ll be able to use a template to save you the trouble of typing it all out, and this way there will be consistency across all module pages.