Help:Getting Started: The Basics
From UCSB English Department Knowledge Base
| Welcome to the English Department Knowledge Base at the University of California, Santa Barbara. |
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This page contains information intended to help instructors (both faculty members and TAs) and students become familiar with the geography of the EDKB Wiki, and to assist these new users in learning to add and edit material.
More extensive information about security settings and wiki-construction can be found here and here. This page is intended only as a very basic introduction to the wiki; these links will give you more detailed information. First time users may wish to consult the Appropriate Use policy before getting started.
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[edit] Why a Wiki?
Because Wikipedia has taken over the world.
Just kidding, sort of. But jokes aside, the ease with which Wikipedia--or any lovingly attended wiki--can accumulate content as a kind of communal intellectual ecosystem, as opposed to a top-down structure, makes this model especially useful for a community with as much diverse talent, knowledge, and experience as the UCSB English Department.
Essentially, the EDKB Wiki is replacing the old English Department Knowledge Base (EDKB). While the EDKB was a splendid clearinghouse of information on such topics as teaching and research, its structure required the constant attention of a single manager (or small group of managers) with special security permissions. Thus, adding new content or editing old material was laborious--there was always a middleman to deal with, as it were. However, because the new EDKB Wiki utilizes MediaWiki, the same software that powers Wikipedia, this is no longer a problem. Now faculty members and graduate students can contribute material at their own convenience, without having to contact a traditional sys-op, while undergraduates will have easy access to information on courses offered within the department.
The EDKB Wiki is intended as a supplement to the main department site, which will continue to have comprehensive information on courses, people, projects, and special events within the English Department. At present, information on the wiki is generally material from past courses (syllabi, assignments, etc.) and resources intended to help with teaching and research. Ideally, however, the site will grow organically over a period of years, and it will be the pleasure of present and future department members to watch this happen, and to participate in the growth.
[edit] Getting Started: Establishing Your Username and Password
Welcome! When you first visit the Main Page you will be asked to enter your username and password. If you don't have one, you will have the option of creating a new account. Simply click the Create Password link.
Once you've created an account, you will be able to read all unrestricted pages. You will not, however, be able to edit pages until you are granted the appropriate user permissions. Please contact any member of the EDKB wiki team if you need edit permissions. For more information on user permissions, see A Guide to User Groups.
N.B. If you ever forget your password, the system can reset it and send a new one to your current e-mail address. This option will always appear on the Main Page login screen.
[edit] Getting Started: How to Navigate
[edit] Looking Around: How to Search and/or Wander
Assuming that you don't have special powers of intuition, there are two options for finding your way around this site:
- The Taskbar
Located on the left-hand side of your browser screen, this will always be visible. It displays the basic categories into which sub-categories on the wiki are organized, and it is hopefully more or less intuitive. Dive in, click around, and you will rapidly develop a good idea of where things are.
- Search function
Located at the bottom of the left-hand taskbar, this box will be your ally. Enter any information you've got--this can be an instructor's name, a class title, or just a description of what you're looking for (don't worry if it's vague)--and the search function will give you a choice of pages, listed in descending order of relevancy. It's actually a lot like Google and is perfect for when you aren't sure about the name of the page you are looking for.
[edit] What is the Difference Between Categories and Articles?
Think of the EDKB Wiki as a tree with a lot of branches. The biggest boughs are the main categories itemized on the taskbar (Teaching Resources, Courses, Faculty, et cetera). Each of these categories can contain any number of sub-categories. These in turn contain articles, which are the end of the line: the leaves of the tree, so to speak.
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[edit] Searching for Categories and Articles
- If you want to search for a category, type "category:" followed by whatever search parameters you are using.
For example, if one were seeking the LCI English 10 category, one would enter "category:English 10 LCI" or "category:LCI English 10" or something similar.
- To search for articles, do the same thing, minus the "category:" prefix.
If the page you are looking for doesn't yet exist, you will be given the option of creating a new page. See below for basic information on how to start doing this.
[edit] Evolution and Expansion of Content
The basic architecture of the wiki will not change much. That is to say, there will always be a Courses space on the left-side taskbar, for instance. However, since this is a wiki, new categories and articles will be added on a daily basis, old materials will be deleted or edited, and materials may be moved around. The best way to remain familiar with the location of things is to use the wiki as much as you can.
[edit] Getting Started: Basic Tips for Creating and Formatting Articles and Categories
[edit] Creating a New Page
One can do two things:
- Enter a prospective new-page title into the "Create Article" box on the Main Page. If you do this, make sure to use the taskbar search function first, in order to make sure that the page you're creating doesn't already exist.
- Enter your information in said search function: if the page doesn't yet exist, you will be given the option of creating it.
[edit] Formatting a Page
Basic HTML code works on the wiki, and can be used to format any pages. That said, it is easier to utilize the taskbar at the top of the page: this function allows one to do things such as add internal and external links, change font size, and upload files.
For a full guide to creating and managing content, please visit Help: Contents. This visually-oriented page contains all you need to know about editing the EDKB Wiki.
[edit] Information for Instructors
[edit] Security
MediaWiki software allows us to restrict access to certain material. For instance, you can design a page so that only your students can access it. For a tutorial on setting up special-permissions User Groups, please see A Guide to User Groups.
[edit] Teaching Resources
The Teaching Resources category contains a large amount of information related to pedagogy, most of which is specific to the UCSB English Department, but some of which links to other campus resources. This is particularly useful for first-time TAs.
[edit] Technology Resources
Likewise, the Technology Resources category has plenty of information on how to do things like use the Media Classroom (South Hall 1415) and book DVD players or laptops for classroom use.
[edit] Information for Undergraduate Students
[edit] Finding Your Class
Using the left-hand taskbar, search via either Courses or Quarter and Year.
If you can't recall the number of name of the course, you can also use the search function. Simply enter any information you have (such as your TA's name) and browse through the results.
[edit] Where to Find Fuller and/or More Current Info
N.B. The EDKB-Wiki is geared more towards material from past courses than to material from ongoing ones. Material from your current course(s) will only be available on the EDKB-Wiki if your instructor decides to post it. Not all courses taught in the department will have supplemental spaces on the Wiki.
To get full information on current and upcoming classes--as well as other events sponsored by the English Department--please visit the UCSB English Department homepage.
[edit] Community Standards
[edit] Levels of Access: User Groups
There are four levels of access to the wiki: Users, Editors, Bureaucrats and SysOps.
- Most undergraduates will be either Users or Editors: the first group can only read unrestricted pages (that is, pages which are not protected by special security--this comprises most pages on the EDKB Wiki), while the latter can read these pages and edit them, as well as create new pages.
- Faculty, staff, and graduate students are generally Bureaucrats, meaning that they can edit most pages and create new articles and categories.
- Sys-Ops are the masters of the wiki universe, as it were: not in the sense that the wiki cannot run without them, but rather insofar as they have near-total access to the wiki. This group is small, and includes the EDKB Wiki Development team.
N.B. The ins and outs of these user groups are a bit more complicated than the above introduction suggests, so if you feel the desire to read more about security minutiae, please visit Help: A Guide to User Groups. This page also contains information on how to restrict access to selected pages.
[edit] Be a Good Neighbor
This being a wiki, any member of the community with the requisite user permissions can edit any page. Such editorial work can be cosmetic (i.e. changing the "look" of a page) or more substantive (i.e. editing someone's introduction to Hamlet). The best rule of thumb is to treat others' pages as you would like your own to be handled: don't fiddle with them for no good reason. Correcting a typo or factual slip is perfectly fine; but does Professor X's syllabus from Fall 2002 really need to be re-arranged?
That said, always keep in mind that all contributions to the EDKB Wiki may be edited, altered, or deleted by other users. If you don't want anybody to touch your writing, don't put it here.
Vandalism, profanity, harassment, disrespect, and all such nastiness are, of course, not acceptable within the EDKB Wiki community. Any materials which violate this standard will be removed immediately, and the posting user's access to the Wiki may be terminated.
[edit] Copyrights
The two basic rules:
1.) If you wrote it yourself, feel free to add it to the wiki.
2.) If you are going to upload a file of any kind (e.g. the text of "Prufrock" or a .JPEG of Henry Adams' head) make sure that it comes from a public domain or other free source. Copyrighted material cannot be added to the wiki without explicit permission from its owner. Unauthorized material will be removed immediately.
Please visit Project: Copyrights for more detailed information on this topic.
