Help:Tutorial

Before creating or editing pages on this wiki, please review this Wiki editing tutorial. See also our General guidelines and Naming.

Getting Started

• Please download the Cheatsheet PDF in your own language, as it will make wiki editing much easier.
• There is also a "Reference Card" available online: Reference Card PNG.
• See also the online Wikipedia Editing Cheatsheet.

Flash Tutorials

You can view 2 tutorials on the ATiT server, which will teach you the basics of wiki editing and enhance your skills for the collaboration aspect of this project. Sound is included in these tutorials!

1. How to edit a wiki with chapters such as:
   • What is a Wiki?
   • How to make a user account
   • How to create a page
   • How to edit a page
   • How to add structure (including short section on tables)
2. How to add images

F.A.Q.: Wiki Editing Basics

1. How do I edit pages on this wiki?
   • Only registered users may edit this wiki. Select the "Log in / create account" link at the top right of any wiki page to request a user code - if you are judged to be an appropriate user (an expert in e-learning) then access is normally granted.
   • This wiki uses Mediawiki, a popular web-based wiki software application written in PHP, used by Wikipedia and many other well-known wikis worldwide. Generally speaking, you may edit pages just as you would edit Wikipedia pages and, when it doubt, consult Wikipedia on matters of good practice and style. This wiki does not (yet) use the latest version of MediaWiki software, so users with experience of some other wikis may find some favourite features missing.
   • See, for starters, the Wikipedia pages on How to edit or Editing.
2. Can I practice editing the wiki?
   • Definitely. Take your new wiki editing skills for a spin in the Sandbox.
3. How do I create a new page?
   • There are several ways to do this. First, please make sure the page is necessary and/or doesn’t already exist, via the Search function located at the top left of each page. If you are certain that a new entry is required, then click "create this page" where it appears in your empty search results. Start editing! There are various other ways to create new pages, all addressed in detail in the Wikipedia article on creating a new page. Please refer to the Templates page where relevant.
4. How do I link within the wiki?
   • "Wikilinks" look like this: [[Name University]], and direct a user to the page indicated within the double square brackets.
5. How do I link to an external URL?
   • Any URL typed directly into a wiki entry will automatically become a hyperlink. To turn wiki text into a link, try the following: [http://www.yourlinkhere.edu/ Text That Is Linked].
6. How do I link to subsections or subheaders?
   • Section linking looks like this: [[Virtual_campus#History_and_detail|History and detail]]. This links into the History and detail section of the Virtual_campus page.
7. How do I add media such as PDFs or Words to this wiki?
   • First upload files via the Upload file page, and then link to them as follows:
   • ! a media link: [[media:Swissuniversities.pdf|Swiss Universities PDF]] results in Swiss Universities PDF
   • Note: a full or "external" link such as [http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/Image:Swissuniversities.pdf Swiss Universities PDF] is deprecated as relative links (without the http://www.) limit the wiki's flexibility (for instance when the domain name changes) and these absolute links don't show up in the "linked here" section on each media file page.
   • Clearly indicate if the user is surfing to an external document type, e.g. a PDF, Microsoft Word file, etc.
8. How do I insert a table?
   • Option 1 for Word tables: if you have Word 2007 you can download an add-in or extension from the Microsoft website: download, install, (possibly re)start Word, open the Word document with the table in it, go to File > Save as. There under "Save as Type" (where you can choose the format and extension of your document) you choose MediaWiki (*.txt). A new document is then saved with the extension .txt which you then open (with Word, NotePad, ... ) and copy-paste the content in your wiki page. Always press "Preview" to see if everything is correct.
   • Option 2 for Excel tables: copy-paste your Excel table cells in the online converter at http://excel2wiki.net, then copy-paste the resulting wiki-formatted text in your wiki page and preview before saving to see if you need to amend something.
   • Option 3: copy-paste an existing table on this wiki and change content with your information or search for appropriate templates and formatting styles at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Tables and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Table, copy-paste a template there and start inserting. An example is pasted below, but espcially on the wikipedia link you can find examples on formatting tables and cells: borders, spacing, alignment of text, ...
   • Option 4: do it manually.

Header 1	Header 2, left aligned	Header 3
row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2	row 1, cell 3
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2	row 2, cell 3

F.A.Q.: Wiki Editing Guidelines

1. How do Wiki names work?
   • Please see the Naming section for more information.
2. What is a stub? How do I indicate that an entry is a stub?
   • A "stub" is an article containing only a few sentences of text, which is too short to provide full coverage of a subject, but not so short as to provide no useful information. Stubs are typically 2-10 sentences long, and are missing such basic criteria as: A) e-learning/LMS information; B) student numbers, and/or C) a programme URL. Often, they do not use the standard Programme template. To label something a stub, insert the text {{stub}} in the first line of a page - or {{V_Stub}}, TBD. The template text declaring the item a stub in need of expansion will automatically be inserted.
3. How do "redirect" pages work?
   • This is a mechanical explanation of how to redirect between pages on the Re.ViCa wiki. See the Naming page for more information about Re.ViCa naming conventions.
   • The wiki follows the principles set out in the Wikipedia redirect information page. There are times when it is desirable to redirect between wiki pages, and times when it is not. We recommend using the "redirect" instruction only where it very obviously benefits wiki functionality.
   • To redirect from one page to another, simply insert the text #REDIRECT [[Name of Page to Redirect To]] inside the page you wish to redirect from.
   • In cases where a single entity has several names, or where a single entry may be sought by users under common abbreviations or alternative punctuation schemes, we create "Redirect" pages to help users locate the correct entry. For example: a user searching for information about Edith Cowan University might input the search terms "Edith Cowan", "edith cowan university", "ECU", "ecu", or even "edith cowan". Ideally, any of these searches should bring the user to the primary Edith Cowan University page; and so we place the text #REDIRECT [[Edith Cowan University]] in entries at all five alternative locations, as follows:
     • Edith Cowan
     • edith cowan university
     • ECU
     • ecu
     • edith cowan
   • Each search will now direct users to the "main" Edith Cowan University entry, which resides at:
     • Edith Cowan University
   • Avoid adding Redirect pages in cases where entities happen to include common words, place names, etc. For example, it would not be appropriate to redirect users from "Sheffield" to "University of Sheffield", as they may reasonably be searching for the town of Sheffield, UK, or even for "Sheffield Hallam University", another university in Sheffield.
4. How do Abbreviations work in the wiki?
   • Programmes, initiatives and other entities commonly abbreviated by an acronym (or other significantly shortened form) are spelled out manually at Abbreviations.
   • At the moment, in cases where two entities share the same acronym, the institution with greatest rank/visibility/relevance to a European audience "seizes" the abbreviation. For information on disambiguation of abbreviations, see the What if two entities share the same abbreviation? section below.
   • When creating a redirect page from an abbreviation to a longer name, first make sure that no other entity is "using" the same acronym (see the What if two entities share the same abbreviation? section below).
5. What about "redirect" pages from abbreviated names to the full names of entities?
   • Typically we redirect from an institution’s acronym to its longer name, rather than vice versa. For example, SVU redirects to the Syrian Virtual University (not the other way around). However, in cases where the acronym is recognisable and the longer name is not, it is deemed acceptable for the main entry’s content to reside on the acronym page (e.g. for UKeU instead of UK eUniversities Worldwide Limited). See also the Naming page for more information.
   • When redirecting from an acronym/abbreviation to the full name of an entity, be sure to add the category Category:Abbreviations if relevant. This adds the abbreviation to a self-populating Abbreviation list. (As noted above, abbreviations are also defined out manually at Abbreviations.)
6. Tell me more about categorization (categorisation). What purpose does it serve? How do we implement it?
   • This wiki uses categorization in much the same way that Wikipedia does, and a detailed explanation is available on the the Wikipedia Category help pages. In essence, Categories are Tags which help link pages of a certain type together.
   • A full list of wiki categories may be reviewed at Special:Categories. Most categories address issues of either a) Region/Language; or b) Initiative Type.
   • To insert a category at the bottom of a wiki entry, type simply: [[Category:YourTerm]] at the bottom of a page, replacing "YourTerm" with the appropriate text. Several of these in sequence are acceptable, and will result in a running category list. All pages created by VISCED users should use Category VISCED.
   • Please be aware that the list of wiki categories has been developed after extensive consultation with project stakeholders, and as such, creating new categories is not encouraged without ample consultation with active project partners. A brief description of each category in use can be found at the top of each category page. Feel free to suggest new categories in any "Discussion" page where it seems appropriate.
   • Categories are pluralised, with the first word capitalised and the ones that follow in lowercase – e.g. "Universities" (not University), "Evolution of existing institutions", "German-speaking countries". Any term at all may be applied as a category, which means that if you introduce a spelling or punctuation error, you may inadvertently create a new category. When you create a new category it will appear in red instead of blue, and will be the only item in the category. If this typo is corrected, the new category will be automatically removed.
   • "Newly created institutions" are institutions created specifically for e-learning (and thus rarely came into existence before 1996). The e-learning arm of an established university or college is not a "Newly created institution."
   • Initiatives are categorized according to the countries in which they are headquartered.
   • Please add [[Category:Abbreviations]] to the bottom of redirect pages which redirect from an Abbreviation to the longer name of an entity. This adds the abbreviation to the longer list at [[Category:Abbreviations]].
   • Category pages are alphabetical lists which could give mistakes such as the Category: Experts page. Tony Bates would be listed under "T" if we don't specify the focus on his last name as in: [[Category: Experts|Bates, Tony]] but do be careful: do not put a space behind the "|" (pipe sign) as this would incorrectly create a new subcategory for space-categorised pages!
   • To link to a category page without putting the referring entry in the category, use a colon prefix as in [[:Category:Case studies]] which will become Category:Case studies.
7. What about disambiguation pages? What if two entities share the same name?
   • Occasionally two entities will compete for the same wiki namespace, e.g. in the case of the University of New England (Unites States) and University of New England (Australia). "Disambiguation" is the process of resolving the conflicts that occur in these cases.
   • The wiki follows the Wikipedia model in cases where disambiguation is required. As noted on that site (access date: 8 June 2009), Disambiguation is required whenever, for a given word or phrase on which a reader might use the "Go button", there is more than one Wikipedia article to which that word or phrase might be expected to lead. In this situation there must be a way for the reader to navigate quickly from the page that appears on hitting "Go" to any of the other possible desired articles.
   • To address this issue, the largest, best-known or most relevant entity typically "seizes" the main Re.ViCa name space. In this example the University of New England in Australia will occupy this space, while its American counterpart is then qualified as the University of New England (US) to differentiate it.
   • To document this type of disambiguation work, we create a "disambiguation page" according to a standardized naming convention - in this case University of New England (disambiguation). Finally, at the top of both University of New England entries we insert a reference to either the disambiguation page; the other entity (or entities) of the same name; or both.
   • Please use the Disambiguation template if needed.
8. What if two entities share the same abbreviation?
   • If two entities have the same abbreviation, e.g. in the case of the Asia International Open University (China) and Allama Iqbal Open University (Pakistan). The largest, best-known or most relevant entity typically "seizes" the redirect and above the similar pages (with full name) you then place the Template:SimilarName: {{SimilarName|Asia International Open University (AIOU) in Taiwan}} which will result in "Did you mean Asia International Open University (AIOU) in Taiwan?".

Other Tutorials and Templates

• WikiEducator tutorials
• Online Cheatsheet and Cheatsheet PDF
• Wikipedia Editing Guidelines
• Table templates (adding borders, colours, ...)
• How to change Excel tables to Wikiformatting, such as an easy converter from excel to wiki with copy-paste

See also:

1. View the MediaWiki's Help page
2. View our own Re.ViCa Editing guidelines

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