Scenario: A new automated staff information
system was recently purchased by a major corporation and needs to be
implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located
throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the
same location. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been
charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the
training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share
information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in
ongoing collaboration.
Possible
Solution: The wiki. Described by
Simonson et al (2012) as a space online that can be created and then edited by
a group of people, the wiki is an ideal solution. Staff members would be able to log on to a
specifically designed wiki and update required information. Images and files can be uploaded on a
wiki. A useful feature is that all of
the information that is edited is tracked and can be viewed by all members so
each can know who updated what and who made what changes. The administrator (in this case, this can be
the instructional designer) will be able to view participation and guide and
support the information that is uploaded if needed.
I have used a wiki myself in a previous online course and found it
to be very useful for a group project.
Collaboration was fairly simple in this asynchronous learning
environment. We had group members in 3
different countries and were able to produce a full instructional design
plan!
In this article, 5 Effective Wiki uses, Mader (2008) also gives
great examples of how you might use a wiki in the corporate world. I particularly liked the suggestion of a
company using a wiki to hold their policies.
It’s all about going green nowadays and storing data online is becoming
common practice. Having these documents
on a wiki allow for them to be updated and edited as needed, yet they are held
in one central location for all to see, versus papers lost in an employee’s
office somewhere.
As a future instructional designer, I appreciate the many uses of
the wiki and if you haven’t used one yet, it is worth it to try!
References:
Mader, S. (2008). 5 Effective Wiki Uses. Retrieved from: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/Effective-Wiki-Uses.aspx
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012).
Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education
(5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson
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