wsuwiki:Course Pagelist How-To
From wsuwiki
Course Pagelists are a feature of WSU Wiki that makes it easy to relate pages in the wiki to your courses. Like putting an item on reserve in the library, or a playlist in WinAmp or iTunes, a pagelist pulls together pages that relate to a common theme.
Pagelists are made with WSU Wiki's "Categories". By following a few simple rules, you can help make a Course pagelist for your courses that's helpful and interesting.
Contents |
How to Find a Course Pagelist
See the List of Course Pagelists. Look for the Academic Field (e.g., ECON) and course number (e.g., 102) for your course. In some cases, there may be a general pagelist for the course, and another for your section or instructor. Note the name carefully. You will need to know exactly how to spell it when adding other pages to the Course Pagelist.
Click on the pagelist name to see a list of the pages that have been added so far.
How to Add a Page to a Course Pagelist
You can add any page in WSU Wiki to a pagelist. If you find a page that you think belongs on your course pagelist, click on the "edit" button on the top of the page. WSU Wiki will display the "wikitext" version of the page, which you can change. Simply add this to the top of the wikitext:
- [[Category:BSKT_101]]
(e.g., for Basket Weaving 101).
This odd-looking construct is called a "category tag". The name after "Category:" is the name of your course pagelist exactly as spelled on the Course Pagelist list, wiith one exception: where you see spaces in the name on the pagelist list, you must use underscore characters ("_") when typing the category tag. So if the name of the list is
- PHYS 107 Jones
your tag would be
- [[Category:PHYS_107_Jones]]
Then be sure to click the "Save page" button below the wikitext to save your work. Now a link to the page on which you put the Category tag will be displayed as part of the course pagelist, and a link to the course pagelist will be displayed at the bottom of the page!
Creating a New Course Pagelist
If your course does not yet have a pagelist, you can create one simply by adding a category tag for your course to any page you think is relevant. (Can't find something relevant? Create it!)
WSU naming conventions
You will need to follow the WSU naming conventions:
- Spell the Academic Field abbreviation just as the Registrar does (e.g., "ENGL" not "ENG" or "English"). If the official abbbreviation has a space, use an underscore instead (e.g., "A_S" for Animal Science)." If the official typography has an ampersand (&), omit it. Creating pages with the ampersand in their name causes a display anomoly.
- Follow the Academic Field Abbreviation with a underscore and the course number (e.g., "CHEM_220".
- To make a list that's more specific, you may add section information or the instructor's name to the pagelist name.
- section information: follow the course number with an underscore, the two-digit section number, and the campus abbreviation (e.g., "ENGL_102_03_PUL").
- Instructor's name: follow the course number with an underscore and the instructor's last name (e.g., "A_S_302_Smith").
Be sure to click the "Save Page" button after adding a category tag to the wikitext.
Just adding a category tag to a page is enough to begin a new pagelist, but it won't add the pagelist to the List of CoursePagelist(s). To do that, you need to:
- Find the the pagelist link (labelled "Category") at the bottom of the page you just edited, and click on it. You will see a new page to edit, with the name of your course pagelist. Add the following tag to the wikitext:
- [[Category:CoursePagelist]] (note capitalization)
Now your course pagelist will appear with all the others on the CoursePagelist list.
Creating a Page for a Course
If you can't find a page or category for your course, create it. You might start a page for the course itself, or you might make a page on a specific topic in the course. If you are making a course page, see the WSU Naming Conventions to make your page easy for others to find. You might post your lecture notes, or you might make the page into Frequently Asked Questions, and invite your classmates and instructor to add and answer questions.
Using the Wiki Outline Feature
When creating a wiki page, you can add some simple markup to cause an outline and table of contents to be created. This could help you organize lots of lecture notes, etc. on the page.
Here is an example of what you would type:
==FAQ== Main heading for the Frequently Asked Questions
;The FAQ Question: The answer Using semicolon (;) and colon (:) will format Q & A neatly.
==Lecture Notes== Another main heading, has 2 equals (=) signs
===Wed Aug 31 Notes=== A second level heading, has 3 equals signs
the notes go here
===Fri Sept 2 Notes===
the notes go here
repeat for each lecture
Adding Class Pages to Interest Groups
Don't overlook putting the class on your User page as an interest group (after all, its a group and you are interested in passing the class).