Collaborative working
Tools for collaborative working
Wiki
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When would I use this?
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When you want to:
- create structures of articles on subjects à la
Wikipedia
- build a knowledge base for a course, research
group or project
- create simple, flexible group-authored
Web pages
- increase student engagement using a safe
online wiki
- showcase your students' work online and to
have their peers read their work
- encourage any kind of collaborative work in teaching
and learning
- store committee agendas, minutes, papers
and comments in a shared area
- share technical notes
in a small group
When you want a:
- central place for your group to collaborate
- shared area
for research groups to put documents under discussion
etc
- shared
area for a project-related to do lists, minutes etc.
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When wouldn't I use this?
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- A wiki would not be a good place to store a large number
of files. The S: drive may be a better
solution.
- If I want to upload files larger than 10Mb.
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Top tip!
UCL staff and students can use it
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External people can view content but need to apply
for an account via the Services System if they want to add
it.
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Moodle
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When would I use this?
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When you want to:
- provide a wide range of online resources, communication
and activities for participants (who may be students or
staff)
- make existing materials (such as handbooks or lecture
notes in Word, lecture slides in PowerPoint, PDF, Excel,
graphs, HTML, images, audio, video) available in a range
of formats such as direct links to files, external links to
webpages, html pages, or books containing a number of chapters
within each book.
- make materials and activities available
to others (including non-UCL users) if you wish through guest
access
- allow one-to-one and one-to many communication between
participants and facilitators/tutors, in groups if appropriate
- allow tutors to contact all participants by email without
needing to maintain email lists
- allow participants to develop
simple group-authored web pages (wikis) within the framework
of a Moodle course
- showcase participants’ work online
and have their peers read and comment on their work
- allow participants to keep journals (blogs)
- allow participants
to develop glossaries
- allow online submission of work for
assessment (document upload, online quizzes)
- provide online
feedback on assessed work
- monitor participants’ engagement,
uptake and achievement
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When wouldn't I use this?
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- if you simply want to make available online resources
to anyone without any , with no need for communication, sharing,
collaboration or assessment, then a website might be a simpler
option
- if you want participants to work on collaborative documents
without needing the other facilities offered by Moodle then
a wiki might be more appropriate
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Top tip!
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Look at the Moodle
Features Demo course for ideas about
what is possible in Moodle
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Keep
file sizes under control – remember not all
users have unlimited or fast access to the internet
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Shared Data Area
(S: drive)
The Shared Data Area is a shared drive which allows a group
of people to share files
such as common Word documents that the whole office need to use or a database
file that is relevant to a number of people. It makes it easier to manage files,
rather than everyone having a separate copy on their local machine.
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When would I use this?
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- To share documents with colleagues in the same department/faculty as you.
- If you want to restrict access to documents to only certain individuals within a department/faculty.
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When wouldn't I use this?
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- The S: drive is only available to UCL Staff. You therefore
would not use this method to share files with students
or external contacts. For sharing with students, Moodle may
be a better option. For external users, either the Wiki or
perhaps Drop box may better suit your
needs.
- You can only use this tool to share files with colleagues
in the same section as you e.g. Library Services. You would
not use this method to share files with colleagues in a different
department or faculty to the one you are in.
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Top tip!
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Use Track Changes. It's an option in Microsoft Word which
can be used to keep track of any changes you or others make
to a documents. For example, Jane may create a document, and
put it on the S: drive for others to comment. John then edits
the document with Track Changes switched on and saves it back
to the S: drive. When Jane re-opens the document, she will
see the original text plus changes that John has made to it.
You can learn how to use Track Changes in Word by doing through
the documentation for MS Word. See the Documents
page for more details.
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Make documents Read Only. Documents can be accidentally modified
or deleted! If you would like people to view a document but
not modify it, you can restrict it by making the file Read
Only. The documentation for MS Word will explain how to do
this. See the Documents
page for more details.
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Tools for sharing/exchanging files
FTP
FTP allows you to transfer files to and from a remote server but please note that this is NOT A SECURE WAY TO TRANSFER FILES.
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When would I use this?
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- If you want to
access your files held on the UCL file servers (Central Windows Filestore)
from outside the college, be it from home or another institution.
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When wouldn't I use this?
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- You would not use FTP as a means of working collaboratively
with others. It useful for uploading and downloading data from
your own area on the Central Windows Filestore, which only
you have access to.
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Top tip!
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The easiest way to FTP is using a web browser.
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Web pages
Web pages gives you the flexibility to publishing documents
to a remote web server for a number of different people to access
and download.
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When would I use this?
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- If you want to share files with a number of different people.
- If
some of the people you want to share files with are non-UCL
members
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When wouldn't I use this?
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You would not use web pages as a means of working collaboratively
with others.
It's great for disseminating lots of information,
but not so good for working
interactively.
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Top tip!
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You can edit web pages via Dreamweaver or the Content Management
System.
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You can restrict access to your web pages so that only UCL
members can access the page. Or you can even restrict access
to only certain individuals within UCL.
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UCL Drop box
Drop box is a tool which replaces the need to send an attachment
via email, or even faxing or mailing a document. You simply upload
a file from your computer to a central location, and the recipient(s)
are simultaneously notified by email that you wish to share a
file with them.
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When would I use this?
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- Anytime you want to share a file by sending an attachment!
It's particularly useful for sending large files, which if
sent by email, takes up space on the recipients accounts and
can potentially
affect general performance of central systems.
- You can also use Drop
box for sending and receiving files to and from external contacts.
- It's
also useful if students have assignments to send you. Rather
than receive dozens of assignments in your Inbox and in turn
use up your allocated email allowance, you can log in to
Drop box and save the files to your N: drive on the central
system.
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When wouldn't I use this?
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- Drop box is useful in many different ways. You might choose
not to use Drop box however as a long-term means of storage
as files are only held on the system for 14 days.
- You wouldn't use Drop box when changes to a master document
need to be seen and tracked by more than one person.
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Top tip!
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When sending large files you need to bear in mind the following:
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1. The larger the file the longer it will take to drop off
the file.
2. Does the recipient have enough space to receive the file? If you are
sending
a large file, ensure that the recipient will have sufficient disk space to to
download it either on their hard drive or USB key.
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Page last modified on 04 mar 13 11:25
