2013 Annual NACADA Conference Reflection: Using Wikis As A Training Tool by Elizabeth Archuleta

I'm a fan of technology, and I love to learn about new apps or software that will help me at home or at work. Based on this interest, I attended several technology sessions at NACADA. At one session, Brandeis University advisors shared their experience using wikis as an academic advising tool in "More Than a Training Manual: Using Wikis to Get Everyone on the Same Page." 

Attendees were given a chronological view of their processes in setting up a wiki training manual, their reasons for starting one, the pros and cons of going paperless, the skills/resources they needed to start, the ins and outs of launching and running their wiki, and the evolution of their own wiki training manual. The biggest reason for creating a wiki training manual is that it becomes a tool for training new advisors. An already established training manual becomes invaluable to new advisors. Even after new advisor training takes place, there will inevitably be procedural and policy changes that take place, unique situations that arise, and questions about where to locate needed information. A wiki becomes a clearinghouse for information that can easily be updated by anyone given access to administrative functions.

A wiki is one of three places where advisors could store training and informational materials, and the panelists listed the pros and cons for each. These include a paper training manual, a manual placed on the university server, and one that resides on a wiki. Since information is constantly changing, paper training manuals quickly become obsolete, they don't allow linking to information on a university's website, and information can be hard to find depending on how the person who created the manual arranges things. One person's project can quickly become a new advisor's nightmare. Plus, some information isn't worth updating constantly, so it becomes burdensome. Even with all of these pluses, some people still prefer paper. 

Placing a training manual on a university server presents similar challenges. The biggest one is that it is internet dependent, meaning one could have difficulty accessing the server off campus. Other challenges include information that is hard to search, archived information that typically sits alongside new information and creates confusion, and looking at information that isn't contextualized. According to the panelists, a wiki addresses all of these challenges, because it is online, off of the campus server, free, and searchable. And because it is designed for group input, it is dynamic. In spite of multiuser access, privacy can be maintained, because administrators control who has access to the wiki. Assigned administrators can edit, write, and save material on the site, constantly keeping things updated. However, this means that a wiki requires everyone to be involved.  

All of the pros on using a wiki as a training manual got my attention, and, in the future, I plan on creating a wiki that contains all the information I need in one place.