A wiki is a shared web space where students and instructors can collaborate on a linked web of pages using a WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor — and Blackboard 9 has that functionality built in!
Wikis can be available to an entire course or just a group of students, making it easier for them to collaborate on group projects online. You can view a participation summary that shows the number of words modified by each student and the number and percentage of page saves done by each student. Perhaps the most useful feature of all is the ability to compare one version with another to see a student’s contributions over time. Wikis can have one or multiple pages, and Blackboard allows the creation of multiple wikis — useful if you want each student to build his/her own “web” inside of Blackboard.
See “Blogs, Wikis, and Journals” on the IS Blackboard Resources page for specific information on setting up and maintaining your Blackboard wiki.
And please don’t forget to talk with your technology liaison for ideas on how to help your students take a more active part in their learning using wikis.