Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

To insert a table in a wiki 
Type an open bracket frst. 
Then type the “pipe” symbol 
– |. Then add a dash for a 
row and add a pipe for each 
column. Then add a close 
bracket to end the table 

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102 Studying online 
elements of advice on how to stick to the guidelines for using the 
wiki (Wikipedia, 2021). Tat’s in addition to a page full of individ-
ual policies and a further page of various guidelines. Using a wiki 
requires consideration for others in a more extensive way than 
a traditional forum or discussion group. Tis is because you will 
be directly editing and changing someone else’s work, rather than 
just commenting upon it in a forum setting. 
QUICK TIP: If your course uses wikis, make sure you understand 
how to use the software and the principles of usage. Otherwise, 
you could easily upset people. 
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PUBLIC DISCUSSION FORUMS 
In addition to the forums and discussion groups provided by the 
university and your fellow students, there will inevitably be subject-
based forums available across the Internet. For example, for one 
of the subjects that I teach – consumer behaviour – there are 
more than 140 discussion groups just on LinkedIn that students 
could join. Tere will, of course, be many more on other social 
networks as well as on a variety of websites. Tere will be no 
shortage of forums you could join for each of the subjects you 
are studying. 
However, public discussion forums can present students with sev-
eral difculties, quite apart from the potential for distraction. Te 
frst problem is that in many instances these forums and discus-
sion groups will not be providing information that is verifed or 
that is based on evidence. Tey can often be full of opinions mas-
querading as fact. In the academic forums on your module web-
sites, your lecturers will be taking care to present information that 
is evidence-based or which can be verifed using reliable sourc-
es. In external discussion forums, you may be presented with in-
formation that sounds logical but is factually incorrect. Another 

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