Course

Tools

The Freie Universität provides the centralized wiki system for FU employees: Wikis of the Freie Universität Berlin. The students of the master program chose a user wiki as platform in order to set up their EnergyWiki as they were able to independently register and manage it via their FU accounts. The decision for a wiki was based on the fact that, within the framework of knowledge management, it is a perfect solution to dealing with manifold tasks such as documentation, organization and the analysis of knowledge. In addition, a wiki allows for a transfer of experiences made and competencies gained as well as the communicative exchange within the learning group - as should be the goal of the EnergyWiki.   

Realization

Setting up the EnergyWiki

The EnergyWiki was set up by the students in the academic year 2011/12 during their participation in the master's program. They would like to create a personal learning environment for their informal learning purposes and chose a wiki platform for this. The contents are organized in such a manner that for every term or topic a separate wiki page was created within which the most important terms and concepts from the legal energy sector are formulated by the students in their own words. The contents are displayed in alphabetical order within the menu and lead to a subpage with the texts written by the students. Via links their own content can be connected to online resources on other websites.   

Illustration 1: Glossary entry within the EnergyWiki 

Further development of the EnergyWiki 

For subsequent master students of the program the EnergyWiki does not just function as a collaboration platform but also as a readily available 24/7 reference resource which can be easily accessed. Through this the students can use the wealth of already created information and knowledge collected on the topic of energy law. The supervisors and lecturers also use the wiki as a medium to keep collecting and presenting knowledge in a systematic manner. Since the summer semester of 2014 the EnergyWiki is used by the supervisors to lead the students through the challenging modules of energy law. The supervisors set up separate pages for individual topics (e.g. the promotion and funding of renewable energy sources). On this page the students are supposed to portray the respective conditions and regulations in their home country (e.g. promoting renewable energy in Peru, in Spain etc.). Through this they reflect the laws of their home countries using a certain perspective and, at the same time, a comprehensive and mutually written text is created in which there is not only an introduction to promotion and funding systematics worldwide but also information made available on comparative legal aspects and differences. The content-related maintenance of the wiki is undertaken by the supervisors of the MBL-FU program. Newly created articles are constantly being checked and edited by the supervisors. This ensures that the content of the articles is correct and that the passive usability is thereby increased.     

Experiences made by the lecturer

After the students successfully completed the set-up phase of the EnergyWiki of the further education master's program, the question was posed as to how the content could be used in the future. The supervisors of the master's program decided to maintain and update the EnergyWiki as an additional textual resource to the formal offers made within the framework of the master's study course. It is now being continuously developed on a step-by-step basis together with the students.  

Further information

• EnergyWiki
• Master of Business, Competition and Regulatory Law

Support offered by CeDiS

• Consulting services for the implementation of digital solutions in teaching: The Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) has extensive experience of many years when it comes to the implementation of digital media and systems within the fields of teaching, learning and research. We offer a wide variety of consulting services on the implementation of these tools and systems within the entire academic scope and especially at Freie Universität Berlin. 
• Training courses and workshops: For lecturers at Freie Universität Berlin (professors, employees, tutors) as well as lecturers of other universities CeDiS offers training courses and workshops on the topic of teaching and learning with digital media. These course enable participants to implement online elements within their own sphere of teaching.
• The Executive Board of the Freie Universität supports e-learning initiatives: With the e-learning funding program financial resources are provided to lecturers that enrich and improve their courses quality-wise by implementing technological and media-related support. All of the academic staff teaching, the lecturers or even the institutions of the Freie Universität - without the Charité-Universitätsmedizin - can be supported within this program.