Wednesday, February 23, 2011

HotPotato: create your own quizzes

Hot Potatoes is a free software whereby you can create your own quizzes in forms of 
  • multiple-choice,
  • short-answer, 
  • jumbled-sentence, 
  • crossword, 
  • matching/ordering 
  • gap-filling. 


You can save the quiz in your computer or put it in the internet. 
click the picture to the website and download the software in your computer 


FIVE types of quizzes

  • JQUIZ: four models of you to choose: multiple choice questions; shot-answer questions, hybrid question and multi-select questions. Teachers can add feedback as well as a hint in JQUIZ.
  • JCLOZE: gap filling exercise with the hint 
  • JMATCH: matching exercise
  • JMIX: jumble words/ letters in a sentence/word. 
  • JCROSS: for creating the crosswords games

My Matching Quiz

Step 1: choose JMatch






Step2:    Add a title and put the content in the box respectively on the right and left. 
  

Step3:    Go to file---create the webpage and choose a format to be saved.  

Standard format 



Drag/drop format

  • you need an account to save the quiz online, but it is very easy. 
  • you can also edit your quiz, insert picture, link, HTML table and  add a reading text into the quiz, then create a zip package or just save it in computer or online as you like. 


Value and Usage
For teachers: 
great tool to supplement the teaching materials by making their own quizzes in different types; these quizzes can be used in the classroom as a quick test which can give students immediately feedback(with hint or correction); moreover, teachers can create the quiz for per-task activity. After class, it can be used as the assessment of students' outcome. 


For students:
JQuiz questions can be created by a group of students and given to another group to answer some specific questions. During the group work, the interaction and communication does not only limit in your own group, but also between you and others in the class. Sometimes students focus too much on discussing the topic that belong to their team in order to construct a good work as the group outcome. However, they pay little attention to other group's presentation and outcome so that what they have learnt in the class is so limited. Thus, we can ask each group to make a small quiz on their topic and sent it to other groups.It is way to evaluate their own work as well as to motivate other students in the class engaged in their presentation. 


Suggestion: don't rely on the tool too much
Quiz should be designed in the task or activity for students to construct the knowledge. It is arguable whether quizzes in the class fit the theory of constructivism or  behaviorism. However, it is up to the teacher. Personally speaking, I cannot doubt  that through quizzes, students can arouse their memories on the specific knowledge and gradually remember it in mind. It is a kind of drills. Nevertheless, quizzes actually can also be employed into the task-design whereby students can construct their knowledge instead of remember the knowledge. The difference between the former and latter is that you regarding the quiz as a activity in a task or a test /assessment. Moreover, teachers need to be cautious to use this tool to design a test/assessment by themselves provided they have knowledge on Testing and Assessment.


Limitation:

  • Old-fashioned.
  • time-consuming to design a quiz

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