9 Hot Potatoes - University of Manchesterblogging2.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/EDEC/wp... · “The...

Personal ICTSkills 9

UsingHot Potatoes

Alan JervisTorben Steeg

School of EducationThe University of Manchester

Sixth EditionNovember 2006

TM

Personal ICT Skills © 2006

© 2006 Alan Jervis and Torben Steeg - The University of Manchester School of Education

© 2006 The University of Manchester

All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced in

whole or in part without the written permission of the School of

Education, The University of Manchester.

All of the booklets in this series may be downloaded from:

http://www.learn2teach.org.uk


© 2006 Alan Jervis and Torben Steeg - The University of Manchester School of Education

This series of booklets is intended to support you in acquiring and developing the ICT skills which

are needed for your course and for the QTS Skills Test. It concentrates on ‘personal competence’ -

the individual ICT skills which professionals need for their personal use. It contains reference material,

additional information, and practice exercises.

This Series consists of:

Book 1 is a ‘getting started guide’ which covers the basic use of a computer (the ‘operating system’)

plus sections on using e-mail and the World-Wide Web.

Book 2 covers the use of word processors, particularly Microsoft ‘Word’.

Book 3 covers the use of graphics and images.

Book 4 covers the use of desk-top publishing, particularly ‘Microsoft ‘Publisher’.

Book 5 covers the use of spreadsheets, particularly Microsoft ‘Excel’.

Book 6 covers the use of databases, particularly Microsoft ‘Access’.

Book 7 covers the use of presentation graphics, particularly Microsoft ‘PowerPoint’.

Book 8 covers writing Web pages.

Book 9 covers the use of the ‘Hot Potatoes’ test and quiz generating package.

A number of symbols are used at various points:

marks information which you need to be careful about; it may also indicate something to

check if you haven’t read the instructions and things seem to have gone wrong!

marks a link or reference to some other part of this book or booklet in the series;

marks more advanced information which you may not need at once;

marks features of an application which are not covered in this book: you should ask a member

of staff about them, or read the manual or on-line help system if you need to use them.

This book is written and produced within the School of Education. We have tried to make it as

comprehensible, complete, logical, helpful and encouraging as we can. If you have any comments or

suggestions for its improvement, we will be pleased to receive them for incorporation into future

editions.

Alan Jervis Torben Steeg

[email protected] [email protected]

READ.ME (Introduction)

1

�


3© 2006 Alan Jervis and Torben Steeg - The University of Manchester School of Education

Book 9Hot Potatoes

Hot PotatoesHOT POTATOES is a suite of six programs for creating interactive

educational exercises for placing on web pages.

The suite is freely downloadable from

http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

The programs are:

JQuiz multiple-choice, true-false, text-entry or short-answer

quizzes

JCloze gap-fill exercises

JCross crosswords

JMix jumbled-sentence exercises

JMatch matching and ordering exercises

Masher a tool for managing sites containing many Hot Potatoes

exercises

The exercises are created using JavaScript and HTML, but you don’t

need to know JavaScript or HTML in order to use them; you simply

enter the data (questions, answers etc.) and the programs will cre-

ate the underlying code for the web pages automatically.

These notes are based on version 6 of the suite. You should note

that the output from version 6 will work only in Internet Explorer

6+, Mozilla 1.2+ and Netscape 7+.

“The HOT POTATOES suite is distributed as shareware. If you are anon-profit-making state-funded educational institution, and you postall materials made with Hot Potatoes on a public Web site whereeveryone can use them freely, then you may use Hot Potatoes freeof charge.

You will need to buy a commercial licence if you are not in compli-ance with these conditions. Information on commercial licensing isavailable at:

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/hotpot/licence.htm

Copyright laws apply to both commercial and freeware software,and the copyright holder retains all rights. You may distribute HOTPOTATOES to other users free of charge, PROVIDING THAT YOUPASS ON THE WHOLE SUITE IN ITS ORIGINAL ARCHIVE FORM,DO NOT ADD OR REMOVE ANY FILES FROM THE ARCHIVE,AND DO NOT MAKE ANY CHARGE FOR IT, AND THAT YOUOBTAIN THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OFVICTORIA AND HALF-BAKED SOFTWARE FIRST. We do not

usually give permission for distribution online or on CD-ROM.”

Introduction

Licence for use

�The files created by the suite

can be automatically uploaded to

the www.hotpotatoes.net hosting

service.

This service is not free; but you can

create a demo account to test out

the features. If you want your pages

to remain on the server for more

than a couple of days, you will have

to purchase an account.

This account is not related to li-

censing for Hot Potatoes.

4 Personal ICT Skills © 2006

Book 9 Hot Potatoes

Starting

�If you have installed Hot Po-

tatoes yourself, you will need to

register the programs in order to

unlock all the features of the suite.

You can register directly from the

home page at:

http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/

Just click on "Register". You will get

your code instantly (by email), and

go into the database of users.

To register, start one of the pota-

toes, click on "Register" on the Help

menu, and enter your user name

and key.

When Hot Potatoes is started a window opens providing direct

access to the five programs that create exercises and The Masher.

Within the window the mouse pointer changes to a hand holding a

potato and as it passes over the various options they are high-

lighted (note that the highlighting is not evident in this grey-scaled

image):

A full tutorial accompanies the suite. This is available from the Help

menu of the main window and runs in a browser.

The notes on the following pages are intended to get you started

with each element of the suite; you will need to spend some time

exploring and working with each program to discover its full capa-

bilities.


Book 9Hot Potatoes

JQuizJQuiz is used to create four different types of question: multiple-

choice, short-answer, hybrid (a short-answer question that turns

into a multiple-choice question after several attempts), and multi-

select (in which the user has to choose several of a set of options,

then check the choices).

In multiple-choice questions, the user chooses an answer by click-

ing on a button. If the answer is correct, the button caption will

change to a smiley face :-), and if it's wrong, it will change to an X

(you can configure these bits of text). In either case, the user will

see feedback specific to that answer, explaining why it's right or

wrong. If the answer is wrong, the user can continue choosing an-

swers until a correct answer is selected. The score for each ques-

tion is based on the number of tries taken to get a correct answer.

Once a correct answer is chosen, the scoring is "frozen", but the

user can still click on buttons to see the feedback for other answers

without penalty.

In short-answer questions, the user has to type the answer into a

text box on the page, and press a Check button to see if it is

correct. The page will try to match the user's answer to a list of

correct or incorrect answers you have defined. If a match is found,

the feedback for that answer will be shown. If not, then the page will

try to find the nearest match among the specified correct answers,

and signal to the user which parts of their answer are right and

which parts are wrong. The score for each question is based on the

number of attempts the user makes before getting a correct an-

swer. You can include a Hint button, which will give the user one

letter of the answer; using hints incurs a score penalty.

A hybrid question is a combination of a multiple-choice question

and a short-answer question. Here the user is first presented with a

text box and asked to type the answer. If the user fails to get the

answer right after a specified number of tries (which you can choose),

the question changes to a multiple-choice question to make it easier.

When you are creating a hybrid question, you'll see an extra checkbox

on the right: Include in MC options. Tick this box for any an-

swer you want to appear as part of the multiple-choice answers in

the second phase of the question. For example, your short-answer

question may include four predicted correct answers which would

be acceptable, but you probably only want to include one of them

as a multiple-choice option.

A multi-select question asks the student to select several of a

specific set of items. The idea here is that the student must select all

the correct items, and not select any wrong items. This might take

the format "Which of the following are nouns?", followed by a list of

words. The student must check all the nouns, but not check any

answers which are not nouns, then press a Check button. If the

answer is not completely correct, the student will see a readout of

the number of correct choices, and one piece of feedback.


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

When you first run JQuiz you may be asked whether you want to

start in Beginner or Advanced mode; select Beginner for now.

If you are not asked the ques-

tion you can ensure that you are

in Beginner mode by selecting

Mode from the Options menu.

JQuiz opens straight into its main working window:

To create questions you simply type into the text boxes.

Start by giving your quiz a title (see image above).

Next, for each question, write in the question, the possible an-

swers and the feedback to be given for each answer. You need at

least two possible answers; if you don’t use C and D they will be

ignored. You can have as many answers as you wish.

Finally, indicate which answer is correct.

Select the type of question here

Write your quiz title here

Write your question here

Click here for next question

Click here for further answers

Setting up a quiz


Book 9Hot Potatoes

The only visible difference when you select a different question

types is in the Settings Column.

The options for Multiple-choice are shown above and are

identical for Short-Answer. The other options are shown below:

�You can mix question types

within the same quiz. That is, you

can, say, have a mixture of multi-

ple choice and short answer ques-

tions within the same quiz.

Simply select the question type

you want for each question.

The Manage Ques-

tions menu provides a

number of useful tools

including the deletion

of questions and rearrangement of

their order.

You can also shuffle answers within

a question.


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

There are three routes to more sophisticated question design.

The INSERT menu allows you to add pictures and a range of

HTML objects to your questions.

Configure Output under the Options Menu includes options

such as a question timer.

The Advanced mode allows you to control the weightings given

to each question and each answer within the question.

When you have completed the setting up of your quiz you can

publish it as a web page.

Click the Export to a v6web page icon. This opens a standard

Save dialogue asking you where you wish to save the HTML file.

After clicking Save you will be offered some options:

To take these in reverse order, Nothing does literally that; it

saves the fie and then returns you to JQuiz to continue working.

The Upload option requires you first to have set up an account

with the www.hotpotatoes.net website. If you have no other

way to publish your Hot Potatoes files, this is an effective way to

do so. See the website for details of how to go about this.

Finally, View the exercise in my Browser does exactly what

it says and the result will be similar to that shown opposite.

Publishing a quiz

Some moreadvanced

question options


Book 9Hot Potatoes

This web page can be included on your own website or used on a

local network or individual computer by simply opening the file

within a modern browser.

Clicking an answer brings up a feedback pop-up; on the right is

shown the feedback for a correct answer selected the first time -

hence a score of 100%. With four possible responses (as above)

the scoring is as follows:

Correct first time 100%

Correct second time 66%

Correct third time 33%

Correct fourth time 0%

Full control over the appearance of the web page created by

JQuiz is available through Configure Output under the Op-

tions Menu. The font used can also be chosen through this

menu.


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

A cloze procedure is a "fill-in-the-blanks" activity where the

learner uses clues from the context to supply words that have

been deliberately removed from the text. Thus a cloze procedure

is a test of reading comprehension. Cloze is also known as a ‘fill

in the blanks’ activity.

JCloze lets you easily prepare Cloze activities as web pages. The

main working window is shown below:

Text for clozing can either typed straight into the main area of

the window or pasted in from elsewhere. There is a spell checking

facility.

The Title box provides the title for the whole web page.

Once there is text in the box, gaps can be created either individu-

ally, by selecting a word or phrase and then the Gap button, or

by using the Auto-gap button which places a gap every nth word.

‘Gapped’ words remain visible but highlighted in this window.

Gaps can be removed by clicking within some gapped text and

then clicking the Delete Gap button.

All gaps can be removed with the Clear Gaps button.

JCloze


Book 9Hot Potatoes

When a highlighted word is gapped a dialogue opens allowing

clues and alternative acceptable words to be provided.

This dialogue can be opened at any time for any gap by clicking in

the gap and then on the Show Words button.

A completed Cloze exercise is shown below.

Here every 6th word has been gapped; this has resulted in some

unfortunate choices for gaps including a date and proper names.

Using the Font option the Comic Sans font has been chosen

which effects not only the above view of the exercise but also the

resulting web page shown overleaf.


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

You can see that on the web page the length of each hidden

word has been obscured by the use of a minimum standard size

box to write into.

Clicking a ‘?’ button reveals the hint provided in the ‘alternative

words’ dialogue (see previous page).

At the foot of the page are the Check and Hint buttons re-

ferred to in the page introduction.


Book 9Hot Potatoes

As with JQuiz it is possible to add pictures and a range of HTML

objects to your questions, to include a question timer and to

control the style of the created web page.

Within the configuration dialogue there are some further op-

tions including:

Use dropdown list instead of textbox in output. If you

choose this, the following will happen:

1. Instead of text boxes, each gap will show as a dropdown list,

consisting of a list of all the gapped words in the exercise.

2. The hint button will not be shown (because there's no need

for hints if the words are all shown in the list).

Include word list with text. This allows you to include a list

of the gapped words from the text, mixed up, in a box at the top

of the page, to make the exercise a little easier.

Some moreadvanced cloze

options


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

JCross allows you to create web based crosswords as an assess-

ment tool.

JCross opens showing a 20 by 20 blank grid:

If you want a larger grid you can change the grid size through the

Manage Grid menu. If you only use a part of the grid the

unused rows and columns will be discarded when the web page is

created.

There are two ways to establish a grid of words; you can either

add them to the grid yourself or give JCross a list of words to fit

into a grid.

If you enter the words directly onto the grid note that you have

to move to a new square, using the arrow keys, before typing

each letter. The clues are added subsequently through the Add

Clues button.

JCross

�If you haven’t registered Hot

Potatoes, you will be restricted to

an 8 by 8 grid.


Book 9Hot Potatoes

Alternatively, using the Automatic Grid Maker from the

Manage Grid menu, you can provide JCross with a list of

answers and clues from which it will then attempt to make a grid.

The answers are separated from the clues by a pair of colons.

Clicking Make the grid creates a grid of the provided words;

this is a dynamic process that, for a complex grid, can be ob-

served in process. It can also be stopped by clicking the Stop

now button.

A resulting web page is shown overleaf.

Creating the grid and clues by hand


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

As with the other Hot Potatoes applications, it is possible to add

pictures and HTML links to your questions, to include a question

timer and to control the style of the created web page.

Some moreadvancedcrossword

options


Book 9Hot Potatoes

JMix jumbles up a provided sentence to create an exercise where

the user is asked to recreate the sentence.

The main window provides space for the sentence showing the

sentence segments and alternate sentences that are legitimate.

Note in the above that punctuation marks are included as sepa-

rate segments of the jumbled sentence.

You can also break up one word into individual letters, to create a

mixed-up word puzzle.

As with the other Hot Potatoes applications, it is possible to add

pictures and HTML links to your sentence, to include a question

timer and to control the style of the created web page. One use

of pictures in this application would be to create a drag-and-drop

output page which uses pictures instead of words.

JMix offers two output possibilities; one where the sentence is

constructed by clicking on the segments in the correct order and

one where it is constructed by clicking and dragging the seg-

ments.

The web pages resulting from the window above are shown

overleaf.

JMix

�It is not possible for the pro-

gram to tell whether a single quo-

tation mark ( ' ) is being used as

an apostrophe or as a quotation

marker. The single quotation is

therefore always treated as an

apostrophe; if you want to use quo-

tation marks, use the double quo-

tation ( " ).

Angle brackets ( < and > ) should

be avoided as they cause confu-

sion with HTML tags.


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

Click the words in thecorrect order to create

the sentence

Drag the words into thecorrect order to create

the sentence


Book 9Hot Potatoes

JMatch allows you to create matching and ordering exercises.

In the main window there are two columns; the left hand one

contains items that will remain in the same order on the final web

page, the right hand column contains items matching items that

will be jumbled in the final web page. The ‘Fix’ column allows you

to prevent a pair of items from being jumbled.

In this example the left hand column contains links to images of

the items named in the right hand column (though, as with the

other applications in the suite, ordinary text is perfectly accept-

able here).

As with JMix, JMatch offers two output possibilities; one where

the match options are chosen from a drop down list and one

where they are dragged into the correct position. In the first of

these pictures are permitted only in the left hand column (since

they can’t appear in a drop down textual list). In the drag-and-

drop approach pictures can be placed in the right hand column as

well, or instead.

The Default item at the foot of the right hand column is the

text that is visible in the drop down list before a choice has been

made.

The web pages resulting from the window above are shown

overleaf.

JMatch

�As you can see in the image

above, the links to the pictures con-

sist of HTML. Do not be alarmed.

All you need to do is click Insert

> Picture > Picture from

Local File and navigate to the

image you want to use. JMatch then

creates this code.

In a similar way it is possible to

insert images from web pages.


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

Select items from adrop down list to match

the item

drag answers into placeto match the item


Book 9Hot Potatoes

The Masher is a tool for automatically compiling batches of Hot

Potatoes exercises into units.

You might have five Hot Potatoes exercises that form a single unit

of materials. You want to build HTML files from all the exercises,

with the same colours and appearance settings; you also want to

link the exercises together using the navigation buttons, and

create an index file for the unit. The Masher will do that for you.

This is what you do:

1. Add the Hot Potatoes files you want to include in the unit into

the main screen Files box. Each time you add a file you will see

a dialogue box in which you can set the output (*.htm) file

name and choose either standard or drag-and-drop web pages.

2. The arrow buttons on the right allow you to order sequence

of exercises.

3. Specify the Output folder for your unit. If you leave this blank,

the program will use the folder in which the first page or exer-

cise is located.

4. Set the appropriate appearance options on the Appearance

tab.

The MasherTo make use of the masher

you need to have some

competence and confidence

in web page creation.

See Chapter 11.


Book 9 Hot Potatoes

5. Select the Navigation buttons and their captions on the But-

tons tab.

6. On the Index tab, set a title for the index page.

7. Click on Build unit.

The Masher processes each file in turn, by launching the appro-

priate Hot Potato, loading the file into it, setting the configura-

tion data, and compiling the Web page.

When all the Web pages are compiled, the program creates an

index page for the entire unit. You can then view the index

page, and test the exercises.

The Masher can also be used to upload files to a

hotpotatoes.net account.

Note that without a (purchased) licence for The Masher (which is

distinct from the licence for the rest of the suite) it will only

process three files at a time.

Date post:	14-Jul-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	1 times
Download:	0 times

9 Hot Potatoes - University of Manchesterblogging2.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/EDEC/wp... · “The...

Documents