Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

What is Hot Potatoes?

The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like. It is not open-source.

Download and Installation

Windows Users:-Go to http://hotpot.uvic.ca/-Under “Downloads” Click on “Hot Potatoes 6.3 Installer”.-Follow the prompts in the window that appears.

Mac Users:-Go to http://hotpot.uvic.ca/-Under “Downloads” Click on “Download Java Hot Potatoes”; it will be a .zip file.-Unzip that file on your computer; you will have a folder called JavaHotPot.-Drag the JavaHotPot folder to the Applications directory on your computer.

*Make sure to drag the ENTIRE folder! Otherwise, the saving and exporting functions won’t work.

-Open the folder and double-click the JavaHotPotatoes6 application icon.-Trash the javahotpot61.zip file.

Getting Familiar with the Program

The Hot Potatoes Site is a great resource for learning how to use the program. There you can find tutorials, updates, support, FAQs, and other software downloads.

The tutorial section, especially, is fantastic. The people from Half Baked Software Inc. have created 14 tutorials to help you learn everything from basic to advanced skills. Additionally, below those there are user-created tutorials in other languages.

For starters, I recommend getting familiar with Hot Potatoes via examples. -From the home page, click on “Tutorials” in the black navigation bar at the top of the page. -Under “Our tutorials,” click the second link “Example exercises created with Hot Potatoes 6”

The brilliant thing about the exercises is that you learn about all of the key features of the software while getting a feel for what the final product looks like and feels like. (These examples introduce all six of the Hot Potatoes applications, not including Masher. Masher has its own tutorial; it is a tool that combines different application exercises together.)

Learning your way around is not very intuitive, so I will include my own tutorial below for JQuiz. Once you have one tool down, the rest are very easy to get used to.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

Getting Started:

If you downloaded the program for the first time, you will need to create a username when you open one of the tools. Write your name in the space provided – it will be used to copyright the activities you produced.

After clicking on JQuiz, you should be at an empty interface that looks like the one below.(If you’re a Mac user, it will look only slightly different)

If your interface looks more complicated than this, it's probably switched to advanced mode; in that case, just click on Options / Mode / Beginner Mode.

To Begin:

1. Type the title in the title box.2. Type the question in the question box.3. Make sure that "Multiple-choice" is selected in the drop-down list box to the right of the

question. This defines the type of question you want to make.4. Type the answers in the boxes on the left, and the feedback on the right. Note that each

answer, right or wrong, has its own feedback.5. Check the "Correct" checkbox next to answer B.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

JQuiz allows you to mix four types of questions into one quiz: Multiple choice, Short answer, Hybrid, and Multiple-select. [On a Mac, these are referred to as, Multiple Choice, Text, Hybrid, and Multiple Correct.]

Multiple Choice:This option allows you to create a standard multiple choice question. One nice feature is that the number of answer choices you have is unlimited! Use the up arrow beside “Answers” to scroll past choice D. (The quiz itself also allows you to create an unlimited number of questions! Use the arrows beside Q1 to navigate between questions.)

Short answer:This option allows you to create a question with a fill-in-the-blank. If you think the answer may have two or more words that describe it, you may select more than one “correct” box.

Hybrid:Hybrid mixes the multiple choice and short answer questions together. The question starts out as fill-in-the-blank, but if your student has not answered correctly after a certain number of tries, it turns into a multiple-choice question. Neat, huh? Your student will lose points for each failed attempt, however.

Multiple select:This allows you to create a question where there are multiple answers. You may place 9 options as the answer to a question, and your student can choose any or all of the options for their answer. They will lose points if they choose the wrong ones, even when the correct ones are all selected.

After completing your questions and the feedback, you will need to configure the quiz. This is the place where you can set a timer, adjust the number of attempts for hybrid questions, and choose the theme colors for the quiz.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012Next:You will need to configure your data to adjust the appearance of instructions, the buttons, etc. In order to do go to the Configuration window, click on the icon to the left of the ‘?’ help icon.

Your window will look like this:

In the first box, you can put a subtitle to explain the exercise further.

In the second box, you type the instructions for the exercise.

*Windows users: Do not hit okay after every tab; click okay only after you are done. Mac users: Do not hit close until you are done configuring every tab.

The next tab, “Prompts/Feedback” will look like this (on a Mac):

Here you can edit the phrasing of various prompts that appear during the exercise. I left mine the same.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

You will want to make some changes in the following tab, “Buttons”.

In the default settings, the “Next Exercise button”, “Go to Contents button”, and “Back Button” will be checked. You may want to uncheck them, though.

If you use the Hot Potatoes site to host your exercises, then these buttons help your students navigate between exercises. However, you must pay to access that feature. Thus, it is easier for us to host individual quizzes on our own websites. When you host the exercises on your own website, you won’t use the buttons to navigate between exercises; your exercises will be linked individually.If you do leave them checked and a student clicks on them, it will say that the ‘page cannot be found’.

The “Check” button and “OK” button are used by students to confirm their answers. You can leave them as they are.

The next buttons are the “Hint” and “Show Answer” buttons. These are optional, but useful.

o By checking the Hint button, your students can receive prompts for fill in the blank questions. For example:

“A young cat is called a _______.” If the student cannot remember the answer, they can click “hint” and they will be given the letter “k”. After they type k, they can hit “hint” again, and they will be prompted with “i”. In fact, a student can continue to do that for the whole word, but every time their score goes down a few percentage points. If they use hints for every letter in the word, then they will get 0% for the question.

o Only checkmark the Show Answer button if you want your students to be able to see the answer before they answer the question.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

The “Next Question” and “Previous Question” buttons allow your students to navigate between quiz questions. You can leave them as they are.

The “Appearance” tab allows you to change the color of the background and text, as well as the font style and size.

The “Timer” tab allows you to set a time limit for the quiz.

The “Other” tab allows you to do miscellaneous things. Two of the most notable are: 1.) A check box for making answers case-sensitive 2.) A text box allowing you to adjust the number of tries a student gets in a hybrid question.

The “CGI” tab allows you to enter an email address that the results of the quiz will be emailed to you. I have not tried this.

When you have configured everything you can think of click, “OK” or “Close” to leave the window. Your changes will be saved when you save the activity text.

Speaking of…

How do I save?

Saving is easy. Just click on the picture of the floppy disk in the toolbar, name your exercise, and save! but there are some things to keep in mind.*Depending on your computer, the program might try to save your exercises in some inconvenient places, so make sure to create a Hot Potatoes folder to save your exercises in BEFORE you save.*Also, for PC users: You will not be able to save or export any file if there are spaces or special characters in the filename. So, keep the filename simple. Mac users, you don’t have that problem. *When you want to open a file to work on, the file will not always work if you open it from “My Computer”. Instead, open the application first, and open it inside the application by using the folder icon.

Now, you are almost ready to export your file! But there is one more thing to mention.

You can attach a picture or a link to your quiz as part of the question or the answer.

- In order to do so, make sure that you first have saved your exercise. - Afterwards, click on the picture icon beside the ‘all’ icon. - In the window that appears, you may either attach a URL or browse for a photo from your computer. - You may preview the size of the photo by clicking “Preview”. If an old image is still showing, you may refresh the preview by clicking “Hide Preview” and then “Show preview”.

If you intend to insert pictures as answers, make sure that they are small enough. Otherwise, the quiz format will be thrown off. (It shouldn’t affect the questions as much.)

Wrapping Up:

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

Once you have created, saved, and inserted everything, you are ready to export your quiz. Yay!Depending on your computer, you have different options.

For PC users:

The two most common ways to export your quiz is by creating a web page, or by exporting the text for printing.

To export the quiz to a web page, do as this photo demonstrates. You will be prompted to name the file (remember, no spaces!) and then after it saves, you will be prompted to open it in the browser to review it.

If you like everything, you can attach the .htm to your website by using the document upload feature. As long as your students have access to your website, they should be able to view it without a problem.

If you export the text for printing, you will receive a message that the text has been copied to your clipboard. You will then be able to paste it into a Word Processor like Microsoft Word.

For Mac users:

Go to File -> Export.The first option allows you to export your quiz as a web page. Name your exercise and save it. When it finishes, you will be prompted to view the exercise in your browser.

If everything is in order, they you can upload it to your own website. You can upload the .htm file by using a document upload feature. After that, share the website with your students, and you’ll be good to go!

If you choose “Create text-only file” it will save as a TextEdit file that you can paste into a Word Processor. I was not able to save this file to my desktop; I’m not sure why. You will have to save it to your User folder or to the folder I told you to make earlier.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012Side Note:

There are some difference between the PC and Mac. Out of the Half Baked Software we are using, this is the only program that runs on a Mac. Quandary and Textoys are purely PC tools.

Thus, the PC has some convenient features like “View outline of questions” and “Duplicate Question” under “Manage questions” that a Mac does not have. It does not have that much of an effect on Mac users other than they cannot use the program as efficiently.

Also, when PC users are exporting their files, they have the option of uploading them to the Hot Potatoes hosting site. Mac users are neither prompted with that option nor could I find another pathway for doing so.

Never fear! Learning on one machine will not hinder you from working on the other, as the procedures and icons for everything else are almost exactly the same.

Some advantages: Appropriate feedback is input by the teacher that helps the students learn in context.Feedback for all questions can be checked at any time after the answer is chosen.Quiz can be taken multiple times to reinforce learning.

Some disadvantages:Although teachers can track students’ scores, the free version offers no support for compiling, reviewing, or analyzing their progress.Scores received by the teacher may not reflect a student’s performance, since students can refresh the web page and take a perfect assessment for submission.

Classroom Uses:The uses are endless! The software is appropriate for all CALL classrooms, whether EFL or not. In our context, these tools can be used in a variety of ways to assess reading comprehension and knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, amongst other things. Students can work on quizzes on their own or in pairs to complete the exercise, and thus use language in the process.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary.php

What is Quandary?

Quandary is an application for creating Web-based Action Mazes. An Action Maze is a kind of interactive case-study; the user is presented with a situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting situation is then presented, again with a set of options. Working through this branching tree is like negotiating a maze, hence the name "Action Maze".

Action mazes can be used for many purposes, including problem-solving, diagnosis, procedural training, and surveys/questionnaires. All of these types of use are easier to understand by example than they are to explain, so here are some example exercises.

*Quandary is only available for Windows.

How do I download Quandary?

Go to : http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary_download.phpClick the link and follow the prompts to install.

Getting familiar with the Program

Quandary is created by the same group that created Hot Potatoes, thus, the Quandary site has many of the same resources that Hot Potatoes has. There is a support page, tutorials, examples, updates, and other extras for your use.

Making a Quandary is more difficult that making a Hot Potatoes exercise and it requires much more time. It is better to plan your story and choices ahead of time. When you start making the quandary, you need to know which choices will link to which situations.

The website has several tutorials that can be found here: http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary_tutorials_examples.phpThey cover everything from the beginning basics to more advanced functions.There is also links to example exercises, so you can familiarize yourself with how it works.

How do I save and export my Quandary?

The method for saving and exporting your Quandary is the same as JQuiz. Please view the above instructions.

Below are the basics of the quandary tutorial provided at the above link.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

Start creating the exercise

These are the first steps to take:1. Make sure you have a new document in Quandary (click on File/New to be sure).2. Type a title for your exercise into the Exercise Title box.3. Type a title for your first Decision Point into the Decision Point title box.4. Type text explaining the initial situation in the Decision Point contents box.

For example, you might decide that you want to create a maze in which someone has to make decisions about travelling late at night:

Exercise title: Getting HomeDecision Point title: Take a cab or catch a bus?Decision Point contents: You have just been to a concert downtown, and you need to get home. It is midnight. What will you do?

Adding a link

So far, you have created only one decision point. Now, you will want to create a couple of links. Your links might look like this:

Take a cab.Go to the bus stop to catch a bus.

Each of these will link to a different, new decision point. There are two ways to do this -- you might create the decision points first, then link to them, or you could create the decision points as you make the links. We will do the latter, since it's simpler and quicker. This is what you do:

1. Click on the New Link... button. You'll see a dialogue box. The main item is a drop-down list.

2. Click to drop down the list.

3.4. When there are lots of decision points in your exercise, you will see them listed here, and

you can select one to link to. Right now, though, there's only one decision point. However, you can choose to...

5. ...Add a new decision point. Select that item, and you will see a new dialogue box pop up.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

6.7. Type the title of the decision point (We'll call it "Take a cab") you want to create in the

box, then press OK.8. You'll see that a new decision point has been created.

9.10. Press OK to return to the main screen. A link has now been added to the first decision

point.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012

Some advantages:It is fun, engaging, and can easily be an interactive tool.Great for testing comprehension of language and events.

Some disadvantages:In proportion to the amount of time it takes to complete, it is very time consuming to make.

Classroom uses: It is a good tool to use for reading comprehension. Students can do it on their own, or in groups. They can negotiate meaning and discuss/debate which choices are best. Perhaps you can have them express their reasoning in writing, or have them write a reaction to the result of their choices.The activities do not have to be pointless scenarios either. If the decision points are written carefully, the teacher can create authentic scenarios where there is only one appropriate response. The appropriate response may be the choice of a correct grammar structure, or it may be a correct pragmatic reaction.Decision points can even be created to reinforce timelines of history or principles of science.

TexToyshttp://www.cict.co.uk/textoys/index.php

What is TexToys?

TexToys is a suite of two authoring programs, WebRhubarb and WebSequitur. The programs are used to create web pages (HTML documents) that contain interactive language-learning exercises. The exercises are based on the Rhubarb and Sequitur programs originally developed by John and Muriel Higgins.

Once you have created the exercises, you can deliver them to your students in the form of web pages. You can also upload them to our hosting service at hotpotatoes.net.

Although it contains two different authoring programs, TexToys is downloaded and installed as a single package - see the download page for details.

TexToys is shareware, so you can download and install it free of charge. However, the download version is restricted - to take full advantage of all the program and hosting features, you must register the TexToys package using the secure online order form.

How do I download TexToys?

http://www.cict.co.uk/textoys/download.phpClick the first link here, and follow the prompted instructions. This link will download both Rhubarb and Sequitur together.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012Getting familiar with TexToys.

Like the above programs, everything you could want to know can be found on the website and navigated in the side bar.

The tutorial is on the main page, at http://www.cict.co.uk/textoys/index.php

For your reference, below is the most relevant part of the tutorial.

Making a WebRhubarb exercise

In the picture below, you will see the main screen of WebRhubarb, with the exercise you just saw loaded into it:

The title is at the top, and the text is in the main box. To make the Web page, all you have to do

is press the Web Page button ( ). Couldn't be simpler -- type your text, press a button, supply a filename, and you have a Web page. Of course, there are other changes you may wish to make; for example, Configure allows you to change the instructions, button captions, background graphic and so on for the page you create.

Clicking on Tools / Edit Free Words ( ) lets you specify words that will not be replaced with stars on the page, to give your students some clues. However, the basic idea is very simple. Once you have your Web page, it's up to you -- you can put it on a server, a local machine or even a floppy disk, and all your students need to access it is a Web browser. You can also upload it automatically to the hotpotatoes.net server, a service that enables you to set passwords on your exercises and track your students' scores. Go to hotpotatoes.net for more information on this service.

Making a WebSequitur exercise

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012Here, you will see the main screen of WebSequitur, with the same exercise loaded:

As in WebRhubarb, the title is at the top, and the text is in the main box. Now, however, the text is broken into short lines. Each of these lines will become a segment in the exercise. You can put the line breaks in yourself, using the ENTER key, or you can click on Tools / Auto-Break

Text ( ) to break the text automatically every n words (where n is a number you specify). If you want a paragraph break in the text, just insert two returns instead of one.

And that’s it! It’s that simple. Save and export your files in the same manner as Hot Potatoes and Quandary.

Rhubarb:Some advantages:If the teacher carefully chooses the breaks, grammar points such as clauses or word that are always found together can be emphasized.Reconstruction aids in developing the speed of reading and the comprehension/recognition of grammar forms.

Some disadvantages:There is a word limit. Paragraphs cannot be input unless you pay a fee.It has limited uses. Only one student can do it at a time, there is no collaborative opportunity.

Sequitur:Some advantages:Reconstruction aids in vocabulary and grammar recall. It can be a group or an individual activity.

Some disadvantages:There is a limitation on the length of text. You must pay to input paragraphs.

Emily S. Tregelles ©2012You’re on your way to creating some fun, interactive lessons! Explore these tools further and enjoy