A Tour of "Hot Potatoes"
Hot Potatoes is a suite several programs. Each program enables you to create a different type of quiz. The quiz types currently supported are:
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Multiple-choice
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Short answer
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Jumbled sentence
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Crossword
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Matching
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Gap-fill
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As of this writing, the latest version of Hot Potatoes is version 6 (which is currently available only for Windows.) Although the following description and screenshots are from the older 5.x versions, the techniques described in this chapter work fine with either Hot Potatoes version 5.x or version 6.x The most notable difference between the versions is that in version 5.x, a program called JBC was used to create multiple-choice quizzes, and a program called JQZ was used to create short answer quizzes. In version 6.x the program called JQZ is used to create both short answer and multiple-choice questions. This makes it possible to mix both question types in the same quiz. Since version 6.x uses the JQZ program to create multiple-choice questions, the JBC program has been removed from the suite. |
The software, which runs on both Windows and Macintosh computers, is easy to use and is well documented via a help system and a web based tutorial. Again, refer to the Hot Potatoes web site at http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/ to download the software and to follow the tutorial. This section provides a pictorial overview of the Hot Potatoes suite.
The above screenshot shows a Multiple-choice quiz with a reading exercise. The students have a pre-set amount of time to read the text in the right frame before answering the questions on the left. Note that all Hot Potatoes quizzes give instant feedback to the student. The "smiley face" next to choice D on the first question means that the student made the correct choice. The feedback area near the top starts with "Correct!" in this example. Providing constructive feedback for both correct and incorrect answers is important when using these quizzes to enhance learning.
Multiple-choice quizzes can be created with or without a reading text. Images and other multimedia can be used as both part of the question and within the answers. Questions can be shown all on the same page, or as one question per page. Other multiple-choice options include scrambling the order of the questions, and to randomly show a small number of questions out of a larger pool each time the page loads.
The screenshot below shows a Gap-fill (some call them "fill in the blanks") exercise. There are lots of options here as well. For example, you can show the student a list of the words needed to answer the questions as in this example, or leave them out completely. Similarly, the quiz can be constructed with or without "hints" that enable the student to view one letter of the solution at a time. You can provide a list of alternate correct answers to allow for variations in spelling, and a gap-fill quiz can be in paragraph form as in this example, or as individually numbered questions.
The figure below shows a short answer quiz. These quizzes have options similar to the gap-fill quizzes. You can easily control the background colors on any Hot Potatoes quiz and insert images and sounds.
Creating interactive crossword puzzles is incredibly easy:
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Enter a list of words that will be the "answers" to the puzzle. The program magically creates the grid.
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Enter the clues for each of the words you entered in step 1.
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There is no step 3!
Matching quizzes are also supported. The matching quiz even supports drag-and-drop with the latest browsers from Netscape and Microsoft.
The authors of Hot Potatoes work in a language media lab at the University of Victoria in Canada. The Jumbled-Sentence quiz is ideally suited for helping students learning a new language, or younger students mastering the grammar of their native language.
Creating a quiz
The first step in creating a quiz is to enter the questions and answers:
Step 2 is to select "Configure Output" from the Options menu. Here you'll find a variety of interesting options you can set for your quizzes. The things you can change vary somewhat depending on the type of quiz you are creating. The options shown in the screen below don't make sense when you are creating a crossword puzzle, for example.
We'll have more to say about configuring the output for your Hot Potatoes later. It just so happens that the secret to unlocking the Self-tests module's hidden student tracking feature lies beneath the "CGI" tab in the above screen shot.
The last step is to select Export to Web from the File menu and give your page a file name when prompted, as shown in the next screenshot. That's it!
Hopefully this brief pictorial tour of Hot Potatoes has aroused your interest enough to download the software and give it a try. Be sure to register the software - until you do, you can only create very short quizzes. Also, please respect the licensing requirements for Hot Potatoes.