About Hot Potatoes Integrating E-learning

What is Hot Potatoes? Hot Potatoes was created by the Research and Development team at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre. The program enables you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises. All the programs can have a reading text and timer included. Hot Potatoes is free of charge for publicly funded, non-profit, educational users who make their pages available on the web. Other users must pay for a licence. The LSDA is not endorsing Hot Potatoes, there are many other authoring tools available.

System/Module Requirements A minimum space on the hard drive/network of 35mb Windows 98/NT/2000/XP Internet connection An up-to-date browser eg: –Internet Explorer Version 6 –Netscape Version 7 Microsoft Word

Why create your own interactive worksheets? Why spend hours creating interactive worksheets when you already have a bank of resources you can call upon? The main benefits to both learners and teacher/trainers are outlined in the following two slides, but imagine: –Never having to queue at the photocopier –Always having the necessary worksheets for all your learners –Being able to spend more time with the learners who need one-to-one help –Having coloured worksheets actually displayed in colour –Adding sound and image files to worksheets Of course, technology can fail and a lesson planned completely around online (or intranet) learning materials is never a wise idea but as a way of keeping the interest of a group of learners and meeting the needs of individuals, interactive worksheets are a resource to be taken advantage of.

Benefits to the learner The main difference between Hot Potatoes exercises and paper-based exercises is the immediate interactivity. For example, when using JQuiz, if you include useful, detailed feedback for every answer (correct and incorrect), then the learner not only has their existing knowledge tested but also learns as they work through the exercise. With a paper- based exercise they have to wait for for the teacher/trainer to mark it, (or check against a marking key). No teacher/trainer has the time to add helpful comments to all the correct and incorrect answers. –Interactive –Immediate feedback –Can be repeated –Independent learning –Own pace/level –Can be regarded as a ‘fun’ way of learning

Benefits to the teacher/trainer Exercises created with Hot Potatoes have great potential for classroom or self-access use. Hot Potatoes is often purely seen as a program for the teacher/trainer to create learning materials, but it can also be used with the learners to involve them in creating exercises. This of course depends upon the level of the learners, but JCross is a good place to start. –Can accommodate different levels within one teaching group –Add variety to teaching/learning materials –Can be created with a specific target group in mind –Reduced marking –Reduced photocopying –Availability of resources –The same exercise can be used for individual learning, pair working or group activities.

Design factors The IT skills of the learners must be taken into account eg in JMix exercises, clicking with the mouse is much simpler for a beginner than clicking and dragging. This does not mean you cannot use drag and drop exercises with IT beginners. Drag and drop exercises could be used for classroom activities where the learners call out the answers and the teacher/trainer completes the exercise. Learners could also work in pairs, with the more IT literate learner actually in the ‘driving seat’ i.e. having control of the mouse. Use an appropriate font. Sans serif fonts eg Arial or Verdana increase legibility. You may wish to use Comic Sans so that the learners recognise letters such as ‘a’ (a) easily. (The default font setting in Hot Potatoes is Arial 10) Use appropriate colours, i.e. high contrast such as black on a white background so that the text is clear. Do not use too many colours as the exercise becomes confusing. For dyslexic users use light pastel backgrounds, avoid pure white. Activity Follow these links to read further information on design factors:

Software download Activity 1Arrange for your system administrator to download the program and install on your organisation’s network or 2If you are installing the software on your own pc/laptop, establish a connection to the internet and click on the following link Scroll down the page until you reach the Downloads section and click on the link to the the self- extracting, auto-installing zip file

Saving the download When the File Download window appears, click on Save Save in a suitable folder on the hard drive. (This example shows the file being saved in a folder named downloads. You could save it in My documents for example)

Software Installation The software begins to download When it has downloaded click on Open Follow the steps in the installation wizard to install the software.

Registration In order to use Hot Potatoes you need to register your details. Several features are disabled or restricted if you do not register. Registration also means you are informed on of any updates or problems with the program providing you do not deselect this option on the registration form. Activity Click on the following link and complete the registration form. You will receive a registration key via .

Do I Need a Licence? Hot Potatoes is free for use by non-profit making individuals or state funded educational institutions, on the condition that the material you produce using the program is freely available to anyone via the web. You need to purchase a licence if any of the following conditions apply: You are working for a company or corporation. You are in business for yourself. You charge money for access to the material you make with Hot Potatoes. You do not make the material freely available through the web. Further information on licences can be found at: Activity Read the FAQs sheet on Ferl’s website for further information

Registration Activity When you have received a registration key, load the Hot Potatoes program. Click on Help – Register. Enter your User name and Key, in the Register window. Click on OK.

Additional Resources There is an online support group for users of Hot Potatoes. (If you are unfamiliar with using groups, you will find learner guides in the ICT Communications module on the CDRom). Click on the following link to access the group: Sites with examples of Hot Potatoes - open

Authoring Software There are many authoring programs available. Some are free, some have limited versions that are free and some require a licence. You may wish to check out the following websites: (Includes a free version) (Free) (Licence required) (Licence required) (Licence required)