Easy Web-Based Quizzes and Exercises

Six small authoring programs for Windows or Macintosh that you install on your computer. They take the questions, answers, and input you type in and use javascript to create interactive online quizzes and exercises in either DHTML or HTML format. The exercises created can be used locally, or on a web page.
Created at the University of Victoria by Stewart Arneil and Martin Holmes and is free to educators. However, there is a commercial license.
Entirely cross-platform.

Download Hot Potatoes from http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/#downloads
Double-click, install, register, and take the online tutorial at http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/#tutorials

Multiple Choice Quizzes: JBC, http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/wintutor/jbc1.htm . Each question can have unlimited answers and any number of them can be correct. Specific feedback can be given to the student in response to each answer, and a percentage score is displayed after each correct answer is chosen.

Short Answer Quizzes: JQuiz, http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/wintutor/jquiz1.htm . The sentences are checked against (unlimited) correct answers, and the feedback shows which parts of a student's answer are correct. The student can ask for a hint if necessary, and see the next correct letter in the answer.

Jumbled Sentence exercises: JMix, http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/workshop/quizzes/jmixored.htm or the drag and drop style. A hint button prompts the student with the next correct word or segment of the sentence if needed.

Crossword Puzzle Maker: JCross, http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/workshop/quizzes/xword1.htm which can be completed online. A hint button allows the student to request a free letter if help is needed. New in version 5: it will build the puzzle for you from a word list!

Matching or Ordering Exercises: JMatch, in which a list of fixed items appears on the left (these can be pictures or text), with jumbled items on the right. This can be used for matching vocabulary to pictures or translations, or for ordering sentences to form a sequence or a conversation. You can output JMATCH exercises as

Gap Fill Exercises: JCloze, http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/indonesian/unit01/kk1.htm . Unlimited correct answers can be specified for each gap, and the student can ask for a hint and see a letter of the correct answer. A specific clue can also be included for each gap. Automatic scoring is also included. The program allows gapping of selected words, or the automatic gapping of every nth word in a text. Another JCloze example: http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/workshop/quizzes/cloze1.htm

Revising quizzes
Adding HTML codes if you wish
Inserting graphics and multimedia in your questions or answers (or anywhere!)
OR, this can be handled by creating a web page with all your graphics/multimedia and saving it locally, then using it as the Reading Text: http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/workshop/quizzes/v4lstcmp.htm

Send results or scores anywhere, unless you install a cgi script on your server.
Is not very secure: savvy students can find the correct answers in the javascript code if they know what they're looking for.
Cannot directly edit the web pages in Hot Potatoes and then bring them back into the program for revision. You can edit only the data files you create and save before exporting to the web.
Roman character support only. Provides support for all languages based on the 256 characters in the ASCII character set. Some unicode support is in the latest version.
See a chemistry quiz and an Arabic quiz to see different ways of handling special characters.

Once you register you can post questions to the online bulletin board and your questions are answered in a matter of hours! Or send the authors an email.
Free Clipart Library http://web.uvic.ca/hcmc/clipart/ (mostly for teaching foreign languages)
Potato Skins http://learnertools.com/potato_skins a small freeware shockwave applet that acts as a unified graphical shell for JBC files, written by Brian Nelson.
Configuration files come in Finnish, Portuguese, Basque, Danish, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Indonesian, and Jersy. Most, if not all of these, are already included in the installation of version 5.
Michael Rottmiere has created scripts based on Hot Potatoes, showing different ways of using them, and creating some new spuds of his own: http://m.rottmeier.bei.t-online.de/TeachingTools.htm. I especially like the dropdown match one and the "Memory" game one: http://m.rottmeier.bei.t-online.de/examples/JMatch_mit_vertikalen_Spalten_Output-5.htm http://m.rottmeier.bei.t-online.de/examples/JMemory5-1.htm

Create questions in one of the six programs
Save the data file you create
Modify display options (optional)
Export the data file to HTML (for version 3 browsers) or DHTML (for version 4 browsers) or for WebCT
FTP or Fetch them to your website (optional). They can also be used on local hard drives or on a CD-ROM. All the students need to view them is a browser.

For a comparison of many of these software packages, see Erica Rosch's Web Based Quizzes and Games page at http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/workshop/quizgame/

Last updated: Feb. 26, 2002