Make 'em while they're hot!
A hands-on workshop for creating online activities using Hot Potatoes D. Bradford Marshall - Romance, German & Slavic Languages and Literatures

Two Flash video demonstrations: Making a JCloze activity ; Making a JQuiz activity

Instructions and video demonstration for uploading exercises to Blackboard

I. Introduction
Hot Potatoes (HP) is a software package created by a group of programmers at the University of Victoria in Canada.  It may be used at no cost by educators at publicly funded educational institutions, providing that the exercises are made available free of charge on the web.

Hot Potatoes is a simple software package that allows you to create on-line exercises in five formats:

• JCloze - fill-in-the-blanks
• JQuiz - multiple choice and short answer
• JMatch - column matching
• JMix - jumbled sentences
• JCross - crossword puzzles
  Some examples can be seen here.

In most of the HP formats, you can determine what feedback is given when an answer is correct or incorrect, you can input a suggestion for each question, and you can set the exercise to automatically submit the results directly to you via email.

For each HP activity that you create, you will have three files: the web page (the actual activity for your students), the HP data file (used by HP to create the activity), and a configuration file (also used by HP, for settings such as colors, button names, and other types of "background" information.)

While you will probably give these three files the names (such as "vocab1" for a vocabulary activity), they will have different extensions - the last part of a file name. The final version of an HP activity is a web page and will thus have the extension .htm. When you type your data into HP to make the web page, you will also save the data file. The program will automatically add the extension for the format that you have used, such as .jcl for a fill-in the blank (JCloze) activity or jqz for a multiple-choice (JQuiz) activity, etc. The configuration file, which you will also save, eliminates the need to enter the background information each time you create a new activity. It has an extension of .cfg.

Clck here to download Hot Potatoes, selecting the appropriate version for your computer, PC or Mac.  After you click on the link to download, be sure to SAVE first. (Do not click on Run until AFTER you have saved the program to your computer. If you do not see the "Run" option, simply locate the program file you have just downloaded and double-click on it.) Follow the simple installation instructions.  Note that you will need to register to create exercises with more than 5 items and to use all the HP functions.  In order to register, however, you will must obtain a registration key on the Apply for Registration Key page.  It is free, but note the following:

• You must read the licence terms and agree to them before the registration form appears.
• The registration key will be sent to the email address that you type in the registration form.
• Once you have the registration key, you must open HP and click register in the Help menu.

Below are instructions for JCloze (also called fill-in-the-blank, gap or cloze activities) and JQuiz (multiple-choice activities). If interested in other formats, ask Brad.
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II. The Configuration:
The process of configuring the output for all HP activities is basicaly the same, with variations depending on the format. The following instructions show how to:

• change the appearance of the web page of an HP activity;
• create timed activities; and
• have student results sent to the instructor.

To begin, open JCloze and, as you will with any HP activity, select Configure Output under Options in the HP menu bar or by clicking on the Configuration icon .  You will see that the Configuration Screen contains eight sections, as explained below.  We will not cover Custom here, as it involves changing the source file.

1. Titles/Instructions: If you like, add a subtitle (such as "Fill in the blanks") and insert or modify the instructions (explain how to do the exercise, which buttons do what, etc.). Remember also that instructions for web-based materials should always include information on what to do if there are technical problems (what should the student do if the form won't submit? does the student need to be able to type accents? what email address should they use to contact you? etc).

2. Prompts/Feedback: Here you you can change the wording for various messages. In JCloze, these are: "Correct", "Some answers incorrect", "Next correct letter added", and "Your score is". If you prefer, you may retype these messages in the language of your choice, including non-Roman languages. For JQuiz activities there are additional messages.

3. Buttons: Click on the buttons tab and make sure that all three Navigation boxes at the bottom are unchecked - as you generally will not need them. Here you can also change the names of buttons. For instance, you may want to call the "Hint" button "Add a letter" in the JCloze activities.

4. Appearance: This tab allows you to choose colors and fonts.

5. Timer:  You can click on the box here to "set a time limit" for the exercise. After a set amount of time, the "Your time is over!' message will pop-up and block the exercise.  Careful, some students find timed exercises rather stressful!

6. Other:  The options here that may be of use for our purposes are:
   - Make answer checking case-sensitive.
   - Include a keypad (This allows you to type any non-roman or accented letters or characters in the "Always include these characters..." box that will appear on a mini-keypad in the exercise). Note: this option will not work if you have selected "Use dropdown list". Here is a sample exercise with a keypad.
   In JCloze, you might also want to select:
   - Use dropdown list (This means the correct answers for all the gaps in the entire exercise will appear in a drop down menu for each gap).
   - Include word list (This means all the correct answers for the entire exercise will appear at the top of the page).
   In JQuiz, you might want to select:
   - Shuffle order of questions.
   - Shuffle order of answers.

7. Custom: As indicated above, we will not use this feature.
   
   
8. CGI: In the CGI box, you can program your activities to automatically submit the students' results to specific email address, as you do with a form.  To do so, you must click "Submit results through CGI to an email address".  GW may be able to give you a different URL later, but for now feel free to use:
   http://www.gwu.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/francais/FormMailGW.cgi
   
9. NOTE: If you choose to receive the results via email, you will need to explain to your students how to turn off their browser's pop-up blocker (that otherwise will stop the results from submitting). You may use this explanation if you like.
10. IMPORTANT: Click "Save As", browse to your Desktop, create a new folder (called HP) and save the config file with a name such as "cloze1".
11. Click OK to return to the JCloze activity creation area, and proceed to part III.
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III. JCloze (fill-in-the-blank):
You can prepare the contents of your activity before opening HP (in Word for example), or you can type everything directly in HP.   In the JCloze format, you can have numbered items, as in a textbook exercise or you can write a paragraph in which the language is contextualized.

If you have not done so, go directly to the configuration screen to set some background characteristics, require that students give their name and have the results sent to the instructor via email (see Part II above, especially step 8 (CGI) where the name/email settings are made).

1. Now that you have made the configuration settings, saved your .cfg file in a HP folder, and clicked OK, you should be back in the JCloze activity creation area.
   NOTE: If at any time you wish to change the instructions or other background settings, you need only return to the Configuration screen.

2. Type the activity title in the Title blank.  The sample activity here has the title "Verb Conjugation".

3. Type the activity contents in the text box (or cut and paste a paragraph or sentences from another document).    Remember that, as in any language-learning activity, you must give students the information necessary for producing an answer. In this case, the infinitive to be conjugated is inserted, in parentheses, into the text.

4. Once the text is entered, highlight the first word that you want to appear as a blank in the student version of the activity (in our example, the word "were").
   
   
5. Click the Gap button at the bottom of the window, and a new window will appear with were already entered as Gap #1.  When this happens, were becomes red and is underlined in the text. At this point, you can click OK and go on to the next blank, or you can:

   1. enter a clue such as, in this case, "the word "once" indicates that we need the past tense (third person plural)".  This is entirely optional.
   2. enter alternate correct answers, if there are any. 
      
      
6. Note that, in addition to Gap, there are four buttons on the window:

   1. Delete Gap deletes the gap for a word. To do so, you must first click once on the underlined word;
   2. Clear Gaps removes all of the gaps, or blanks, from the text.
   3. Auto-Gap produces a true cloze activity, turning words into blanks at regular intervals.  For example, every fifth, sixth or tenth word can become a blank. 
   4. Show Words produces the Gap window for each highlighted word, allowing you to add a clue or an alternative answer after the word has been gapped. To change words, change the number next to "Gap #" OR click directly on the underlined word before clicking on "Show Words".
      
      
7. Once all the gaps have been entered, save your activity by selecting Save As under File in the menu bar. Note that the appropriate format extension will be added automatically. Use the same name as for your config file, such as "cloze1".
   NOTE: Sometimes Hot Potatoes does not automatically open the folder were you last saved a file (such as the config file). Always be sure to check that you are saving all your files in the same folder (in our case, the HP folder on your desktop).
   
   
8. After saving the activity, select Create Web page under File in the menu bar (or click on the blue web icon ) to make the final "web page" version of the activity for students. Then, if you wish (and this step is strongly recommended), click View the exercise in my browser, and do your activity as if you were a student to ensure that it is ready for student use.
   
   
9. After you have tested your activity on your computer, you may keep the .cfg. and .jcl files on your computer, but you must upload the .htm file (the web page activity) to a server.  At GW, you may upload such file to your Blackboard account following these instructions.
   Here is an example of a JCloze activity.
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IV. JQuiz (multiple-choice):

Links, Text & Media:
In both JCloze and JQuiz activities, you can insert images, links, and audio, but selecting a choice in the pulldown menu under Insert. If you want to do a reading comprehension activity, select Add Reading Text under File in the menu bar.  Click here to see an activity with images, links and audio.
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HTML :
For those familiar with HTML, note that it is accepted in all HP activities. You can find details in the Hot Potatoes Help file under "Keystroke Shortcuts for HTML Tags," or you simply type the HTML code directly when creating an activity.
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