What do these programs do?
The purpose of the
Hot Potatoes is to enable you to create interactive Web-based teaching exercises
which can be delivered to any Internet-connected computer equipped with a browser. The exercises use
HTML and JavaScript to implement their interactivity, but you do NOT need to know anything about these
languages in order to use the programs. All you need to do is enter the data for your exercises (questions,
answers, responses etc.), and press a button. The program will create the Web pages for you, and you can
then upload them to your server.
There are five basic programs in the
Hot Potatoes suite:
The JQuiz program creates question-based quizzes. Questions can be of four different types, including
multiple-choice and short-answer. Specific feedback can be provided both for right answers and
predicted wrong answers or distractors. In short-answer questions, the student's guess is intelligently
parsed and helpful feedback to show what part of a guess is right and what part is wrong. The student
can ask for a hint in the form of a "free letter" from the answer.
The JCloze program creates gap-fill exercises. 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.
The JCross program creates crossword puzzles which can be completed online. You can use a grid of
virtually any size. As in JQuiz and JCloze, a hint button allows the student to request a free letter if help
is needed.
The JMix program creates jumbled-sentence exercises. You can specify as many different correct
answers as you want, based on the words and punctuation in the base sentence, and a hint button
prompts the student with the next correct word or segment of the sentence if needed.
The JMatch program creates matching or ordering exercises. A list of fixed items appears on the left
(these can be pictures or text), wth 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.
In addition, there is a sixth program called the Masher. This is designed to create complete units of
material in one simple operation. If you are creating sequences of exercises and other pages that should
form a unit, you may find the Masher useful. The Masher can also be used to upload Web pages not
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