Learning Activities

The formatting ability of Softchalk is a little limited (and a little quirky - more tips about formatting later). The strength is the ability to insert a number of different types of learning activities. These will be "Check for Understanding" activities since the student will be able to attempt them multiple times. You can ask the student to report the results to you, either by printing a score summary or emailing results.

The previous paragraph contains examples of a "Text Popper" - move your mouse cursor over the text that is bold and colored and you'll see a comment or definition appear.

Creating Learning Activities

You create learning activities by using the Insert menu.

Text Popper

The Text Popper will "popup" additional information linked to any text on the page. Use it for definitions of terms or supplementary information.

• Select the text you want to use.
• From the Insert menu choose "Text Popper".
• A dialog box then opens to allow you to create your message.

Once the Text Popper (or any other activity) is created, you can edit or remove it by Right-Clicking on the symbol for the activity, then choosing Modify or Remove. (Ctrl-Click on a Mac). You can also select the Activity then from the Insert menu choose Modify or Remove.

Quiz Popper

An example of a quiz or self-test was shown earlier in this lesson. Each quiz contains a single question - there are a variety of types.

• From the Insert menu choose "Quiz Popper".
• Choose the type of question.
• A dialog box then opens to allow you to create your quiz.

Options

When you create the quiz, the Options tab lets you decide what to call it ("Quiz Me", "Self-check" or "Test Yourself" are some of the options). The Options tab is also where you'll choose to have the question initially shown or hidden. It is recommended that you not use a popup window for feedback, since it may be blocked by some popup blockers. (The Text Popper is technically a "popover" window (i.e., not really a new window) so it won't have this problem.

Here is an example of an "Ordering" activity.

Here are the steps for inserting a Text Popper. Place them in the correct order.   Put the items in the correct order. 1 2 3 4 5 Choose "Text Popper" 1 2 3 4 5 Go to the "Insert" menu 1 2 3 4 5 Select some text on the page you are editing 1 2 3 4 5 Close the dialog box 1 2 3 4 5 Enter your message and select options in the dialog box

 Crossword Puzzle and Seek A Word

Crossword

These activites can add some fun and interest to a lesson. They can be frustrating for some so you might want to make them unscored activities.

The activities are self-explanatory to set up. The crossword puzzle may not use all the words you input, but if you click the "Restart" button it will generate a new puzzle, making different choices of which word to use.

 

Click below to start the crossword - it will open in a new window.

Seek A Word

This activity lets you hunt for words in a grid. Type the words in a plain text file (using Notepad for example) and you'll be able to import them into the activity. (Use the Browse button). WARNING: using too many words causes the activity to freeze up. If that happens you will need to delete the activity and start over. Under 20 words seems to work.

Click below to Seek A Word

 

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