Michelle's Interactivity Page

Adding Interactivity to Your Online Course
(Note - it certainly wouldn't hurt to add computerized interactivity to any course..)

This page is forever under construction - in a good way - if you find a site you'd like to share, please let me know and I'll add. Here are the newest additions for your consideration:

For ESL students - http://www.manythings.org/  - it's header says it all:

Interesting Things for ESL Students
A fun study site for students of English as a Second Language
Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more.
 

Spellmaster.com at http://www.spellmaster.com/ offers the following:
Create your own Macromedia Flash Vocabulary Training Aids with our easy to use FREE tools.
Spellmaster.Com games are used in scores of countries by tens of thousands of students across the world. Providing stimulating activities in a wide range languages. Not only do they play an essential role in many award winning web web sites, but they also perform a vital part in motivating, entertaining and educating students in thousands of classrooms and homes across the world.

Create your own crossword puzzles to hand out or to import into your online course. Student will be able to complete it inside the course!
 http://www.variety-games.com/InstallCrosswordMaker.htm

 

1. Click here to take survey - after completing the survey, you will be taken to the site where it was created. http://www.surveymonkey.com/ has become quite popular. HINT - when you start using commercial and free services, it is a good idea to set up a free E-Mail account - an account that won't drive you batty if it gets inundated with spam.

2. You'll see the downside of this one upon completion - but the nice part is that the creator gets an E-Mail with all the requested data. See http://www.response-o-matic.com/ for more. Follow the instructions provided to see how easy it is to create this short form.

After you have explored this site please return and provide me some feedback by completing this FORM.

Sample added 4/3/08
Which of the following are you? Student
Part-time faculty
Full-time faculty
None of the above
If you are a teacher, what do you teach?
Name:
Email Address:

create web form

Spencer, a 10-week old Maltese, sits on the grass enjoying a fall breeze.                                                              

 All courses should strive to maximize interactivity. The student who is "forced" to interact with course materials will be more engaged and with more engagement learning is enhanced. In the era of "active learning" and "learning styles", offering students various ways of interacting with course materials is a natural thing to do - and is likely to lead to greater student success. While there may be existing interactive exercises out there, here we will consider some places to find such activities, some ideas as to how to increase student engagement and interaction within existing course elements, and we will look at software that allows you to quickly make exciting interactive activities.

 

MERLOT LogoAre you looking for tutorials or activities to use in your courses? Visit www.merlot.org – and consider adding the review of MERLOT sites to your list of approved FLEX activities. Or search MERLOT to find existing learning objects.

 

How can you increase student engagement in discussion sections? How can you move from the passive response to a question to really getting students interested and involved? Consider a discussion starter that applies course materials to real-world situations. Or ask students to research a topic and post their findings.

3. Resources with information on discussions:
http://distancelearning.rit.edu/faculty/strategies/discussions/robohelp/discussion.htm
Using questions to enhance learning - http://www.stedwards.edu/cte/resources/blooms.htm
Discussion - Best Practices Tips and Tricks http://teaching.unr.edu/OTL/webct/facres/discussions/disc_tips.html

Online you have the time to be as creative as you want. Are you feeling like your course needs some "sparkle"? Check out this interesting site - "50 cool things you can do in your class besides lecture"
http://sln.suny.edu/sln/public/original.nsf/dd93a8da0b7ccce0852567b00054e2b6/d66bf6388888dbdf85256c1600639be7?OpenDocument

 

Are you interested in developing activities on your own? There are many products out there that are easy to use. Unfortunately, most are not free – but trial versions are available – consider giving some of the following a try. If enough faculty are interested, we can look into purchasing some sort of license. Many, however, are inexpensive enough that you might be inspired to use your own money.

4. http://www.crossword-compiler.com/, for example, offers a demo download of this program for creating crossword puzzles. You can create crosswords to print out or to post online. The cost of an individual license is $49.

5. A popular site to find a variety of interactive activities is http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/ Go to http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/ to download Hot Potatoes. This site provides more directions - including how to export out of Hot Potatoes and into WebCT - http://web.uvic.ca/comped/online/webteach/quizsurvey/hotpotatoes.html

Feel free to E-Mail me(mpilati@riohondo.edu) if you run into any problems using the software. Be sure to register in order to get the most from this software. Samples of what you can do:

6. JCloze Example - created in 5 minutes or less on October 13
JCloze Example
JQuiz Example
JMatch Example
JCross Example
Here are some examples from math folks - http://www.ashcombe.surrey.sch.uk/Curriculum/maths/hotpot.htm#open

 

7. Consider developing a Webquest – go to http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquest.html  (no cost, but not a quick and easy thing to do). While many of the links are dead, there is ample information about what a Webquest is – and the VC staff would be more than happy to aid in the development of a webquest.

8. This is something that I really love – and have bought my own use - http://www.respondus.com/products/studymate.shtml allows you to create a variety of study aids – “StudyMate is an authoring tool that lets you create 9 Flash-based activities and games using three simple templates. The Flash activities are usable with any web server or can be published directly to Blackboard, WebCT CE, or WebCT Vista courses.” Here is a sample -

StudyMate Activities - Exam 3

9. StudyMate by Respondus allows one to quickly make study aids of all sorts.

 

Quia is quick and easy - and very much like StudyMate.

10. Whatever you create will be hosted on the Quia server, so you will only have access to what you create for a limited time (unless you purchase a subscription at $49/year). But you can get in there and get busy quite quickly - http://www.quia.com/web

Language instructors - or those who use big scary words - consider this - http://www.quia.com/jfc/443676.html

Shared stuff by discipline - http://www.quia.com/shared/

A stolen sample - http://www.quia.com/quiz/245322.html

New samples..

Virtual Art Room - http://www.virtualartroom.com/interactive_exercises.htm#Holbein

 

 

 

Spencer attacking his dad - a white puff of fur on a large handsome man's chest.Close-up of Honey's face

A different angle of Spencer "attacking" his dad.Mom holding the babiesTwo pups kicking back at the end of a long day.

Spencer pulling on mom's gray robe. The robe is winning the tug-of-war.Mom and kidsBabies waking dad

This page last revised on April 10, 2006.