Hot Potatoes

By Chris Dillon. Version 3, 11 September, 2013. Latest version at: https://sites.google.com/site/chrisdillon/quick-guides/hot-potatoes 

At present this guide only covers the creation of JCloze gap-fill exercises. JMatch (where one has to match items in two columns) works in a similar way. JQuizz creates multiple choice quizzes. JCross is a crossword-creater. The Masher brings Hot Potatoe exercises together.

1.    Opening JCloze

On WTS go to Start | Programs | Software E-L | Hot Potatoes | JCloze.

• Give your gap fill exercise a title.

• Type or copy in the exercise including the correct answers for the gaps.

• Click the Save icon to save your exercise. (It saves with a.jcl extension.) Do not use uppercase letters, special characters or spaces in your file name.

• Make a note of where you have saved the file.

2.    Creating gaps

• Highlight the character(s) you want to want to be the gap and click Gap.

• You can suggest a clue, if you like and upto three alternatives for the gap.

• Repeat for all the gaps in your text.

3.    Creating a file to upload

Once you have finished all your gaps, go to File | Create Web page | Web page for v6 browsers or press F6. That creates a version of the exercise with an .htm file extension. The What do you want to do? dialogue box appears. You can either preview the exercise or choose Nothing.

4.    Uploading a file

This file can be uploaded to a website, the UCL Wiki or Moodle.

UCL Wiki

First you need to attach the .htm file to the page in the wiki:

• Login to the wiki.

• Navigate to the page where you want the exercise.

• Click + Add top right.

• Click Attachment.

• Click Choose file, navigate to the directory where you saved the .htm file and select it.

Then you need to put a link to the attached .htm file:

• Click Edit to edit the page.

• Click the Wiki Markup tab.

• If the .htm is called simple-past.htm, your link will be:

• [Simple Past|^simple-past.htm]

• Click Save.

Moodle

• In Moodle, go to your course and click Turn editing on.

• Go to the section of your course where you want to upload your exercise.

• Click Add an activity and then Hot Potatoes Quiz.

• Click Choose or upload a file, click a folder if necessary and then Upload a file in the window that appears.

• Click Browse and select the .htm version of your exercise which you created in 3.

• Click Open and then Upload this file.

• You should now see a list of your Moodle files.

• Click Choose to the right of your exercise.

Fill out any other settings for your exercise, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Save and return to course.