Maria Gardeta-Healey demonstrated how she is using Breeze software to deliver online self-assessment quizzes to her online French 202 students.

For many of Maria's online students, it has been a long time since they completed the prerequisite courses for French 202. Yet they can't be successful in FRE 202 if they don't remember the rules for grammar.

Maria incorporates a review of basic grammar in the Powerpoint/Breeze lessons she has prepared. The self-assessment feedback allows the student to identify areas that need reviewing before proceeding with the new lesson.

1. It combines the auditory, visual, and active learning elements found in a traditional classroom.

2. It organizes the material in a step-by-step fashion. Maria's voice identifies key points. Color coding highlights important content. Animation creates interest and enhances the message in a conversational style.

3. It is self-paced. Students can take as long as they wish to review the lesson, repeating as often as desired.

4. Embedded self-assessment questions encourage experimentation. Immediate feedback is good preparation for subsequent graded quizzes.

5. These lessons are independent of a textbook so do not have to be revised with new editions of the textbook.

Student feedback is very positive and test scores are higher than before Maria used Breeze self-assessment activities. That makes all the time and effort Maria has put into creating these Breeze lessons worthwhile.

To see when the next Breeze workshop is available, click on the CTL homepage and select "Calendar" from the options on the upper left side of the screen: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl/

Kathie May-Updike is an enthusiastic Soft Chalk user. These intuitive software is used to create webpages without seeing the HTML code behind them (like you do in Front Page).

Kathie recommends creating your document in Word (or importing a document into Soft Chalk that you previously have created in Word). If you want to open a document you created with Front Page with Soft Chalk, you need to first copy and paste it into Notepad. Save the file with Notepad, keeping it in html format. Then open the document from within Soft Chalk (File>Open). This procedure will strip out the background formatting that Front Page inserted.

Soft Chalk makes it easy to convert text into headings and sub-headings. It then uses these headings and sub-headings to make a clickable Table of Contents on the right side of the page. Students can click on items in this table and be taken to that location without having to scroll through the document.

There is a menu to insert images in your document. When you save the file, Soft Chalk keeps the images with the document so you do not have to upload the images files separately.

Special characters (such as the copyright symbol or registered trademark) are available from a pull-down menu.

Pre-designed banners can be inserted into the document by using the Properties menu and then selecting Style Properties.

If you use the Insert>Text Popper command, you can create a mouse over dialog box that pops up when the viewer places the cursor over the text.

Soft Chalk enables you to insert quizzes as desired in the document (Insert>Quiz Popper). These quizzes can be any of several different formats such as true/false or multiple choice.

Soft Chalk also has an Activities option. You can use this to create Flashcards, Crossword Puzzles, Seek-a-Word, Ordering, or Drag and Drop activities.

If you want to upload a file you have created in Soft Chalk, you use the File menu to select Package Lesson>Zip Format. You then upload the document into the My Files area and unzip it there. It will include all the graphics (images) you input when you were working in Soft Chalk.

Soft Chalk is available for a free 30-day trial version at http://www.softchalk.com/ . The CTL has it loaded on several computers in the central pod. Faculty and staff are welcome to use it there. If you want to purchase Soft Chalk, the cost is $295 for educators. The CTL will be offering workshops on Soft Chalk in the future.

Our next WebCT Users Group meeting will be on November 21, 2005, from 3 to 4 P.M. Mark your calendars!