Distance Learning Mentoring Group
Minutes for November 4 , 2004 - 4 P.M. – 5 :00 P.M. CTL Workroom
In attendance at the DLMG meeting : Stacey Cochran, Amadou Gaye, Jennifer Townsley, Chuck Hall, Jennifer Grimes, Melanie Kroening, and Peggy Johnson ,
Melanie showed how to use several types of software to create learning games for students online.
QUIZMASTER
Quizmaster is software licensed by MCC for faculty use. To obtain a copy, click on this URL http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~mkroening/games/setup.exe If you have any problems/questions, contact Melanie in the CTL.
There are a variety of games that Quizmaster can create. Melanie demonstrated how to use Sequencer to create a game in which students are to put terms in the proper order (e.g. days of the week). You select the Sequencer option within Quizmaster and enter your questions. When all questions have been entered, Click the "Build My Quiz" option.
This will save the quiz in the C drive in a folder called Quizmaster. A folder named "Sequence" will contain your quiz, which will be named "Sequence.html". Copy the entire folder (named Sequence) to the internet (e.g. inside your WebCT course).
Then make a link that students can click on to take them to the "Sequence.html" file (you may want to rename it so you know what it is such as "SequenceChapter1.html" and then make your link to that file name.)
Quizmaster also has a "Match the Terms" game that you can create for students to help them learn/review vocabulary and definitions. The "Build Your Own Millionaire" game poses 15 questions to students. They have to get all 15 questions correct to win the game. To see examples of Quizmaster Games, go to http://cybil.tafe.tas.edu.au/~capsticm/quizman/qmcreate.hmtl Two of the Quizmaster games (Memory Identical Pairs, Memory Related Pairs) do not work on stduents' Macintosh computers, so you would not want to use these templates.
HOT POTATOES
Hot Potatoes is free software available on the web at http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked Once you create a game with Hot Potatoes, you must make it available on the internet (it can't be behind a password). If you want it behind a password, you need to pay for the software (the cost is nominal but the developers would like results to be widely available if possible.)
Hot Potatoes can be used to create several different types of learning tools. The one I have found most useful is the Crossword Puzzle option. Select the "JCross" option to create a crossword puzzle. Melanie provided a nice hand-out on how to create a crossword puzzle using Hot Potatoes. You can then upload the puzzle to the internet for your students to complete. You can also print out a hard copy if you want to use it in a face-to-face class. STUDY MATE Study Mate software is a Respondus product. MCC has a license for this product also. Here is the information on downloading Study Mate: _________________________________________________________________________
Maricopa Community Colleges has obtained a campus-wide license for the StudyMate software. StudyMate is an authoring tool that lets you create
9 Flash-based activities and games using three simple templates. The Flash activities can be published directly to your Blackboard and WebCT courses.
StudyMate also allows you to download publisher test banks for textbooks that have been adopted in your classes (there is no charge for this service). Information about the Respondus Test Bank Network -- and StudyMate software application -- is available at http://www.respondus.com
The district has a license to StudyMate. To get your copy, contact Jeff Anderson at jeffa@mail.mc.maricopa.edu
Our license DOES permit you to install a copy of the StudyMate software on a home computer. However, please note that you are not permitted to provide the StudyMate software or the password information to anyone who is not affiliated with our institution. Such an action is a violation of our licensing agreement with Respondus and is also illegal.
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After you have created a game using Study Mate, choose to publish it with the "export as a learning object" option. This will create two files - an htm file and an swf (flash) file. Upload both those files to the internet. Make your link for students to access the file to the htm file.
The student needs a Flash player to use these games. However, 99% of computers have Flash already installed on them. If not, the student can download the free Flash player from this site: http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
GOOD RESOURCES
Web Documents
Melanie also reminded faculty of "hot to" documents created by the CTL staff and available on the Web: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/ctl/helpdocs.html
Free Software to Create pdf files
If you don't own Adobe Acrobat software, you can still create pdf files for your students. The advantage of a pdf file is that the format will stay the same no matter what browser the student uses. You can download the free software to create pdf files from http://www.cutepdf.com
FUTURE EVENTS
There will be no DLMG meeting on November 11 due to Veteran's Day Holiday.
We will meet again on Nov. 18 when Paul Hietter will show us how to use Calibrated Peer Review.