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Multiple Choice |
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Regular |
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Overview |
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This is the traditional Multiple Choice exercise that is used for tests and exam preparation and practice. The Teacher creates up to 99 questions consisting of one or more lines of text, with up to four different options per question. At least one of these options must be correct. The Teacher can add a hint and feedback to each question. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for a Multiple Choice exercise. |
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See also
Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type your question in the space at the top marked Question. You can then type up to four options, which will be laid out on separate rows. At least one option must be correct. The other options are distractors or alternative correct answers. |
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Tips |
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Each time you create a new question, the option that is ticked will randomly change. You can use this feature to help you decide where to place the correct answer. This will make sure that you don't accidentally make most of your first options correct. We suggest that you write the correct answer first in which ever option is ticked and then add your distractors or alternative correct options. If you leave an option empty, Author Plus will simply remove it. |
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True / False type |
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Overview |
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In this Exercise the Teacher sets two possible answers, for example True/False, Past/Present, Possible/Impossible, Vertical/Horizontal, Traditional/Simplified, Masculine/Feminine - the possibilities are endless! The Teacher then sets up to 99 questions, each of which has one of the options as a correct answer. A hint and feedback can be attached to each question. |
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Settings |
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The default options are True/False. However, you can change these by ticking the panel below the True/False panel and typing in alternatives. Examples would be Past/Present or Fruit/Vegetable or Likely/Unlikely. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type your question in the space at the top marked Question. The options you chose on the settings screen will be shown for each question. Tick the one that is correct for this question. |
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Tips |
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This type can be used either as a test of a Learner's understanding of a topic; or as an input activity. For example, if you want to help Learners understand the difference between organic and inorganic materials, use the Question to state the material, and the Feedback box to explain why each one is organic or inorganic. When the Learners do the Exercise they are given explanatory feedback after each question. In this case it is best to set the Marking options to Instant. |
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Dropdown |
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Question-based |
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Overview |
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The Learner sees the sentences with a number of gaps, each with a small triangle next to it. The Learner clicks on the triangle and a panel of options drops down below the line. When the Learner clicks on an option, it appears on the line, while the panel disappears. The Learner can therefore build up a complete text. The Teacher can attach a hint and feedback to each question. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for a Dropdown question based exercise. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your question in the Question box. Select a word or phrase that you want to make into a multiple choice target and click on the Add a dropdown button. A box marked Other answers will then appear on the right of the screen. Click New to add a Wrong option. Or you can add additional correct answers by clicking on Correct in the Other answers box. You can add feedback and hints to each question. |
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Tips |
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This exercise type is an excellent way of exploiting authentic material. Where copyright allows, take any sentences from your tutorial notes and turn them into a grammar or vocabulary exercises. It is also excellent for dialogues - and in Author Plus you can attach the audio file to be played after marking. |
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You can add an unlimited number of Other answers. Don't be tempted to put in too many though, unless it is for a special purpose. The optimum number is between one and three Other answers. |
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Text-based |
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Overview |
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One of the disadvantages of Multiple Choice exercises is that the format of the exercise type means that it must be based around individual questions with the options underneath. The result is that the questions are generally not contextualised. The text-based version of Dropdown enables the Teacher to create a multiple choice within a continuous text. The Learner sees the text with a number of gaps, each with a small triangle next to it. The Learner clicks on the triangle and a panel of options drops down below the line. When the Learner clicks on an option, it appears on the line, while the panel disappears. The Learner can therefore build up a complete text. The Teacher can attach a hint and feedback to each question. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for this exercise type. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text into the main area of the screen. Select a word or phrase that you want to make into a multiple choice target and click on the Add a dropdown button. A box marked Wrong options will then appear on the right of the screen. Click New to add a Wrong option. The Wrong options are the distractors that will be put in the dropdown list that the Learner sees, along with the correct original word/phrase. You can add feedback and hints to each dropdown. |
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Tips |
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Dropdown question based is an excellent way of exploiting authentic material. Where copyright allows, take an authentic article from today's newspaper on the Web and turn it into a grammar or vocabulary exercise. |
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You can add an unlimited number of wrong options. Don't be tempted to put in too many though, unless it is for a special purpose. The optimum number is between one and three wrong options. |
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Gapfill |
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Question-based |
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Overview |
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This is a traditional question-based Gapfill activity where one or more words are removed in up to 99 different sentences. These could be grammar or vocabulary items; they could be general knowledge. They could be the components of a machine or of the human body: the subject matter is entirely within the control of the Teacher. The Learner answers the questions by filling in the gaps. The Teacher can add a hint, feedback and alternative correct answers to each question. |
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Settings |
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| Make all gaps the same length. In Author Plus you can choose to make all gaps the same length as the longest gap in the exercise (plus a bit extra). This helps to remove clues from word length. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your question in the Question box. Then select a word or phrase that you want to make into a gap, and click the Add a gap button. One space will be added to the gap to give room for the Learner to type in the answer. If you want more spaces, use the slider bar. Once you set this, it will stay on that setting until you change it. You can add Alternative correct answers, Feedback and Hints for each question. You can only have one gap per question: if you change your mind about the word or phrase you wish to gap, select your first choice, click the Clear a gap button. Then choose another word or phrase, select it and click the Add a gap button. |
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Tips |
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The longer you make the gap, the greater the possibility that the Learner will find a correct answer that you have not thought of. |
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You can add an unlimited number of Alternative correct answers to your question. However, if there are more than three or four, you probably haven't written a very good question! The best Gapfill questions make it very clear what the Learner is supposed to write. |
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You probably have many Gapfill exercises that you have created in MS Word. Why not paste these into Author Plus and turn them into interactive online activities? |
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Top |
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Text-based |
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Overview |
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In the original Cloze exercise, the first and last sentences of a text of 250 words are left complete, and in the remainder of the text every fifth word is removed. In this version, the Teacher types or pastes in a text, and has complete control over which words are removed and which remain. Each question can be supplemented with a hint, feedback and alternative correct answers. |
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Settings |
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| Make all gaps the same length. You can choose to make all gaps the same length as the longest one in the exercise (plus a bit extra). This helps to remove clues from word length. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text into the box on the content screen. Then select a word or phrase that you want to make into a gap, and click the Add a gap button. One space will be added to the gap to provide room for the Learner to type in the answer. If you want more spaces, use the slider bar. Once you set this, it will stay on that setting until you change it. You can add Alternative correct answers, Feedback and Hints for each of the gaps you create. To do this, simply click on the gap and add the Feedback, Hints and Alternative correct answers below. |
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Tips |
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This exercise type is a very effective way of testing whether Learners can apply their knowledge in context. |
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If you are teaching a language, contact a local newspaper in that language and ask whether you can use stories from their online edition to make online exercises. Many newspapers will say yes, provided the exercises are for educational use. |
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Drag and Drop |
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Question-based |
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Overview |
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The Teacher creates up to 99 questions and removes a word, phrase or number from each question. When the Learner does the Exercise, the words that have been removed are represented by a line with a dot on top, and the words themselves are jumbled up in a non-scrolling bar at the top of the screen. The Learner has to drag each item down to the correct question. The Teacher can attach a hint, feedback and alternative correct answers to each question. |
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Settings |
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| Use each drag more than once. You can choose either to disable each drag once you have used it once (this is the default) or to let it be dragged many times. If you choose the latter, any duplicated drags will be removed so you may have fewer drags than drops. This setting is especially useful where Learners have to choose between two items to complete all the sentences (eg Do/Does). |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type your question into the box at the top of the screen marked Question. Select a word or phrase that you want to make into a drop and click the Add a drop button. You can add feedback and a hint for the question at the bottom of the screen. |
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| You can add alternative correct answers for any drop. You can also add distractors that will appear as drags, but are not correct answers. |
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Tips |
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To get the drags to line up nicely in columns at the top of the page, try to choose words/phrases of similar lengths to be the drops. |
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This is a good exercise type to test learners' knowledge of vocabulary or terminology. In each question, type the definition of the word, and then, below that, the word or term itself. Then select the word, click on Add a drop, add any feedback you wish to, and repeat the process with the next question. |
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Top |
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Text-based |
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Overview |
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In this Exercise, the Teacher types or pastes a text into the text box. The text could be a story, a historical account, a description of a system, a business letter or report - or any other piece of writing. Words, phrases, dates or facts of any kind can be removed from the text. When Learners sees the text they have to reconstruct it by dragging the missing items to the correct place. The Teacher can add hints and feedback to each item removed. |
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Settings |
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| Use each drag more than once. You can choose either to disable each drag once you have used it once (this is the default) or to let it be dragged many times. If you choose the latter, any duplicated drags will be removed so you may have fewer drags than drops. This setting is especially useful where Learners have to choose between two items to complete all the sentences (eg Do/Does). |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text into the main area of the screen. Select a word or phrase that you want to make into a drop and click on the Add a drop button. You can add feedback and hints to each drop. Simply highlight that drop and type into the Feedback/Hints box below. |
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| You can add alternative correct answers for any drop and you can also add distractors that will appear as drags, but are not correct answers. |
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Tips |
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To get the drags to line up nicely in columns at the top of the page, try to choose words/phrases of similar lengths to be the drops. |
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Note that if your drops are too close together, Learners will need to be quite careful in dropping in the correct place. So if for any reason they lack these fine motor skills, it would be sensible to space the drops out. |
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Top |
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Target Spotting |
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Question-based |
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Overview |
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This is a question-based exercise where the learner has to either find targets hidden in a sentence, or targets that are highlighted in order to learn something about them. |
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Settings |
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No highlighting. Use this setting to stop the mouse from highlighting the target when the Learner moves the mouse over it. To completely blend the target into the rest of the questions, don't change formatting of the target. |
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Neutral marking. Use this setting to make the targets neither right nor wrong. This is useful for exercises that present a point and explain why the targets are used as they are. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your question in the Question box. You can use the formatting tools to highlight certain words or phrases. |
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Tips |
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If you do not have Neutral marking, the targets can be correct or wrong. |
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Text-based |
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Overview |
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This is an exercise where the learner has to either find targets hidden in a text, or has to click on targets that are highlighted in order to learn something about the target. |
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Settings |
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No highlighting. Use this setting to stop the mouse highlighting the target when the Learner moves the mouse over the target. To completely blend the target into the rest of the text, don't change formatting of the target. |
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Neutral marking. Use this setting to make the targets neither right or wrong. This is useful for exercises that present a point and want to explain why the targets are used as they are. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text in the main area. You can use the formatting tools to highlight certain words or phrases. |
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Tips |
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If you do not have neutral marking, the targets can be correct or not. So you can create target spotting that includes distractors. |
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Proofreading |
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Finding mistakes |
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Overview |
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This is an exercise where the learner has to find mistakes in a text. It is a variation of target spotting, with the rubric and marking colour scheme changed appropriately. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for Proofreading. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text in the main area. You can use the formatting tools to highlight certain words or phrases. |
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Tips |
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This can be a good exercise to place at the beginning of a unit / course to show Learners bad examples, which can then be elaborated upon in later exercise. |
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Correcting mistakes |
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Overview |
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This is an exercise where the learner has to find mistakes in a text and type in the correct answer. Each answer can be supplemented with a hint, feedback and alternative correct answers. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for Proofreading. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text in the main area. You can use the formatting tools to highlight certain words or phrases. |
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Tips |
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Make sure the Learners are equipped with the relevant knowledge before asking them to do this exercise, or they will have no idea what the correct answers should be. |
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Presentation |
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Question-based |
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Overview |
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This is a presentation where the Teacher can type or paste individual sentences. This could be an explanation, a descriptive text, a point from a textbook, a statistic result from a newsletter or a website. This is excellent for presenting main points. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for a question-based Presentation exercise. |
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See also Adding multimedia options. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your points in the box one by one. You can use formatting tools to highlight certain words or phrases. |
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Tips |
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Use this exercise type to create pronunciation exercises by adding the audio file to each sentence and asking the Learners to use the Recorder to repeat the sentences. |
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Text-based |
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Overview |
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This is a presentation or introduction screen where the Teacher can type or paste in a text. This could be an explanation, a descriptive text, an extract from a textbook, a newspaper article or a website. Excellent for initial input or final summary. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for a Presentation exercise. |
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See also Adding multimedia options. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text in the main area. You can use the formatting tools to highlight certain words or phrases. |
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Tips |
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If you are using a long text, make it more readable by including blank lines between paragraphs and by adding headings where appropriate. |
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Text reconstruction |
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Text-based |
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Overview |
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The Teacher types or pastes in a text. When the learner sees it, each word is represented only as a line. Learners have to guess the words and build up the text. The more words they guess, the more use they can make of context to deduce the remaining words. The Exercise can be more valuable if the Learner is able to see the text before beginning. This can either be done by using the text in previous exercises, or by using the option to display the text before the Learner begins the Exercise. Some words are impossible to guess (eg many proper nouns and numbers). The teacher can specify that these should not be blanked out by selecting them and clicking on Include a word. |
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Settings |
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Make the Exercise case sensitive - selecting this option will mean that if the Learner types 'the' it will NOT match with 'The' in the text. Capital and lower case letters must match exactly. |
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Uniform gap length - selecting this option means that all the gaps that the Learner sees are the same length and they cannot get any clues about the words from how long they are. Use the slider bar to control how long the gap is. |
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| Use character marker - this enables you to select a character (eg ? or * or -) to replace each of the letters in the hidden words. The Learner therefore knows the exact length of each word. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text into the box on the content screen. Then select any words or phrases that should not be blanked out, and click on Display a word. There is no feedback for countdown and hints are included automatically by creating anagrams of any blanked out word. |
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Tips |
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Use Text reconstruction as the final consolidation of a text you have been working on - or as the introduction to something new. If you use it as an introduction, make sure you give plenty of clues. |
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Restrict the size of your text. It is a fun exercise, but can become boring if it takes too long. |
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Reading comprehension |
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Multiple Choice |
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Overview |
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The Student reads a text on the left hand side of the screen. On the right hand side are Multiple Choice questions relating to the text. The student answers these questions with the help of (optional) hints, and receives (optional) feedback at the end of the Exercise. The teacher may also create links to external websites from within the text. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for a Multiple choice exercise in Reading comprehension. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text on the left. Type your question in the space at the top marked Question. You can then type up to four options, which will be laid out on separate rows. At least one option must be correct. The other options are distractors or alternative correct answers. Optionally, type feedback or a hint for each question in the Feedback/Hint box below the Question and Options. |
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Tips |
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As in Multiple Choice, each time you create a new question, the option that is ticked will randomly change. You can use this feature to help you decide where to place the correct answer. This will make sure that you don't accidentally make most of your first options correct. We suggest that you write the correct answer first in which ever option is ticked and then add your distractors or alternative correct options. If you leave an option empty, Author Plus will simply remove it. |
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This exercise is useful for reading comprehension or for testing your Students' understanding of any sort of text you want them to read. If you are using a long text, make it more readable by including blank lines between paragraphs and by adding headings where appropriate. |
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Gapfill |
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Overview |
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The Student reads a text on the left hand side of the screen. On the right hand side are Gapfill questions relating to the text. The student answers these questions with the help of (optional) hints, and receives (optional) feedback at the end of the Exercise. The teacher may also create links to external websites from within the text. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for a Gapfill exercise in Reading comprehension. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text on the left. Type your question in the space at the top marked Question. Optionally, type feedback or a hint for each question in the Feedback/Hint box below the Question and Options. |
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Dropdown |
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Overview |
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The Student reads a text on the left hand side of the screen. On the right hand side are Dropdown questions relating to the text. The student answers these questions with the help of (optional) hints, and receives (optional) feedback at the end of the Exercise. The teacher may also create links to external websites from within the text. |
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Settings |
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There are no special settings for a Dropdown exercise in Reading comprehension. |
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See also Adding multimedia options and Marking. |
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Content |
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Type or paste your text on the left. Type your question in the space at the top marked Question. Optionally, type feedback or a hint for each question in the Feedback/Hint box below the Question and Options. |
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Top |
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