The On-line Handout for
How to Create On-line Materials for Students

By Charles Kelly and Lawrence Kelly
Aichi Institute of Technology (Toyota, Japan)

A Presentation at the TESOL Conference 2001
February 28-March 3, 2001
Friday, 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm, Meeting Room 275

The Kinds of Materials That Can Be Put On-line

Traditional Materials

Just because the Web is new doesn't mean you should abandon things that have always worked well with students. Many of the same things you have always done with paper and recordings can also be done on the Web. Many of these materials can be easily created with the Netscape Composer (Freeware) and the RealAudio Producer (Freeware Version).

Listening Practice

Audio files to listen to

Reading Practice

Pages with text to read

Grammar Practice

Drills

Homework

Example: Find the Mistake and Translation Exercise

Writing Practice

Examples: Where I'd Like to Live, Women in Japan
Example of a form to fill out: Book Report

Puzzles

Example: Junior High School EFL Crossword Puzzle

Pronunciation Practice

Sample file: Word Stress

RealAudio or Flash files meant for "Listen & Repeat" practice.

Quizzes

Java Quizzes

AppletQuiz Applet by Jerry Stanbrough

A sample quiz: http://www.manythings.org/aq/
Advantages: It's free. Multiple-choice, Fill-in, True or False
Disadvantages: Filesize is a little large.

QuizShow Applet by David Griffiths

A sample quiz: http://www.manythings.org/qs/verbs.html

JavaScript Quizzes

Interactive JavaScript Quizzes for ESL Students

You may submit your quiz data to the Internet TESL Journal and they will put the quiz online.
Advantages: It's free. / The quizzes are interactive and game-like. / No advertising on the pages. / Quizzes are proofread again before being uploaded.
Disadvantages: You need to wait until someone else proofreads and uploads the quiz. (However, if you send in the data with a note that you want to use it right away, it can be put online immediately without proofreading and you will be sent the URL where the quiz is.)

Hot Potatoes (Shareware / Conditional Freeware)

You can download an application for either Mac or Windows that allows you to enter quiz data. This data can then be exported to an HTML/JavaScript file.
Advantages: It's fairly easy to use.
Disadvantages: You have to give an email address to register. / The generated filesize is much larger than it needs to be. / Earlier versions of Hot Potatoes generated multiple-file quizzes with framesets. / Requires more mouse-clicking than other similar quiz applications.

The "large file size" disadvantage can be partially offset with An Optimized Version of the Hot Potatoes Multiple-choice Quiz Code
The "you have to give an email address" disadvantage can be ignored if you register for a temporary email address at hotmail.com or similar free email service.

An Interesting Option: Potato Skins (By Brian Nelson) is a freeware Shockwave quiz program that can use the XML files generated by Hot Potatoes.

Marmo Soemarmo's Quiz Templates

Advantages: They're free. / The filesize for each quiz is small, thus the files are fast to download.
Disadvantages: You need to be able to edit HTML code. / Question order is not randomized.

This disadvantage can be overcome by using CK's On-line Quiz Generators

HTML-only Quizzes - Backward compatible to Netscape 2.0

Sample Quizzes: Self-Study Quizzes for ESL Students
Advantages: Easy to use. Allows students to immediately see the correct answer without needing the "latest" browsers. Filesize is small, thus files are fast to download.
Disadvantages: Question order is not randomized. The score is automatically kept by the computer, so they are less game-like.

HTML & WAV Files - Backward compatible to Netscape 2.0

Sample Quizzes: Minimal Pairs: B or V
See immediately above for advantages and disadvantages.

Flash Quizzes

Flash Quizzes for English Study

You may easily create the data and submit it to the Internet TESL Journal. Your data will be proofread and then put online.

American English Pronunciation Practice

Not so easy to create, but this shows you how Flash can be used to create exercises with sound.

RealAudio Quizzes

Listening Comprehension Quizzes

Sample quizzes: Randall's Listening Lab on the Web
At this time, there are no easy-to-use applications to help you do this kind of quiz. However, if you are moderately computer-literate, you can probably figure out how to do this kind of thing.

Listening Cloze Quizzes

Sample quizzes: English Listening Room

Listening / Hearing Minimal Pair Practice & Quizzes

CGI Quizzes, PHP, ASP, etc.

Here is one script: QuizText (By Kristina Pfaff-Harris)

There are quite a few free Perl scripts on the Web that allow you to do quizzes graded by CGI.
Advantages: Some of them can email the results to the teacher.
Disadvantages: Sometimes a little difficult to install. Some servers won't let you use CGI. The time students wait for results is sometimes irritatingly long. Some require using cookies.

Writing Practice

Web forms for the student to fill out.

Example: AIT - English 1 - Web Homework #1

Chat / Message Boards

You can set up your own or use one of the "free" sites.

Flashcards

Examples: http://www.manythings.org/fc/

You may use this "Flashcard Machine" on non-commercial sites

Finding Information on the Internet

Finding Information from Various Sites

Sample pages: Treasure Hunts for ESL Students

Finding Information from One Specific Site

Sample pages: Web Guides for ESL Students
Sample PDF Files: EFL/ESL Lessons Using Web Sites

Word Games / Playing with Vocabulary

Examples of Crossword Puzzles: Crossword Puzzles for ESL Students
Examples of Hangman Games: JavaScript Hangman Games for ESL Students
Examples of Word Search / Word Find Puzzles: Word Find Puzzles for ESL Students
Examples of Scrambled Word Puzzles: Scrambled Words for ESL Students , Scrambled Word Quizzes
www.Quia.com

You can create your own activites.

Hangman, Flashcards, Matching, Concentration, Word Search, Jumbled Words, ....

Advantages: It's free. / Activities are interactive and game-like.
Disadvantages: You must host your creations on their site with advertising on the pages. / You need to register an email address which means you may begin to receive spam. (I've received unsolicited mail from them.)

Tutorials - Explanation of Grammar, etc.

An example of an on-line textbook: Internet Basics for ESL Students

Reference Materials

Glossaries

VocabSearch CGI Script (By Kristina Pfaff-Harris)

Word Lists:

Examples: Brett Reynolds's Word Lists

Class Related Materials

Syllabus

Example: AIT's English 1 Syllabus

All handout passed out in class can be put online for students who were not able to attend class and for students who have lost their handouts.
Old tests can be put online for students to study. This gives all students a chance to see your old tests, not only students who have friends who have taken your class.
Outlines and teaching notes from each class. These can be used by students who have missed a class and by all students for reviewing.

Doing Things on the Internet

Pages with Guides and Explanations on how to ...

... send a virtual greeting card (Christmas, Valentine, ....)
... play games
... do other interesting things on the Web.

A Simple Page of Links (with or without descriptions)

Make a select list of places you think your students should visit.

Sites that make interesting reading.
Sites that provide interesting activities

How to (Effectively) Format Them and Advice on Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Read this: Guidelines for Designing a Good Web Site for ESL Students
By Charles Kelly, The Internet TESL Journal, March 2000

ESL Related Sites We Work On

iteslj.org
The Internet TESL Journal
a4esl.org
Activities for ESL Students
www.manythings.org
Interesting Things for ESL Students

The On-line Handout for How to Create On-line Materials for Students