Software evaluation

1
Software evaluation

• Hot potatoes

2
What is Hot Potatoes?

• The Hot Potatoes suite is a software package
  that includes a set of six authoring tools. It
  was created by the Research and Development team
  at the University Of Victoria Humanities
  Computing and Media Center.

3
Can the software be made available to many
students?

• The software enables the teacher to create
  interactive Web-based teaching exercises which
  can be delivered to any Internet-connected
  computer equipped with a browser.

4
What platform (computer type) does the software
require?

• The exercises use JavaScript and HTML for
  interactivity, and will work in Netscape
  Navigator and Internet Explorer versions 4 and
  above on both Windows and Macintosh platforms.

5
How do the programs work?

• 1. Enter your data.
• You type in the basis for your exercises -
  questions, answers, feedback.
• 2. Adjust the configuration.
• You put in information used to compile the Web
  pages( captions for navigation buttons,
  instructions for students, etc.).
• 3. Create your Web pages.
• This is simply a matter of pressing the Export
  to Web button on the toolbar.

6
Does the software requires Internet access?

• You need Internet access to be able to deliver
  interactive exercises to the students.

7
Can you afford the software?

• If you work in a non-profit-making educational
  institution or like context, and you are prepared
  to share your exercises by placing them on a
  publicly-accessible Web server, you may use the
  Hot Potatoes suite free of charge. Otherwise, you
  will need to by a license.

8
Can Hot Potatoes be used with other languages?

• Hot potatoes can help create Web sites in
  French, German or any other languages based on
  Roman characters. Hot Potatoes also has partial
  support for non-roman languages with Unicode
  tools.

9
What is the goal of this software?

• The goal of the software is to enable you to
  create six basic types of the interactive
  Web-based exercises
• - multiple-choice quizzes
• - gap- fill exercises
• - crosswords
• - jumbled-sentence exercises
• - ordering exercises
• - matching exercises.

10
Is the software user friendly?

• Hot Potatoes is easy to download and use.
  Although, the exercises use JavaScript, you dont
  need to know Javascript to use the program. All
  you need is to enter the data text, questions,
  and answers - and the program will create Web
  pages for you, and you can then upload them to
  your server.

11
Can video and sound be added to Hot Potatoes
pages?

• Sound and video can be added to Hot Potatoes
  pages by linking them to other files.