Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Schoolwork on a Flexible Schedule: 3 tools for creating online assignments


One of the great things about technology in the classroom is that it can free you and your students up and give you more flexibility in how to deliver instruction as a teacher. As a student, there is the possibility of being to deal with your schoolwork when and how you want (as long as you complete it on tine).

For today's tech tip, I wan to introduce three tools teachers can use to deliver online lessons to students that also allow the teacher to customize, deliver and collect assignments through the web.


Mentormob is a relatively new website on the educational technology scene. The site allows you to create a learning playlist.A teacher (or student). For each step of the playlist, you add a site, file, YouTube video for the learner to view or read. You can also add a pop quiz for each step with multiple choice or true/false questions. I don't believe you can collect the results from learners (at least for free), but learners can get instant feedback on their progress. Once you create a playlist, you can also embed it on a blog or website for others to find and use it.

 Most WEGO  teachers who use Discovery Education Streaming use it to share video content with their own class. But you might not have known that you can also build assignments around specific video clips. You can add assignment directions and questions, quizzes and other content. Once you create the assignment, you can assign it to your a whole class or individual members. You generate a code that students can use to login to the site and complete the assignment. All the work is collected through the site and dropped into your account for grading.


We introduced My Big Campus this year as a tool for creating a virtual classroom for teachers to post announcements, post class materials, etc. But you can also the Schoolwork feature to  create an assignment or a quiz for students. There are a lot of features for customizing the assignment, such as attaching YouTube videos and other content to questions. If the questions are multiple choice, short answer or true/false, you can even have the the program grade the assignment for you. All results are collected and added to your teacher account.

Questions? Let us know.

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