Create an interactive fill-in-the-blanks question which automatically marks and provides feedback to students.
Stile's Interactive canvas widget lets you create a whole range of engaging activities for your students. One example of these activities is the cloze task. A cloze task is a great way to measure reading comprehension as well as understanding of a concept or topic.
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How to build a cloze task
1. Add the Interactive canvas widget
From Prepare mode, click on the Add content bar, and then click and drag the Interactive canvas to the spot in the Lesson you'd like to create the cloze task.
2. Add the background element
The background element is the paragraph or sentence which contains the blank spaces for your students to fill in.
The Text tool lets you add and edit text, while the 'padlock' lets you lock the text in place so that students are unable to interact with that portion of the canvas. Elements can be locked and unlocked as many times as you require throughout the editing process.
3. Add the source elements
The source elements are the objects that the students interact with, i.e. what they drag and drop into the locked background element. In the above example, those are Earth, Moon and Sun.
4. Set up automatic marking
To enable automatic marking, you next need to define the target areas for each of the moveable elements.
To do this, use the cursor to select one of your answer options and then click on the Marking tool button (check mark) on the right end of the toolbar. This will activate the auto-marking tool, making it possible to draw out a target area that designates where you want the students to place that object. Use your mouse to click and drag, selecting the area to be marked.
This target area will appear as a green rectangle, indicating the correct area. When you let go of your mouse, a dialogue box will appear which lets you add optional written feedback for students who placed the response into the correct space.
Example below:
5. Leave automated feedback for incorrect answers
It is also possible to add feedback if students place an object in the wrong area. If students placed the Sun anywhere but the last blank space, you may want to let them know why that's incorrect. Use. the marking tool again for the same answer object and it will default to a red box. This isn't necessary, but it allows you to add written feedback as to why that answer was wrong.
6. Create a model answer
Click over to the Model answer tab to create a display of how the Interactive canvas should look when completed correctly.
Simply move the editable elements into their correct position within the locked task and save the changes once completed.
How students interact with the activity
Using the Preview as student button at the top of your Lesson, you can view with the task as students will see it, as well as complete the activity to ensure that everything is working correctly. To learn more about previewing a lesson as a student, see this article here.
Complete the activity and select I'm finished, show my teacher which will return results and feedback to you if it is not an assessed Lesson.
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