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Category: Yacapaca

  • Introducing Sequence questions

    Being able to work out a sequence is a classic demonstration of understanding and this makes it a popular assessment option. The new Sequence question type in Yacapaca supports up to 5 items to be sequenced, with text, images or both. It uses a simple and intuitive drag-and-drop interface. This sample quiz will give you…

  • GCSE Exam Practice modules coming in April

    Next January, we intend to launch a new series of professionally written and edited online practice GCSE exams, entirely auto-marked. The aim will be to raise GCSE results by at least one grade level for …

  • This one small accounting change could save every teacher 8 hours per week

    This one small accounting change could save every teacher 8 hours per week

    Here is a fairly typical budget for a smallish 5-teacher department in a mid-sized secondary school: Salaries for 5 teachers (inc. employers’ NI) £215,000 Discretionary (“materials”) budget £1,500 There is a third item that is usually accounted separately, cost of cover staff. If the average teacher is off for 1 week per year – whether…

  • Timed questions help students get in ‘flow’

    It all started one warm Friday afternoon about 12 years ago. I was observing a Y10 class in a fairly typical mainstream secondary school. They were taking a test using Paperless School, a now-defunct system that I had designed. One pair of boys particularly caught my attention. They were lolling back in their chairs, chatting about snooker and doing their…

  • A very short primer on gamification

    Yacapaca is a gamified formative assessment system. I want to discuss briefly what that means, and how we interpret it in software. Gamification is the art of making things you want to do anyway more fun, and more motivating. To understand why this is so powerful, I recommend this 12-minute TED talk by Seth Priebatsch because it…