Yacapaca

Great teachers spend less time marking and more time teaching

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  • Who uses Yacapaca?

    According to Jose Picardo, it’s “los yacapaquistas“. Jose corrected my ‘yacapacistas’, saying “I would say “yacapaquistas” to keep the voiceless velar plosive sound (k)“.

    So now you know.

  • ‘Textbook mode’ authoring competition

    I am really pretty chuffed with new capabilities of Yacapaca free-text tasks, and I think you will be too. You really can create sophisticated interactive resources in minutes, with no training.

    To stimulate your creative juices, I’m offering a prize of an iPod shuffle for the best resource produced by the end of Feb. OK, so it’s only Shuffle, but that’s not the point. This one’s a Yacapaca shuffle and it comes with a great story about how you won it.

    Here is what to do to win the iPod:

    1. Watch the screencast to learn how to use Textbook Mode.
    2. Review the sample from the video: Maths G&T Extensions. By the way, I really did create that from scratch in 5 minutes; the video is completely uncut.
    3. Review my other demo, Geological features in the landscape.
    4. Create your resource. Incorporate images, embed videos or slideshows… let your imagination be your guide.
    5. Tell me about it, by emailing support@yacapaca.com before March 1st. Remember to tell me what colour iPod you want!

    The judging panel will be made up of experienced Yacapaca authors. Their criteria for selecting the winner will be that it best combines fun and teachability.

    I am only expecting a few entries for this competition, so you have an excellent chance of winning. I’m already looking forward to seeing your entry!

  • VLE integration, international content, new authoring tools…

    Last weekend we updated Yacapaca with four new features that I hope you will find useful. You will need a (free) Yacapaca login to follow the links

    • Better VLE integration
      You can now access permalinks from your Assignments List.
    • Content for different countries is now organised separately
      Use the Country Selector to choose your country, or to explore what is available elsewhere.
    • Search within a subject
      It is now much easier to find just the test, quiz or free-text task you were looking for.
    • New content authoring tool
      ‘Textbook Mode’ lets you produce some really sophisticated interactive resources, and it is very easy to use. Here is a simple demonstration: Geological features in the landscape. If you are a Yacapaca author, look forward to a competition announcement for the best resources using this feature.

  • How to give formative feedback

    I’m talking here particularly about feedback in multiple-choice quizzes.

    For correct responses, do…

  • Teacher-created content just gets better and better

    If I had to pick one favourite from this month’s new courses, it would be Heidi Watkins’ very visual quiz on Maslow’s Hierarchy. But what characterises all of these new courses is their level of sophistication. Very graphic quizzes, high-quality formative feedback and thorough documentation are all in evidence.

    Here are my top 9 picks, listed by subject.

    Subject Title Author Description
    UK Biology Biology GCSE Nicola Fergurson at Okehampton College A thorough set of 5 quizzes for OCR Gateway, standard and higher tier. The questions are well written, though as they lack feedback, this is purely summative assessment.
    UK Business Cert. in Financial Studies U2 James Percival at Turin Grove School I really enjoyed trialling these 7 summative quizzes from the CeFS course, which I had not heard of before. Highly commended.
    UK Business Human Resources Heidi Watkins at King Charles 1 School Try the quiz on Maslow – it’s beautifully done!
    AUS Business Health and Safety in the Workplace John Crawley from the Chisholm Institute This set of tasks supports part of the Australian Diploma in Business. The tasks themselves form a straightforward framework in which the author has slotted some very comprehensive documentation.
    UK German German Grammar Practice Alastair McCullough at the Methodist College, Belfast How frustrating. I scored only 40% on Endings. 7 well-structured quizzes, though the naming convention is a little hard to follow.
    UK ICT 7.3 Healthy Living Anon What I really like about these four ePortfolio tasks is that the author has built in all the documentation, including lesson plans. A very sophisticated resource.
    USA Literacy Literacy Chris Reall at Roanoke City Public Schools, Virginia Check out ‘Organising Ideas’ to get a feel of the style. Fingers crossed Chris will add some more to this excellent beginning.
    UK Physics AQA Physics P1 & P2 Ralph Holmes at Langle School Ralph has further extended and reorganised his award-winning Physics course to include regular revision quizzes as well as topics. The structured route to better exam results.
    UK Science How Science Works Jeremy Reading at Presdales School These three short quizzes on the scientific method are some of the best Science resources on Yacapaca, in my opinion. The questions are well-written with good, formative feedback that challenges the students to think more deeply.