Setting homework online and monitoring its progress.

[Bad Idea]

Hi Fellow Teachers,

I'm looking for a website, platform or an app which would allow me to set homework for my students and monitor their progress. I'd like the homework to be set in a form of interactive exercises which can be done online and I'd like to be able to check if the homework has already been done - and if so - when, how much, with what result and by whom. In other words - total surveillance ;)

I know that Testmoz offers some of the options I need, as well as Kahoot and Quizizz but perhaps there are more I don't know about, well, I'm sure there are! Can you help me find them, please? Any little drop of info is welcome

Annie

[Skrej]

How about Socrative? I haven't used in in a few years, but as I recall it had some games based on user-created quizzes. Various options for polling, too.

Have you looked at a LMS (Learning Management System) such as Canvas, Moodle, or Blackboard? I've never used Moodle, but I know Blackboard and Canvas have free versions. (Actually,I guess Moodle is open source, but requires you to provide the hosting). They're a bit more involved, but allow you to create full classes on them. They're widely used (at least in the US) across not only the K-12 system, but also in universities and colleges, which might give you a better sense of just how serious an educational tool they can be. You can easily integrate external apps such as Google Drive, Microsoft Office, Youtube, and a wide variety of others, although some of that functionality might be limited in the free versions, I'm not sure.

They don't have much of a 'gaming' element to them, but they have a wide variety of options for quizzes - multiple choice, essay, t/f, fill in the black, etc. You can also embed documents and video. Students can upload audio and video as well as part of an assignment. For example I frequently give students an assignment to record themselves talking in English, and then they have to upload that file. There are options to set assignments for points, or simply complete/incomplete if you're not worried about an actual grade.

They all have built-in grade books and attendance logs which make it pretty easy to not only track progress, but missing or late assignments. You can prepare elements (instructional pages, quizzes, etc.) ahead of time and either manually turn them on or set them to automatically appear (or disappear) at designated times. You can arrange things in modules if you like, and assign quizzes or assignments to the entire group, or only certain individuals as you wish.

Canvas (and perhaps the others) has a highly functional mobile app that makes it easy for students to access and complete assignments without necessarily having to be tied down in front of a computer - something my student athletes really appreciate when they're absent from class for sanctioned school events. They just log into their accounts, and can read any information I've posted, as well as download files or complete assigned quizzes, etc.

The drawback to these LMS options are that they aren't really interactive in the since of 'edutainment', but you might be able to find add-ons or plugins for them to do that. I'm not sure and haven't explored that path.

[Bad Idea]

Thank you so much, Skrej! I've never heard of any of the platforms you suggested. I feel humbled as to myself I was a Net-savvy teacher. The whole idea of an LMS seems to be quite complicated but I'll give it a go and see if I can teach myself to use it. As far as I can see the platforms are free to use which is a relief since everything I've managed to find so far comes with paid advanced options (e.g. monitoring the progress of my students) which at the moment is a huge problem for me.

Just a quick note for others who are looking for an option to set (and monitor) homework online. Since I started this thread, I've found two other websites which enable that. One of them is extremely popular and I've been using it from time to time - just didn't know it offers advanced options for teachers - of course if you pay for them - it's Quizlet. Another one is Wordwall - I imagine this one would be really entertaining for students but it allows you to create your own interactive content only if you pay for the option. However, you can set (and monitor) some ready-made exercises for free.

Skrej, thank you once again

[Bad Idea]

Sorry for replying to my own thread but I think I've finally found a website which will let me set homework and track my students' progress. If this is something you're looking for, look no more, it seems liveworksheets.com is the answer to your problems I found the information here - I encourage you to read it if you're interested. Looks promising! Haven't tried it yet but I'm working on it.