Foreign Language Teachers' Toolbox

This section includes a number of basic forms which can be easily modified and used as tools of evaluation (e.g., questionnaires, quizzes) or practice (e.g., multiple-choice exercises). Instructors using this site should copy the code which generates the forms, and modify its elements to meet their own needs.

These tools are meant for use by instructors who have access to a server where they can store the forms and present them to their students to access as web pages. The student-instructor communication resulting from the forms is done via e-mail. These forms will only work if the user's machine is configured to send e-mail, and the e-mail program is active.

This form allows users to send feedback via a short e-mail message generated from within a web page. Thus, if a student is assigned work based on a web page, that student can send a feedback message directly from the assignment page.

This form offers a set of multiple-choice questions. The student answers the questions by checking one answer to each question, and upon completion submits the form to the instructor via e-mail.

This form has a set of questions to which the answers are arranged as pull-down menus. The student selects answers from the pull down menu, and upon completion submits the form via e-mail.

This form allows users to answer essay questions or any open-ended questions. The form offers a number of questions with a box next to each in which students type the answers. Upon completion the user submits the form via e-mail.

This form is based on a set of multiple-choice questions. The student answers all the questions, and upon clicking on the "evaluate answers" button receives immediate feedback on the answers which were correct and those which were not. Students can repeat the exercise until all the questions have been answered correctly.

With the exception of the e-mail form, which is generated by a one-line code, all the other forms are introduced on three screens: The first screen shows a sample of the form itself; the second shows the e-mail message which that sample form generates; and the third shows the code which creates the form.

The screen which shows the code (third screen) is formatted in color. The code itself appears in blue, and the elements which are to be modified (that is, the form title and instructions, the questions, the answers, and the e-mail address and subject matter) in pink. The rule of thumb is not to change anything that is blue, for even minor deletions in the code will disable the form.

Users should copy the code from the web page into a simple text program (e.g., SimpleText, BBEdit, Notepad, WordPad), and, working with the colored screen as reference, modify the pink elements as needed. They should then save the form as "formname.html" (e.g., quiz1.html), and try to open it using a web browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer). If the form displays correctly, users can place it on their server, and provide students with a web page that will link to the form.

The sample forms have three or four questions. The questions are separated by spaces in a way which clearly demonstrates what constitutes a single question in the code. In addition, the beginning and the end of a question are marked in a darker shade of blue. Should the instructor want to use more than four questions, he or she need only copy the code for a single question and incorporate it in the form as many times as needed.

© Esther Raizen and Jane Lippmann, The University of Texas at Austin, 2001-2004