Quia - Creating Games and Quizzes on the Internet

Creating Games and Quizzes
on the Internet with Quia

Michael Krauss
Contact: krauss@lclark.edu

Institute for the Study of American Language and Culture,
(ISALC) Lewis & Clark College

Click here to see a collection of Quia activities created by teachers using these workshop materials.
Click here to download a PowerPoint Presentation on Quia

Presentation Outline
http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/ortesolwkshopsp2001/home.html

Objectives:

Understand what Quia is and what you can do with it. (My turn!)
Look through the Quia directory for activities you can use in your classes. (Your turn!)
Create a Quia account. (Your turn!)
Create a Quia activity or quiz. (Your turn!)
Create a Quia class page.(Your turn!)
Share your creation with others/contribute ideas for using Quia.(time allowing). (Your turn!)
Look at additional resources after the workshop is over. (Your turn!)
Have fun! (Everyone's turn!)

Understand what Quia is and what you can do with it. (My turn!)
1. Quia is pronounced key-uh and is short for Quintessential Instructional Archive.
2. Quia is a Web site teachers and students can use to create and share online games and quizzes.
3. Quia offers a free, 30 day trial subscription. After the 30 days is over, you can no longer create or edit materials unless you subscribe to Quia for an annual fee of $49.99. There are special prices for groups of teachers and for site licenses. There is no fee to access materials in the Quia Public Directory.
4. What Quia offers: (go to Quia and click "Tour Quia Web now." near the top of the page)
  1. Access to online games and quizzes created for use in over 40 subject areas (searchable).
  2. Click 'n build online games in many formats, including: flashcards, matching, concentration, word search (all created at one time); jumbled words, hangman, challenge board (like Jeopardy), rags to riches (like Millionaire), Scavenger Hunts and more! You can also build surveys with a number of question types and download the results to a spreadsheet such as Excel.
  3. Tools for creating online quizzes (any combo of multiple choice, true/false, pop-up, and short answer questions). Here is a class page with a sample of many game formats that can be created with Quia.
  4. Quiz administration and reporting tools (create quiz sessions: students log in to take quiz, results are tabulated with summaries for each student and/or each question, and printed reports are available)
  5. Class pages (home pages) - Create as many as desired, easily updated, include only activities pertinent to each particular class, include links to additional Web sites. Example: See my Advanced Reading Quia Class Page or Low Intermediate Earth Science Class Page
  6. After you practice with Quia today, you may want to encourage your students to create their own Quia activities and quizzes! In small groups, they'll use their communicative skills in order to create original content that fits your curriculum objectives. What steps are needed to get students creating with Quia? Get some ideas by completing my "Helping Your Students Use Quia!" ordered list puzzle.
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Look through the Quia Shared Activities for activities you can use in your classes. Follow the steps below: (Your turn!)
1. Click here to go to Quia (http://www.quia.com/web/) if you are not already there. Bookmark (or Favorite) the Quia page. Go to "Bookmarks" menu--> "Add Bookmark" if you are using Netscape. Go to "Favorites" menu --> "Add Page to Favorites" if you are using Internet Explorer.
2. Under "Shared Activities" click on English. Find an activity that would work with your students.
3. While playing the activity, you will see a box near the top of the page. Click on "EMail to a friend." Send an Email to *yourself* to remind you of the activity you found.
4. NOTE: After you join Quia (30 days free or one year for $49), you can access *all* of the Shared Activities and search for ones you like using the "Search" feature.
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Create a Quia account. (Your turn!)
1. Return to the Quia home page. (Note: When in Quia, clicking on the Quia logo will always take you to the home page).
2. Click on "Get a 30 day free trial." Enter your login, password and email and click on "Create My 30-day Trial Account." You will end up at the "Instructor Zone."
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Create a Quia activity or quiz.(Your turn!)
1. You are now at the "Instructor Zone." (Note: On all subsequent visits, you'll go to the Quia home page and login with your username and password. Then go to the "Instructor Zone."
2. Take out your list of vocabulary words/matching definitions, which you studiously prepared at home for this workshop! (Or scurry, scurry and make one up now--tsk, tsk!)
3. Click the "Activities" tab. You will see "Create a new activity:" and a pull-down menu beginning with "matching, flashcard, concentration, and/or word search." There are 10 choices of activities.
4. For this, your first time, I would suggest you choose "matching, flashcard, concentration, and/or word search." (also known as "Java Games." By entering one set of data (your vocabulary items and definitions), you'll produce those four activities at once. (It's like a 4 for 1 sale--how can you pass it up?!)
5. Enter the data requested in the boxes provided. (Hint: Don't click the "Back" button on your browser w/o clicking on the "save changes" button at the bottom of the page as you could lose everything you've entered so far!).
6. Click "Submit." You will see, "your game has been created." You will see the Web address (URL) of your game. Write it down! Click on the link to your new activity and play it. Now wasn't that fun and easy?!
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Create a Quia class page (Your turn!)
1. Click on the "Instructor Zone" link at the top of any page in Quia.
2. Click on the "Classes" tab. Click "Create a new class page." Click on "View a Sample Page" to see what a class page might look like. Click the "Back" button on your browser.
3. Fill in the text boxes with the information for your class page. Don't worry if you are not sure of the exact information you want on your page. You can edit it easily at any time.
4. In Section #6 "Your Quia Activities," you will see the activity you just created by clicking on the "Choose from list" pull down menu. Add a description of your activity in the "Description" box. When your Class Page is done, you'll have a link to your activity.
5. In Section #7, you can add links to any Web resources you want by typing in the URL. How about adding the ESL Independent Study Lab at www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html
6. When you finish, click on "Preview changes." When you are satisfied with your class page, click on "Save changes." You will see "your page has been created." You will see the Web address (URL) of your Quia class page. Write it down! Click on the link to see your class page.
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Share your creation with others/contribute ideas for using Quia(time allowing). (Your turn!)
Add your Quia activity to a growing collection of materials accessible to everyone. Have creative ideas for using Quia in the classroom? Tell others!
Click here now to share!

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Look at additional resources after the workshop is over. (Your turn!)
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Have fun! (Everyone's turn!)
I hope that you've already accomplished this final objective, even if you haven't finished all that came before! Enjoy using Quia and good luck in your teaching! Feel free to get in touch with me if you need continued support using Quia!

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Created by: krauss@lclark.edu
Updated: 11/17/04