How do I create a choice activity?
A choice activity is very simple – the teacher asks a question and specifies a choice of multiple responses. It can be useful as a quick poll to stimulate thinking about a topic; to allow the class to vote on a direction for the course; or to gather research consent.
Choice requires some preparation time for creating your activity and thinking about what results you would like to achieve, but your participation with activity itself is likely to be minimal.
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Choose "Choice" from the '"Add an activity..." drop-down menu.
Provide a name for the activity.
Identify the text that places the choices in context.
This description can be as simple as: Choose your favorite color.
Choose whether you want to limit a certain number of responses to a particular choice.
If Limits are disabled then any number of participants can select any of the options.
Once Limits have been enabled, each option can set a limit. When the limit is reached then no-one else can select that option. A limit of zero (0) means that no-one can select that choice. This is an excellent tool for allowing participants to place themselves into groups, while making sure any one group doesn't get over-subscribed.
Add your choice options.
Place the name of each choice in the blank.
If you have enabled limits, choose the total number of participants who can choose that option.
If you require more choices, click the "Add 3 fields to a form" button.
If you want to restrict the answering time to a time period, configure the dates.
Configure the "look and feel" of the display.
1) The results can be presented in a horizontal or vertical graph.
2) If desired, the results can be published to participants under differerent conditions (e.g. after they answer, only after the choice is closed, always).
3) If results are published to participants, decide whether to show participant names or not with the choices.
4) Allow participants to update their choice (prior to the close).
5) Show the column of participants who have not selected a choice.
Click the "Save and display" button at the bottom of the page.
View the new choice activity.
1) Based on your configuration, you will see the choice text and the options.
2) Instructors can also click a link to see the responses.
Educational Benefits of Using Choice
Instructionally, the choice activity can be used to provide an opportunity to share starting points through which learners are encouraged to think about and articulate existing knowledge and understandings of a topic. For example, you can ask students to make ‘choices’ about a statement such as “in learning to become a teacher, the most significant issue for me is” (giving the following choices): trust, theoretical underpinnings, communication or delivering materials to students.
This has two benefits:
1) it forces participants to engage with their choice and think, in advance of a further related activity (you might wish to follow up such a choice activity with a forum discussion or a reflective activity like the online text assignment), about the context and consequences of this choice.
2) it allows tutors and students to gain a better understanding of existing views/understandings/knowledge related to the question, idea or concept at hand in the Choice activity.
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