Using live, interactive worksheets in online classes

Firstly, I have to say that I’m not a great fan of using worksheets. I think that there can be a lot of disadvantages and negative aspects, and they are often used without a thought to their suitability for the learners involved. Pre-made worksheets can be demotivating and unrealistic, in that they will focus exclusively on the target language in unnatural utterances. They can also tend to promote a more teacher-centred classroom, with a focus on the ‘correct’ answer and may give the false impression that language is always neatly packaged like this. There is often little interaction, communication with others or thought required to complete many worksheet. Have you ever have noticed that, after the lessons, worksheets sometimes tend to end up either in the bin or left lying on the table in the classroom, as they leave the room. Have you ever walked into a class to be confronted by this situation from a previous class? For the students who carefully file them away to take them home, I have noticed a tendency to be unable to recall what was actually learned and have seen students search through a large file of worksheets, which they carry with them to be able to locate the information. They know that they've studied this point already, but they have not retained the information. Worksheets tend to be either boring and too easy or, confusing in what is being asked.

As long as excessive use is not made of them, worksheets can be useful for limited purposes such as drilling and controlled practice, for the students and the teacher to ascertain if the basic point has been understood and the learners are able to use the language in a highly controlled way; for  providing a quick idea for homework to reinforce and revise something that has been the focus of the lesson; and for assessment, for example. They are also used to practice for exams like IELTS, where the skills of matching, multiple choice, true /false/not given etc are tested. Worksheets tend to come in many varieties: matching; wordsearches; jumbled sentences; sorting and categorizing; labelling a diagram; multiple choice; gap fill. Many of the types of exercises that crop up in worksheets have their own specific disadvantages- especially in terms of suitability for assessment- such as being too easy to guess, too easy to match, or the randomness of ‘true/false’ answers of showing inaccurate levels of ability. 

Any value in using them is very often negated by thoughtlessly and hurriedly chosen worksheets.

Of course, one way to minimize many of these issues is to produce your own materials with your particular learners’ needs in mind. It doesn’t really take a lot of expertise, as I found out when I started making all my own materials during my recent DipTESOL.  There really is very little need nowadays to resort to using generic, ready-made worksheets. There is the additional problem that many of these worksheets are not checked and are full of errors. This is extremely embarrassing to give such materials to your students, as it gives a very poor impression of the teacher. Additionally, by the time you have located something suitable for your purposes it is often quicker to just make your own version. It is actually relatively simple to produce your own. It is well worth the effort for the satisfaction you feel when you have provided the learners with something more meaningful, motivating and personalized. 

I found that when I started making my own personalized materials that the learners generally really appreciated them and responded well. They were full of details that were relevant for them, which they could relate to, and they were up to date. Even if your efforts are not always perfect, it is important to get feedback from the students about what they did and didn’t enjoy, so that you can learn from your mistakes and improve them for the next time.

When we were all forced to suddenly transfer all our classes online last year, I began to wonder what the best way would be to create online worksheets from my Pdfs . There are many ways that worksheets can be shared with students, such as sending them the Pdf, or making them into editable Google files on Google Slides, by turning it into an image, saving it as background and adding text boxes. Some people also share it in Google Classroom. However, in the end its still basically a version of the same worksheet and being used in the same way as you would do it in a face-to-face classroom.

I’m all about making the best use of the unique learning opportunities that are afforded by the online context, so I thought it was a great idea to be able to produce your own digital interactive worksheets. I’m going to describe just one way of doing this that I have successfully used with my learners, LiveWorksheets. With this resource you can easily make all your own printed worksheets into interactive worksheets, with the option of having self-correction or sending it direct to the teacher. Once completed, the learner clicks ‘finish’ then selects ‘check my answer’ or ‘email my answer to my teacher’.  If you do not yet feel confident enough to try creating your own, there are many ready made ones for you to try out.  It’s a very easy process, but there is also a video tutorial to walk you through every step involved in creating the different types, such as multiple choice, drag and drop, matching items and joining them with arrows etc. You can even add sound and video and design speaking exercises where the students use the microphone. You just upload you own Pdf, and then it is saved as an image for you to draw text boxes and enter the correct answers. Then you can preview, save and share it with the students by using the link. There are very few commands needed, even to make very elaborate worksheets. It is extremely simple.

I find this resource particularly useful for the Flipped Classroom, as students can maybe watch a video or read an explanation and then complete the exercise to check understanding, before coming to the next lesson fully prepared to participate in activities that use Higher Order Thinking Skills. It is also useful when you want to encourage more learner autonomy with students working in breakout rooms. Once the students are finished, they can independently check their answers and then move on, without having to wait for the teacher to come round every room.  In addition it is good for differentiation, for the same reason. Students can work at their own speed and complete a number of different tasks without being held up by slower classmates, or conversely, without being unduly rushed.

In my opinion, a major advantage of using resources such as these in online classes is that they  remove the wasted time in class, at the end of an exercise, when the teacher typically goes through every answer and elicits the responses from individual students. You can get quick feedback from the learners as to their performance and can sort out any problems they encountered and then move on. If the learners answers are sent to you, you will also have that evidence.

Here’s an example of one I made and used . Its about giving advice for online learning and is aimed at Pre-Intermediate level A2/B1