Exercise editor

Exercise editor

The exercise editor in Sanako Connect is a powerful tool for creating your own exercises. You can pick and choose the features you want to use in your exercise, use any premade materials, or even create the materials on the fly to create exactly the kind of exercise you want to create. 

Accessing the exercise editor 

The editor can be found from the Session Dashboard under Teaching resources. The editor is also available inside sessions, under the Exercises tab

Exercise editor in the Dashboard
Exercise editor in the Teaching resources
Exercise editor inside a session, under the Exercises tab

Using the editor

Exercises are created by dragging and dropping the different content, tasks or file parts from the right side of the editor to the left side. You can also click any part to instantly add it to the exercise. 

 

CONTENT parts on the right side of the editor

Text – allows you to add text to the exercise. This can be e.g. instructions, prompts, chapters from a book and so on. The editor also supports images.

Embed content – This is a more advanced feature. It can be used to include content from other websites that generate embed codes – like Google Maps for example.

Youtube embed – This part allows you to embed Youtube-videos within your exercises. Vimeo and Daily motion are also supported.

Webpage embed – This part allows you to embed an entire web page within the exercise. Note that some websites don’t allow embedding, so it’s a good idea to check if the embedded page is displayed properly before sharing the exercise with your students.

At the bottom of the exercise editor list, you will find additional options for including images, audio, video and files in your exercise, under Files.

TASKS parts

Recorders

There are three different recorders in Connect – Simple, Advanced and Video. The difference between them is explained below. This how they look like when used in an exercise:

The use cases for these recorders are explained below:
 
Simple recorder – This part adds a recorder to your exercise. Your students click on the red microphone button to record themselves. This recorder can be used when you only want to record the students voice. 
 
Advanced recorder – This part is a two-track recorder. This means that there’s an assignable master track, and another track for recording student audio. You can use audio and .mp4 video files as the master track. You can also easily record yourself as the master track by clicking on the Record audio button:  

 

Advanced Recorder in Sanako Connect

Recording yourself is a quick and convenient way to create ‘Repeat after me’ exercises. Simply click on record, read your list of words or sentences and the recording is automatically assigned as the master track.

Video recorder – This part adds a video recorder to your exercise. Your students can record themselves by using their webcams. This can be used for presentations, recorded responses to questions and so forth. 

OTHER TASKS PARTS

File upload – This part allows your students to upload files which are included when they submit the exercise. For example, a Word document essay, their presentation etc.
 
Writing space – This part allows your students to write long form answers. These are answers are not automatically graded.
 
Multiple choice – This part allows you to create multiple choice questions. They are automatically graded after students submit the answers back to you.
 
Q&A – This part allows you to create questions with a definitive correct answer. These are also automatically graded when students submit the answers back to you.
 
Gapfill – This part allows you to create gapfill / fill in the blanks type of exercises. Simply copy and paste text in, highlight a section and click on ‘Gap’ to create the gaps.
 
Pronunciation  – This part allows you to create automatically graded pronunciation exercises in various supported languages. Connect automatically converts your inserted text into spoken audio in the target language. Your students will listen, then repeat and finally receive an automated score based on their pronunciation. When they submit their work, you will see how many times they tried the sentence or vocabulary item in question, what score they received and can listen back to their recording for final review. 
 
Flash cards – This part allows you to create flashcard decks for your students, for example when learning new vocabulary items. 
 
Matching pairs – This part allows you to create an exercise where students have to match items. As an example, this could be used to match words in their native language to their equivalent in the target language. 
 
FILES
 
At the end of the editor item list, you will find the file area. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These buttons allow you to add images, audio files, video files, or any kind of files to the exercise. You can also use the Audio button to record audio, Video button to record your webcam or My exercises button to pick materials from your My exercises area.

Changing the order of parts within an exercise

You can simply drag and drop the parts to any order you wish within an exercise. The easiest way to do this is to first click on Show headers only to collapse the parts, like below:

Dividing an exercise into different pages

 
To create pages within an exercise, drag the parts over to the New page area
 
Dividing exercise into pages
 

Sharing an exercise to your students

Inside a session
Find the exercise from the exercise list and click on the Shared toggle: 

Shared toggle location

The exercise is now available to all students who are in the session, or join later. This is a convenient way to create self-study materials as well, or even homework. 

Sharing from Teaching resources

If you created the exercise under Teaching resources and want to share it within a session, click on the three dots next to the exercise name, click Copy to session and then choose the session you want to use the exercise in: 

Then, join that session as a teacher, go to the Exercises tab and click on the Shared toggle as above.