Creating a listening task:

1. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com and click 'Listening'.
2. The default name for the task is 'Listening activity'.  Highlight this to edit.
3. Enter instructions for the students above the audio player.
4. Input your listening materials

Specifying how students should respond: 

1. To set questions requiring written answers, click 'Text' under 'Response' in the right hand panel.
2. To set automatically marked multiple choice questions click 'Multiple Choice'.
3. Other kinds of activity may be created similarly.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

Create a reading task:

1. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com and click 'Reading'.
2. The default name for the task is 'Reading activity'.  Highlight this to edit.
3. Enter your instructions in the space provided. You can paste the entire reading text here, or simply enter a textbook page reference.  You can also add a link to any resource on the internet. How to add a link

Specifying how students should respond: 

1. To set questions requiring written answers, click 'Text' under 'Response' in the right hand panel.
2. To set automatically marked multiple choice questions click 'Multiple Choice'.
3. Other kinds of activity may be created similarly.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

Creating a writing task:

1. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com and click 'Writing'.
2. The default name for the task is 'Writing activity'.  Highlight this to edit.
3. Enter instructions for the students in the space provided
4. To add pictures, video or audio, drag the corresponding icons in the right hand panel onto the canvas.

[[nid:110]]

Add a Youtube video as a stimulus:

1. Find an appropriate video on Youtube, and copy the address in the URL bar (Ctrl-c)
2. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com.  Click 'Blank' to create a new, blank resource.
3. Enter a name for your activity
4. Select Flash Animation' from the palette on the right.  A new activity should appear.
5. Click 'from Web', paste the address (Ctrl-v) into the box provided and click 'OK'.
6. The Youtube video should appear on the screen.

Specifying how students should respond: 

1. To set questions requiring written answers, click 'Text' under 'Response' in the right hand panel.
2. To set automatically marked multiple choice questions click 'Multiple Choice'.
3. Other kinds of activity may be created similarly.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

Creating an automatically marked gap-fill task from an existing text:

1. Find an appropriate text, select and copy it (Ctrl-c)
2. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com.  Click 'Blank' to create a new, blank resource.
3. Enter a name for your activity
4. Select 'Gap Fill' from the palette on the right.  A new activity should appear.
5. Click into the new activity and paste the text (Ctrl-v)
6. Double-click on a word you wish students to enter, or drag the mouse to select just a few letters
7. Click 'Add Gap'
8. Repeat 6 and 7 as necessary

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

Creating an automatically marked drag and drop task from an existing text:

1. Find an appropriate text, select and copy it (Ctrl-c)
2. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com.  Click 'Set Work' then 'Create Resource'.
3. Enter a name for your activity
4. Select 'Gap Fill' from the palette on the right.  A new activity should appear.
5. Click into the new activity and paste the text (Ctrl-v)
6. Double-click on a word you wish students to locate, or drag the mouse to select just a few letters
7. Click 'Add Gap'
8. Repeat 6 and 7 as necessary
9. Click the small blue spanner in the top right corner of the gap fill activity.  Select 'Drag and drop'.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

Creating an automatically marked picture labelling activity:

1. Find an appropriate picture.  If it is on the internet, first save it to your computer by right-clicking on the picture and selecting 'Save image as...' (or similar, depending on your computer's setup).
2. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com.  Click 'Blank' to create a new, blank resource.
3. Enter a name for your activity
4. Select 'Picture labelling' from the palette on the right.  A new activity should appear.
5. Click on 'Click here to choose a picture...'
6. Locate and select the picture you saved earlier.
7. Wait for the 'Uploading...' progress bar to complete.  The picture will now display.
8. To add a label, click on the location you wish it to appear.
9. Fill in the correct answer, and press Enter.
10. Repeat steps 7 and 8 as necessary.
11. If you wish incorrect capitalization to be marked wrong, click the little blue spanner in the top right of the picture, and choose 'Case sensitive'.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

1. From the Home screen, click 'Blank' to create a new, blank resource.
2. Insert activities by clicking on the buttons in the right hand panel, or dragging them onto the canvas.
3. The activities under 'Stimulus' present information to the student:
   1. Instructions for the students 
      
      1. Click into the white box and paste or type the required text into it.
      2. You can use the pop-up panel on the left to change fonts, styles, external links and input foreign accents
      3. This is also useful for providing reading materials.
   2. Audio Stimulus allows you to enter a listening exercise or audio instructions.
      1. Record or upload the audio
      2. Above the audio player is an area where you can input extra instructions for your students
   3. Video Stimulus is as for 'Audio Stimulus' above, but the recording has an accompanying video. 
   4. Picture Stimulus allows you to insert a picture such as a map or diagram for your students to view.  'Click here to upload a picture' and choose a picture from your computer.
4. The activities under 'Response' require the student to do work which is returned to you for assessment.
   1. Text Answer requires the student to input text, such as a short essay or series of example sentences.  They will have access to foreign accents for input.
   2. Audio Answer requires the student to record a stretch of audio, such as a dialogue in the target language.  They can record directly online using a microphone plugged into the computer, or using an external device such as a mobile phone, and upload the sound onto the computer afterwards.
      1. Set the time limit for the recording.  This will save you assessment time, and encourages the student to record a concise answer.
      2. Input any additional instructions for the student in the box provided.
   3. Video Answer is as for 'Audio answer' above, but the student can also record video.  This is useful for many engaging language learning activities.
   4.  Multiple Choice requires the students to answer a multiple choice question
      1. Enter the question on the first line
      2. Input each option in the boxes provided
      3. Click 'Add option' to add another option, and remove an option by clicking the blue cross next to it.
      4. Select 'Students can select more than one answer' if there is more than one correct answer.  To get points for the question, students must select all correct answers.
      5. Select the correct answer(s) by clicking on the radio button next to them.
      6. The default is to award one point for each correct answer. To change this, click on the grading box, then enter a new number of marks.
5. Decide on a marking scheme for the activity. The default is 'Total Sum' for automarked activities, and 'Comment Only' for text, audio and video responses.  If you are happy with this, proceed to the next step.  Otherwise, click on the grading menu to the right of the name of the resource to change it
   
   1. Comment Only: - qualitative assessment only.
   2. Mark out of: - a mark out of a fixed total, including percentages
   3. Grade A-E: free form grade entry, allowing A+, A*, A/B etc
   4. Custom grading: allows complex multiple criteria schemes
   5. Total Sum: adds up marks from all student responses and displays the total. 
6. If you have more than one student respose, you will also be able to set the grading for each individually in a similar way, using the orange grading menu in the bottom right of the activity.
7. The resource is automatically saved.  You can find it by clicking 'Set Work' then 'My Resources' from the Home screen.
8. Click 'Set' in the top right to set the resource for your students immediately.

 You can direct students to other pages on the internet as follows:

1. In Resource Design View, choose 'Text'

2. Type some text, such as 'Go to this link',  

3. Highlight the word or words you want to be the link, by dragging over a word with your mouse.

4. Click the hypertext tool from the row of symbols below.

5. Enter the address of the required target page

Audio Gap Fill supports 'Repeat after me' and dialogue style exercises. They offer a better way of creating exercises that would have been solved using two cassette players in the old language labs. When creating a new exercise, choose 'Audio Gap Fill' from the right-hand palette.

• Hit the round 'record' button, record the first prompt and then click the square 'Stop' button. You will see the wave form and a 'gap' appear for the students to record in.
• Hit record again to create the second prompt.
• When done, you may test the exercise from the student's point of view by selecting 'Student answer view'. Schoolshape will play the first prompt, and then automatically start recording the student's response. It will detect when the student has finished speaking, and play the next prompt automatically.
• If background noise interferes with the automatic detection, the student can hit the stop button at any time to proceed to the next prompt. They can also go back and re-record earlier sections if they wish.

Creating a task in which students must record a video:

1. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com.  Click 'Blank' to create a new, blank resource.
2. Enter a name for your activity
3. Select 'Video' from the response section in the bottom right.  A video screen should appear.
4. Click into the text box above the video and enter instructions for the students
5. Adjust the time limit for student recordings as desired using the up and down arrows on the video screen.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

If the task is set for homework, first check with students that they have microphones and webcams at home (most laptops, tablets and smartphones have both built in).  You may wish to loan a small number of these from the IT department to hand out to students who don't have them at home.

Please bear in mind that if you are using the free version or audio language lab, the amount of recording space is limited.

Adding video to a resource:

1. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com.  Click 'Blank' to create a new, blank resource.
2. Enter a name for your activity
3. Select 'Video' from the stimulus section in the top right.  A video screen should appear.  Now either:
4. Record the video yourself:
   1. Ensure there is a webcam connected to your computer
   2. Click the round record button.
   3. If a permissions window opens, click 'Allow', 'Remember', then 'Close'.
   4. Wait until the message below the video changes from 'Preparing...' to 'Recording...'
   5. Record your video and press the square stop button when finished.
5. OR upload the video from another source:
   1. Click the triangular eject button in the bottom right hand corner of the video
   2. Select a video file in mp3 or flv format.  If you are unsure how to do this, ask your IT department for help.
6. OR see How to Insert YouTube videos
7. Continue creating the resource as per any other of the instructions in this section.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

Create a resource with a picture:

1. Locate a picture.  If it is on the internet, first save it to your computer by right-clicking on it and selecting 'Save image as...'
2. Log in at lab.schoolshape.com.  Click 'Blank' to create a new, blank resource.
3. Enter a name for your activity
4. Select 'Picture' from the stimulus section in the top right. 
5. Select the picture you located in step 1.  It will now appear.
6. Continue creating the resource as per any other of the instructions in this section.

Setting this task for your students:

1. Click 'Set' at the top of the screen.
2. Select the required group of students, or click 'add' to create a new group.
3. The 'More' tab offers the following options:
   • to set a deadline
   • to allow students to communicate using the notice board
   • to share the task with colleagues by selecting a name from the list
4. Click 'Set'.

To supervise or assess a task, select it from the Home screen.

To share your resources with teachers on the staff list, click the tab 'More' (next to the tab 'Students') on the 'Edit Task' screen when setting a task.

Just select the name of the teacher with whom you wish to share the task and a yellow tick will appear.

If you are creating resources for use with your students or for publicly sharing with other teachers for use with their students:

• You may use material from the internet (eg: Google images, Youtube) and may alter them as you see fit as your resource will be covered under copyright 'fair use' in most countries.  However, we advise that:
  • You should not use images that are expressly being sold online, such as from stock photo sites
  • On receiving a request from the copyright owner, we will give them the benefit of the doubt and temporarily remove the resource until the issue is settled.  We will notify you if this occurs.

If you are creating resources you intend to sell for profit:

• You must ensure that the copyright for the material permits you to reuse and sell it.  Eg: creative commons material, or material where you have written permission from the copyright holder.