One of my goals as a teacher this year is to reduce the amount of paperwork in my classes as much as possible.
With this in mind, I have been searching the web for a site that will allow students to read information and complete assignments online. For sure, there are many great sites, such as this one, with educational activities. My problem is, how do I check that the students have actually visited the sites and completed the activities?
I thought I had found the answer with the Virtual Grammar Lab.
This site links to many websites that contain English lessons and activities. Teachers can create class accounts and assign activities to the students. The students create their own accounts and connect to the class account. When a student visits the assigned website, this is recorded for the teacher’s benefit. It sounds like a great idea, and it sounds like just what I was looking for. Unfortunately, the site seems buggy. Already, I have discovered two things that I do not like about it. First of all, when I add a single assignment, this assignment is repeated in the assignment list many times. Thus, a single assignment appears as forty-plus assignments; although, they are all the same.
Second of all, the Virtual Grammar Lab only records if a student visits a website. It does not record if the student actually completed the tasks, and it does not record a mark of the student’s performance.
So, I am not sold on utilizing this website quite yet. I will keep looking.
