Gone are the days where our lessons are limited to pencil and paper assignments! As educators, we’re always looking for new ideas to enhance our classroom instruction and engage our students. BookWidgets is the perfect tool for making your lessons interactive. The best part is that BookWidgets is user-friendly for both teachers and students! Create a quick assessment for students, practice vocabulary words with flash cards, spin a wheel to create a silly story, and more! Let’s take a closer look at what BookWidgets has to offer and how to get started with this unique learning tool.

BookWidgets Basics

BookWidgets is an online platform where you can create your own interactive assignments. Create games to motivate students, provide individualized feedback, and even utilize auto-grading features. There is a free trial available as well as paid options, so be sure to check out the pricing page for more information.

Through BookWidgets, teachers can choose from over 40 different types of widgets. Widgets are activities such as exercises, games, tests, math tools, and more. The activities reinforce learning and assess understanding to help students master content. BookWidgets also engages students digitally through different assessment options. Additionally, it allows teachers to give immediate feedback and monitor progress along the way.

Another major benefit of BookWidgets is that there is an integration with several learning management systems (LMS) such as Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Schoology, and more. Through all of these time-saving features, it’s no wonder that BookWidgets is a wonderful option for taking your instruction to the next level.

Creating Your Widgets

We know that widgets are a unique and helpful tool; but what are all of the widget options available and how can we create them? Here are some steps to get you started:

1. Consider what type of widget you want to create – are you looking to assess your students or perhaps have them play a game to review lesson concepts? Once you determine this, choose from the widget categories below:

• • Test & Review
  • Games
  • Pictures & Videos
  • Math
  • Embed Third Party
  • Miscellaneous

2. Once you have decided what you would like to create, you can access widgets from the sidebar/home screen and select “Create a Widget” or click the gear icon to get started.
3. Next, choose from the many different widget types. Keep in mind that each one will have a unique creation process. The BookWidgets Tutorials page includes some really helpful visuals and instructions for the large variety of widgets.
4. Enter all relevant information to build out the widget. This will include items such as: about info, text, question types, questions & answers, and images. Remember that you can pre-plan the questions you want to include within your widgets.

• • It is also important to note that for items in the “Test & Review” widget section, there are also many different question types to choose from.

5. Preview the widget in student view and test it out to ensure that everything is correct and all items look the way that they should.
6. Share the widget with your students by clicking “Share” and choose from sharing options such as generating a link, sharing a QR code, or sharing via LMS.

7. Then, go to “My Widgets” where you can review, edit, share, and more!
8. Finally, you can provide feedback to students to address their strengths and areas of improvement through grading. Access “Grades & Reporting” and select your widget title. You can then view the average score of all submissions and individual scores per question. Be sure to add remarks and comments to questions, then return work to students.

As you can see, BookWidgets has so much to offer! Remember to try out different widget types. Be creative and turn your static content into exciting and  interactive online activities for your students.  Be sure to check out our accompanying OTIS course, Getting Started with BookWidgets, as well as many other courses in the OTIS Course Library.

For more tips, tricks, and tools for teaching in and out of the classroom, check out more content on the Teq Talk blog or our YouTube channels OTIS for educators and Tequipment.

We also offer virtual professional development, training, and support with OTIS for educators. Explore the technology and strategies that spark student success — no matter where teaching or learning are happening!

Follow us on social:

  edteq             OTIS4educators  |  Teq Products  |  iBlocks           OTIS4educators  |  MyTeq          Teq