Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

I was going to wait awhile to publish this “The Best…” list since, even though there are tons of sites out there that let you create online tests, I think there are so very few worthy of being listed as one of the best. Most just seem unnecessarily complicated for too little “pay-off.” I was hoping that in the coming months a few new good web tools would come online.

But then I read a post today by my number one favorite blogger, Sue Waters, about one of the three sites that were going to be on my list. Not only does she have great screenshots about how MyStudiyo works, she has announced a new contest the site is sponsoring (and she’s helping judge). Since the contest deadline is coming-up, I figured I wouldn’t wait any longer to share the three (yup, count ‘em, just three) sites that have made this “The Best…” list.

Before I share the links to them here, I should also point out that there are also several excellent sites that let you create online learning games. These can also function as effective ways to assess understanding — by either having teachers or students create them (I have a strong preference towards the latter both in making games and tests). You can check-out The Best Websites For Creating Online Learning Games to learn my picks for that category.

I’m not listing the three test-creation sites in any order of preference. They each offer very distinct features that could work in different situations. By the way, they’re all free.

So here are my picks for The Best Ways To Create Online Tests:

As I mentioned earlier in this post, My Studiyo is one of them. It’s easy to use, you can include multimedia, and others can add questions (that are moderated before they appear). You should definitely read Sue’s post about it, and the upcoming contest. You can also see a sample test Barry Bakin created for his ESL class here.

The next one are really two sites that are connected — SMILE and CLEAR. They’re both from Michigan State University, and allow teachers (and students) to easily create clozes, drag-and-drop exercises, and sequencing activities. They also allow you to use audio and video with the activities, and will host them as well. This is an excellent site for making a variety of ESL/EFL-related assessments.

Classmarker is the third place to go to just create basic online tests. It’s simple, efficient and effective.

Just in case you want to make a number of different tests to just print out on paper — without the ability for students to take the test online — Easy Testmaker is the place to go.

(I’m adding ProProfs to this list, and you can make great online flashcards there, too.)

Sue is asking for people to leave suggestions for test-making sites that they like over on her post, and I’d encourage you to do so. If you have a site that you think works particularly well for English Language Learners, please share it here, too.

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