This is the last episode of season 5, which brings us to 66 episodes overall! It’s hard to believe that we are at the end of the year already. I think I started out with 28 subscribers in August and there’s now 104 of you, so thank you for continuing to come back to my little YouTube channel and for watching my videos!
Some of you may still be working on finals, and if you are, go check out my episode from last week on creating alternative assessments. But I know some school districts are in the same circumstance as my district where between AP exams, standardized testing, and finals, our last week and a half or so of the school year is left with no new content to teach and students who want to be anywhere but our classrooms. So I thought I would save today’s topic until now as a way for you to try something different and not have it be done under such high stakes. This would be a great time to dive deeper into a unit of study that was popular with your students or another area of interest.
In this episode, I’m diving into alternative ways to create HyperDocs, focusing on Google Sites, Forms, and MyMaps. As there’s no right or wrong way to create one, I’m always a little intrigued by the ideas that go outside the traditional boundaries.
I mentioned these 3 tools as a way to create HyperDocs back in episode 11, but I didn’t have time to explore them more in depth. For this episode, I’m assuming you already know what HyperDocs are and may have already created a few on your own. If you are new to HyperDocs, you may want to check out this video on How to Create a HyperDoc in 5 Steps before jumping into this episode. Now, let’s jump in!
Back in episode 11, I shared this HyperDoc template based on the 5E’s: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. I shared this template because I feel it fits well with concurrent and hybrid learning. However, this is only one model. There are many others that don’t follow this exact route such as this one that uses different terminology for each heading, but still has similarities to the 5E model using resources that will allow students to engage or explore content at their own pace. Or this one called The Hero’s Journey, which takes a more creative approach following the plot elements that most heroes go through as the steps to completing the HyperDoc.
While you want to create a facilitated learning experience, you do not have to have a required amount of components included in your HyperDocs. Which is where these alternatives fit in nicely. Remember, you’re the designer and the content expert and HyperDocs are flexible.
When designing alternatives to traditional HyperDocs, perhaps the most important steps in the process are “which template style will you use?” to ultimately package your HyperDoc together and “determining your workflow”, which means:
- “How are students going to access your HyperDoc?”,
- “How will you interact with students and provide feedback DURING the learning process?”, and
- “How will you collect your students’ thoughts, work or products?”
This will help you in determining which of the alternative formats will work best.
Let’s start with Google Forms. This can be set up in a fairly similar way to a traditional HyperDoc, but with some key differences. First, instead of calling it a HyperDoc, it’s really a HyperForm. Begin by using either titles or sections within a Google Form, where you can set up separate areas for Explore, Explain, etc. Within the question, you can set up a task or add links to other resources or documents students need to interact with. The link will become active when the quiz is shared and students view it.
You can also add more specific instructions by adding a description underneath the question area. Click on the question, and then find the 3 dots next to the required button. Then select DESCRIPTION. Or to show more information, you could add it to slide in Google Slides and then download as a jpeg or png image and add this image to a question.
Add videos for the Engage or Explore sections and allow students to share their thoughts or take notes underneath the video. The big difference with using Google Forms to deliver your HyperForm is how students submit their work and how you view it, as everything is located in one manageable place and you can see all of the work on a spreadsheet. To have students submit any work completed outside the form, create a short answer question indicating that students can copy and paste a share link to their work.
Or allow students to upload a file. If you hadn’t noticed this before, one of the options in the question drop down is file upload. When you select this option, you will see a message indicating that files uploaded will be uploaded to the form owner’s Google Drive, most likely that’s you, unless another teacher created the form. If that’s the case, you will want to make a copy of the form, so you become the owner. Back on file uploads, click continue and then you can choose if you want to allow only specific file types, set the maximum number of files that can be uploaded, and the maximum file size.
Another difference with Google Forms, is that you can also choose to use the integrated self-grading quiz feature; allowing students to be provided with instant feedback and then go back to review and retake the quiz.
Share the form with students by clicking SEND and copying the share link found under the link icon or embed the form in your LMS.
Once students have completed the HyperForm, it’s time for assessing their work. You can either view responses from within the form or create a spreadsheet. Click on the responses tab at the top of the form. View a summary of the whole class’s responses, see responses by question or see each individual student’s response. If you want the spreadsheet view, click the spreadsheet icon at the top of the page. Each response will be in a separate column. If students submitted share links, they will become active links in the spreadsheet. You can also give students feedback on their work through the comments feature, if the shared link is a Google product.
Let’s move on to MyMaps. If you haven’t seen the Tech Tuesday episode on this fantastic tool, check it out here! Again, just like we did with HyperForms you can take each of the HyperDoc components and put them into a location. Each location can have a different component. Here’s a quick rundown on how to do that.
Click on this balloon looking icon, which is called a marker to add a location. Then click on ADD TO MAP. Now, you can add a name for the location and a description, which we will actually use to put in the different elements we want students to view such as a URL link or a task to complete. Or maybe I want to add an image or a video. Then click save.
When you click on the paint bucket, this allows you to change the color of the marker or change the marker to an icon to indicate what type of location the marker is representing.
Let’s say you have several items you want to add to a map. Use Google Sheets and import the data and let it place it for you! All you need is make sure you have a column with one of the following: latitude-longitude information, addresses, or place names. The additional columns can hold the information you want in the description area.
Save your spreadsheet as one of these file types:
- CSV
- TSV
- KML
- KMZ
- GPX
- XLSX
- Google Sheet
If you don’t believe how easy it is, here’s my example. I created a spreadsheet with city names and states or countries in the first column and their famous nicknames in the second column. Next, create a new MyMap and click on IMPORT. I kept my file in Google Drive, so I’ll click on that and then on RECENT to find it. Then click the file and SELECT. Now, I need to identify what column title is the place, so the placemarks are set correctly, click CONTINUE, and then identify the column to use as the title for the placemarks, such as the name of the location or person and click FINISH. Give it a minute to load, and viola, the cities are on the map and when I click on a marker, I can see the nickname of the city in the description area. That’s really cool, right?
To share MyMaps with students, click on SHARE and toggle the option to ENABLE LINK SHARING to on. Then click on DRIVE SHARING. This is where you can add specific people or groups and change permissions. If you simply want students to view the map and the information you have added and be able to click on links to other sites, set the permission to view. Copy the link and paste it into an assignment or your LMS.
However, if you want students to view the map and the information you have added and have them add to the map, you will need to change the permission to edit. However, be aware that if students are an editor they can edit the information you added too.
If you choose to allow students to edit MyMaps, it’s a great way to have them share their answers. They can create shapes around specific areas or draw lines connecting two or more places or mark out famous places or routes such as the Oregon trail and add markers for significant historical events. This can also be accomplished by having students create their own MyMaps and then sharing the link when they turn it in.
If you need to have several students’ answers on one map, show them how to create layers. From the left side navigation, click on ADD LAYERS. A new layer is added to the box. Have students click on UNTITLED LAYER and change it to their name, so you know who’s work it is. Uncheck the other layers, except for the one that markers will be added to and then have them add markers to their layer.
To turn in work, depends on if you have an LMS or not. You could go the route of creating a Google Form that allows students to copy and paste the share link of the MyMap. Accessing multiple maps would be easier this way by viewing from a spreadsheet. Or if you do have an LMS, embed the Google Form into an assignment. So for example, if you have Canvas, create an assignment with the no submission type and embed the form in the details area of the assignment. Or just create an assignment type that allows students to copy and paste the share link of the MyMap.
If you would like to do more with MyMaps as a HyperDoc, I found a blog post that shows several examples of this called Connecting with Google MyMaps. I’ll leave the link in the episode notes.
There’s also this example of the 13 colonies from NowaTechie that gives a place for directions on how to use, what the final product will be and how to turn it in. Students gather information by visiting each marker on the map and adding it to their notes in Google Docs, before submitting the final product in Padlet.
And finally, here is this HyperDoc that includes a task for creating a collaborative MyMap from the blog Empowering Our Littlest Learners!
Finally, let’s talk about Google Sites, which we’ll call HyperSites. Now, unlike Forms and My Maps, Google Sites will not be able to allow students the ability to post alongside linked resources or add their own thoughts as the site will be in view only mode. So you may have to link to other documents to have students complete tasks.
What a Google Site does do is allow for the creation of a themed learning environment or world or the opportunity to gamify HyperDocs. In this example, you can see that tasks are linked to different pages within the site, making it look as if they are in a different space and leaning into this themed environment.
All of your resources and tasks will be stored and accessed through the site, and you can embed Documents, Forms, PDFs, and videos from Google Drive. However, since students can’t turn in assignments through Google Sites, your LMS will act as a digital dropbox where students can turn in their assignments.
I really like this HyperSite, Journey into the Past. Like any good HyperDoc, it’s got a great theme that immediately captures the attention of the audience. The start is clearly marked so students know where to begin and leads students into their training area, before moving onto the lessons of study. Ryan Stephans who designed this HyperSite has thought of everything, including instructions for teachers. He talks more about how he designed this on both his blog and in this video.
I think this is a great model for how far in depth your HyperSite could potentially go and has a clear structure that is easy for teachers to replicate with the help of Google Sites.
All of the resources mentioned in today’s episode will be available in the episode notes on Wakelet.
Thanks for joining me this week and throughout season 5! Tech Tuesday will be taking a break until August when new episodes for season 6 of Tech Tuesday will be airing, but I will be adding shorter training videos throughout the summer and continuing to post to both my Twitter and Instagram accounts. Have a great summer!
Ms Priester EDU 