Exercise Widgets

Who this is for

Teachers building skill practice, checks for understanding, or graded work.

What this page answers

• Which exercise widget should I choose?
• How do I insert it?
• What is each widget best at testing?

Prerequisites

• a lesson open in the editor

Inline exercise widgets

Standalone exercise widgets

How to choose quickly

• use multiple choice (inline dropdown) when you want quick single-answer recognition
• use inline choice when you want all options visible without a dropdown
• use choose answers when students must identify all correct options from a list
• use fill-in-the-blank when you want production
• use matching or ordering when structure matters
• use sentence builder for word order practice (use [phrase tiles] for grouped multi-word expressions)
• use Equation Builder (Sentence Builder in Expression mode) for mathematics: accepts any mathematically equal equation (2 + 3 = 5, 3 + 2 = 5, 5 = 2 + 3) and provides diagnostic feedback
• use poll for interactive group surveys or pulse checks
• use button link to create brand-styled external or internal resource links
• use category sort when students need to classify items into groups; repeat an item under multiple categories when more than one placement should count as correct
• use Live Examiner for interactive scenario dialogues, push-to-talk voice turns, or exam role-play conversations
• use essay or speech recorder when the answer should be open-ended
• use Freeform Answer when several phrasings can preserve the intended meaning; configure teacher grading or an optional AI check
• use Pronunciation Assessment for automated phoneme scoring on short targets; add multiple slides when you want a compact drill of up to 10 items
• use word list for structured vocabulary with zero-cost cached audio pronunciation
• use sentence gap for reading-coherence tasks where students restore missing fragments into numbered gaps with live room synchronization
• use Writing when students need official-style writing instructions, word limits, and assessment feedback
• use Picture Word Gaps when students identify vocabulary and fill missing letters or words from picture cards
• use Handwriting Check when students upload photos or scans of handwritten character work for stroke and stroke-order feedback
• use Kids Equation for elementary visual arithmetic with missing operands or operator tiles

Exam and Assessment Widgets

Some assessment widgets are created by exam presets rather than inserted manually into everyday lessons. Assessed tasks identify their feedback and grading behavior, while practice counterparts remain suitable for ungraded work.

• Writing (Evaluation) vs Essay (Practice): The Writing widget presents students with structured writing parts, formal task instructions, word ranges, and explicit rubric evaluation notices. In contrast, the standard Essay widget serves as silent, non-graded practice.
• Freeform Answer: A teacher sets a reference and acceptance criteria, then chooses an optional AI check or teacher grading. A manually graded Freeform Answer does not start an AI check when an exam is completed. When an AI check is enabled, the Course CEFR level can calibrate the clarity expected for the task.
• Assessed Speech Recorder vs Standard Speech: The assessed version presents an up-front evaluation notice and explicit examiner-style copy before recording, then adds score bars, transcripts, and rubric feedback afterward. The standard speech recorder remains a safe space for un-assessed practice.
• Live Examiner is for role-play conversations. The student reads the role card, joins a short audio call, and receives speaking feedback afterward.
• Sentence Gap is used in reading exams. The student taps a gap and picks the fragment that belongs in it; extra fragments can act as distractors.
• Exam note boxes are student-facing grey boxes used for examples, word banks, role cards, and formal task instructions.
• Generated image placeholders can appear in speaking tasks so the picture is created from the task's image instructions before students describe it.

Unified Widget Header & Actions

All interactive exercise and game widgets share a consistent top header with an actions menu:

• Widget Actions Menu (⋯):
  • Edit: Opens the full configuration form. In the edit panel, the Save and Cancel buttons sit conveniently in the top header row right beside the Form / Text switcher for fast access.
  • Theme: Opens the visual theme selector featuring 21 themes, each marked with distinct color swatch dots in the dropdown to preview palette tones before applying.
  • Backdrop: Allows choosing custom scene backdrops, gradients, or ambient scenery.

Custom Maximum Points

By default, exercises award 1 point per correct answer item. To align exercises with custom grading scales or school curriculums:

• Enter the desired score in the Maximum points field within the widget configuration form, or specify points="N" in the widget syntax (e.g. <exercise points="10"> or :::exercise(points="10")).
• The evaluation engine automatically calculates item scores proportionally so the student's total achieved score maps accurately to your custom maximum point value.

Picture Word Gaps

The Picture Word Gaps widget combines visual prompts with letter or phrase production:

• Whole-Picture Label Mode (taskMode: "picture-labels"): Enables labeling up to 24 pictures with multi-word phrases (up to 160 characters per label). Each picture card features a zoom/enlarge button for inspection, and the task evaluates input with instant grading as tiles are placed.
• Card Sizes: Configure card display size between Auto, Large, and Compact. When set to Auto, the widget dynamically selects Compact layout when there are 3 or more cards, and Large layout for 1 or 2 cards.
• Sticky Bottom Tray: The draggable letter or word tile tray stays pinned to the bottom edge of the screen across desktop, tablet, and mobile, ensuring tiles remain readily accessible even while scrolling through long exercises.

Matching Widget Options

Pictures on matching items

A picture assigned to a matching item is shown in a square framed card with the whole image visible and its caption underneath. The frame keeps a light background in every theme, so photographs and illustrations stay legible in dark mode. Hovering a picture enlarges it.

Board layout

A Layout setting controls how the two sides of the board are arranged. It has two options, Rows and Columns.

Choose Columns when your items are long, or when the exercise is mostly used on a phone. Lessons you built before this setting existed keep the layout they already had.

Sentence Builder & Equation Builder

Interchangeable Duplicate Words in Sentence Builder

In language exercises with sentences containing duplicate words (such as multiple instances of "the" or "is"), students can place identical words in either valid slot. The grading engine recognizes semantic correctness across all valid arrangements, ensuring student homework scores and analytics are 100% accurate.

Mathematical Equation Equivalence in Equation Builder

When Sentence Builder or Word Scramble is used in Expression mode (mode="expression") for Mathematics lessons:

• True-Solution Validation: The validation engine evaluates mathematical truth rather than rigid word order. Any equation arrangement that evaluates to the same true equality is accepted as correct.
  • If the teacher's key is 2 + 3 = 5, student answers like 3 + 2 = 5, 5 = 2 + 3, or 5 = 3 + 2 receive full credit.
  • Multi-part chains (e.g. 2 + 2 = 1 + 3 = 4) and associative groupings are fully supported.
• Interchangeable Math Tiles: Duplicate number or operator tiles can be placed interchangeably without penalty.
• Diagnostic Feedback: If an entered equation is unbalanced, the platform displays side-by-side calculation values to help students identify their math error.

Sentence Gap: How Students Answer

Students tap a gap to choose.

• Tapping an empty gap opens a short list of the sentences that have not been placed yet, right where the gap is.
• Tapping a filled gap offers to remove what is in it.
• The candidate tray is a collapsible dock pinned above the page's bottom bar, showing how many sentences are still left to place.
• Picking a sentence from the dock highlights the empty gaps and scrolls the nearest one into view.

This is how the Sentence Gap widget behaves everywhere — it is not a per-lesson setting, so sentence-gap lessons you built earlier use it too, with no change needed on your side.

Answer Explanations, Teacher Edits, and Compact Answer Form

Inline answer widgets (Fill-in-the-Blank, Select dropdowns, and Inline choices) can include an optional explanation comment. Students see it only after they answer correctly or reach the reveal limit (such as after three tries), so it works well for short grammar notes like "Use past simple after yesterday."

Typing <<comment>> Directly After an Answer Widget

You can type `<<Your explanation>>` character-by-character directly after an existing gap (___(...)), dropdown (___(a;b)), or inline choice ([a;b]). As soon as you type the closing >>, the comment is automatically attached to that answer widget and the typed syntax disappears into the widget's answer comment.

Compact Answer Editor

Clicking the pencil icon on an inline answer chip opens the compact answer editor:

• Answer Validation: The input field requires non-empty content before changes can be saved.
• Evaluate Answer as Pinyin: For Mandarin Chinese courses, checking the "Evaluate answer as Pinyin" checkbox configures the evaluation engine to accept valid Pinyin representations. It accepts tone marks (for example, nǐ hǎo), tone numbers (ni3 hao3), umlaut variations (ü, u:, v), and neutral tones (0 or 5).
• Changing Answer Keys vs Editing Hints: Modifying the correct answer key presents a "Save and clear attempts" warning, as changing the solution invalidates prior student attempts. In contrast, editing hints or feedback comments preserves student attempts.

Inspecting Answers via Hover Panels

Teachers can also hover an inline answer to inspect the accepted answer, distractors, hint, and comments.

If you find hover panels distracting while building or reading a lesson, toggle them using the Hover preview button on the floating bottom dock. Your preference is remembered across sessions.

Language Gating and Target Language Capabilities

Certain automated speech and language features are automatically gated based on the target language of the course:

• Speech Assessment and Live Examiner: Automated pronunciation scoring and Live Examiner conversations are automatically disabled in courses where the target language is Arabic or Russian.
• Word Counting for Writing: In Mandarin Chinese courses, writing exercises and task requirements automatically evaluate character-based counts (字) rather than space-delimited words.
• Word Games: Letter-grid generation in games such as Word Search and Crossword is restricted to supported alphabetic scripts to avoid generating invalid matrices in non-segmenting languages.

Related pages

• Game-Based Widgets
• Widget Content Syntax
• Exam Preparation
• Writing Review
• CEFR Level Assessment