Over the past decade education at all levels has been moving to digital content delivery through the use of various learning management systems (LMS). However, most of the content that teachers post for there students to use is primarily created to be used in a paper format. This leads to many problems when students are trying to utilize the assignment in a digital workspace such as Chromebook. Yes, many of these devices have touch screens that can be written on, this is not the way most students write there responses, most students prefer to type responses and typed responses are how these devices were originally intended to work. It is for these reasons that I believe we as teachers need to be creating handouts and worksheets that can work in both a print and digital environment.

Today I am going to focus on creating some basic building that for handouts and worksheets that can be used and put together with others to create documents that area easily inserted or linked to LMS courses, filled-out standalone or printed to be filled out on paper.
 

Handout Building Blocks

Inserting Graphics:

Inserting graphics into documents is a pretty standard task and will vary slightly depending on the platform you are using. However, most programs such as Google Docs and Microsoft Word make this take very simple. There is typically an option to do this under the Insert Menu and then clicking on Picture or Image. This will then allow you to select the file of the graphic that you want to insert, you will need to resize the graphic appropriately to fit your document and needs. I typically prefer to insert documents in a PNG format because this will preserve and transparent background layers and allow me to layer graphics over each other if needed.

Creating Short & Long Response Questions:

When I am creating response items, I am want the question and graphics to stay together in a nice formatted area, with the question below. While most response questions have a line or multiple lines each students to write their response, I create boxes for students to write and/or type answers into. I employ table to do this task since it has a board that will keep text together for the typed format and can give a clear definitive space to write in for those wanting to complete the assignment on paper. Additionally for the questions or prompts I remove spacing after the paragraph as this allows for the spacing to be more consistent across the document. Finally, I remove the table border around the prompt by using the format table function of Google Docs and MS Word.

Creating Image Overlay (Map & Image Label and Fill in the Blank) Questions:

For this type of question for a handout, we are going to rely on a hidden table again to line up and stabilize the image and the answer areas. You can begin by setting up a table with three columns and merge the top row of cells together into one. The image that you want to use for the students to interrupt can be centered and resized to fit your spacing.

Creating Chart and Table Response:

This type of question work very similar to the other Image Overlay type. You can add in your table or chart into a layout table with each response in a row and another row below or to the side depending on how you want to layout your question is then used to for the response. This method for laying out questions is very useful because it keeps the question and response areas together and allows for items to be easily moved and reordered if needed. Like the previous type of question it is important to hide the borders of the table that are not being used for the response, this will help direct students to the response area and allow them to navigate the document easier.