El apoyo al estudio independiente en un curso de comprensión de lectura con “Hot Potatoes”

Abstract

This article describes the design and implementation of a didactic strategy intended to promote students’ independent study in a group of reading comprehension in English during one semester at the University of Costa Rica. For this purpose, ten interactive practice tests were designed for the students using the authoring tool called “Hot Potatoes.” These tests were made available for the students on a personal web page owned by the teacher at least one week prior to each formal evaluation of the course. After this, a questionnaire was administered to the students for them to assess this experience. The obtained results indicate the main advantages to support independent study are the effective preparation for the evaluations of the course, the correspondence between the content taught and evaluated, the reinforcement of concepts, and the ease of virtual work.