Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes is a lightweight education utility that provides teachers with a streamlined way to generate interactive exercises and quizzes for a wide array of online learning lessons, helping them to test the knowledge and skills of their pupils with ease.

What is Hot Potatoes?

Hot Potatoes is a free suite of 6 applications that allows users to create interactive exercises for the web, including multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering, and gap-fill exercises. It is not open-source but can be used for any purpose or project.

Featuring a simple user interface and built-in support for six different quiz types, this 100% FREE application has become a useful education tool that has helped countless teachers to optimize their daily workflow and unlock the potential of their pupils.

The tool is a legacy Windows PC app that was developed for use on older versions of this operating system more than a decade ago, but that does not mean it has lost compatibility with modern PCs. In fact, this app works great today on Windows 10 and Windows 11. After years on the market, the team at  Laf-Baked Software Inc has released the latest version 7 of this app in 2019, enabling all of their users to enjoy the most stable, reliable, and feature-full version of Hot Potatoes for years to come.

Thisapp included in the software are the following: JQuiz, JCloze, JMatch, JMix, JCross, and The Masher.

The core of Hot Potatoes functionality lies in the six distinct questionnaire types it offers to teachers. This includes jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering, gap-fill exercises, multiple-choice, and short-answer themes, all fully interactive, easy to create, and able to be exported into an HTML-friendly format that is ready to be deployed on any modern website. This approach empowers teachers to quickly create a large array of exercises and share them with their pupils as needed.

Hot Potatoes can be used both in personal and commercial environments, but its source code is not public, and users must upgrade the functionality of the app only via official updates offered by developers. The most aged part of this app is its user interface, which is due to compatibility reasons intentionally kept simple and retro, with a bland interface layout and a wide array of tools that are easily accessible.

FAQ

Is Hot Potatoes free to use?
Yes, Hot Potatoes is completely free. It is provided as freeware and can be used without charge for any project.

What types of exercises can I create with Hot Potatoes?
Hot Potatoes lets you create interactive web-based exercises such as multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crosswords, matching, and gap-fill tasks.

Do I need to know HTML to use Hot Potatoes?
No, you don’t need to know HTML. The software automatically generates the HTML for you, though you can edit it if you want to customize your pages.

Can Hot Potatoes exercises be used on modern websites or LMS platforms?
Yes, exercises created with Hot Potatoes can be uploaded to most websites and learning management systems, as long as they support HTML content.

What operating systems does Hot Potatoes support?
Hot Potatoes works on Windows (from Windows 98 up to Windows 10), and can run on Linux using Wine.

PROS

• Streamlined way to generate interactive exercises and quizzes
• 100% free and optimized for all Windows OS
• Built-in support for six different quiz types
• Easy to create exercises and export them in HTML format
• Fully translated into 18 international languages

CONS

• User interface is intentionally kept simple and retro
• Users must upgrade functionality via official updates

Conclusion

Overall, Hot Potatoes is a free suite of six applications that allows users to create interactive exercises for the web. It is a useful education tool for teachers that enables them to optimize their daily workflow and test the knowledge and skills of their pupils with ease. The tool is 100% free, and it works great today on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

It offers built-in support for six different quiz types, is easy to create exercises, and export them in HTML format. However, its user interface is intentionally kept simple and retro, and users must upgrade functionality via official updates. Hot Potatoes is fully translated into 18 international languages.