Interactive lesson builder: explain, try, check

The explain, try, check cycle

A worksheet put on a screen is still a worksheet. What makes a lesson interactive is the loop between small chunks of teaching and immediate practice. Build the lesson as a sequence of short steps, each with three parts:

Explain: One idea, in a few sentences and a worked example. If it needs more than one screen, it's two ideas.
Try: A question or task on exactly that idea: drag labels onto a diagram, put steps in order, type an answer, choose from options, highlight words in a passage.
Check: Instant feedback on the attempt, with a hint on the first wrong answer and the worked solution on the second. Then the next step unlocks.

Close with a short mixed quiz covering every step, and a summary the student can return to. Eight to twelve steps fit a typical lesson.

Activities that suit a screen

Label the diagram: drag terms onto a cell, a volcano, a map or a circuit drawn in SVG.
Sort into groups: living and non-living, renewable and non-renewable, facts and opinions.
Sequence: order the stages of a process or the events of a story.
Annotate a text: tap words to mark adjectives, evidence or rhetorical devices.
Reveal and predict: show the start of an experiment, ask what happens, then reveal the result.
Worked example fading: the first example shows every step, the second hides one, the third leaves the student to do all of them.

Every drag activity should also work with taps and a keyboard: tap a label, then tap its place. That covers phones, touchscreen laptops and students who use a keyboard.

Differentiation without accounts

Without logins, a lesson can't know who's using it, but it can still adapt. A short starter question can route students to a support path or a challenge path. Hints can be optional and counted. An extension task can appear only for those who finish. A reading-level toggle can swap the explanation text for a simpler or a fuller version. Ask for whichever of these you'd do in class.

Using Anticode as an interactive lesson builder

Bring the lesson plan: the objective, the steps and the misconceptions you expect. "An interactive lesson for Year 8 on the water cycle: 9 steps. Step 1 explains evaporation with an animated diagram, then students drag labels onto it. Step 4 is a sorting task. Each wrong answer gets a hint that addresses the common mistake of confusing condensation and precipitation. End with a 6-question quiz and a summary. Add a printable teacher version with all answers and timings." The Architect asks up to three questions where the answer changes the build, and the model writes the lesson as one HTML document, with diagrams drawn in SVG or canvas.

The teacher version is a print layout of the same content: every step, the expected answers, the hints, and space for notes, so you can teach from paper or leave it for a cover teacher. Ask for a Print button that opens the browser's print dialog.

If you want the lesson to remember where a student got to, progress can save in that browser, which helps with homework on a home computer. On shared school machines, it's often better to start fresh each time; say which you'd prefer.

Privacy for schools

Because Anticode apps have no network, nothing a student types or clicks leaves their device. There are no student accounts, no tracking scripts in the lesson and no third-party services to approve. That keeps the conversation with a school's data protection lead short. It also means the lesson can't report back: if you need to see answers, ask students to show you their summary screen, or collect a completed sheet on paper.

Limits

No class results, teacher dashboard or assigning to named students.
No open answers marked by AI; free text can be compared against model answers or self-marked.
No embedded videos from video sites; your own video files can be added to the build.
Content you'll update often, such as a reading list, can be held in the project's CMS and shown read-only.

For a game wrapped around the same content, see the educational game maker. For one variable explored with a slider, a teaching simulation fits better, and a class website can link every lesson in one place.

Questions people ask

Do students need an email address or account?

No. They open the link and start. There's nothing to sign into.

Can I reuse a lesson for another class with changes?

Yes. Ask for the change in a sentence; recent versions are kept in history, so you can return to the original.

Can I share a lesson with colleagues before it's published?

A client review link lets anyone open the current preview without an account and leave comments; it expires after 14 days by default.