The Drag and Drop tool lets you take many of your standard exercises and turn them into gamified, digital activities that your students really love! 

There are two predominant use cases for Drag and Drops: labeling and categorization. Labeling is where students identify parts of a diagram, e.g. parts of a plant or layers of the earth. With categorization, think of separating different words into parts of speech or living things vs. non-living things.

Because it has so much power, you’ll want to take the time to read through these instructions. Once you have, you’ll be a master Drag-and-Dropper! The process is similar to our Matching tool so if you know how to use it, you’re halfway there!!

Use These Keyboard Shortcuts When Working

1. Spacebar Shortcut: Tapping the Spacebar will automatically reset your mouse to the last tool you used to create an object on your worksheet. E.g. You just drew a Short Answer box. Tap the Spacebar and you can draw another Short Answer without having to re-select the tool. Nice, right?

2. Control + D (Duplicate) Shortcut: Click on any object to highlight it. Then select Control + D. This will make a duplicate of the selected object. Click on and drag the copied object to its desired position. Want to make five duplicates? Press Control + D five times!

PreMade Drag and Drop Activities for You to Explore

Here are links to two activities already TeacherMaded using the Drag and Drop feature:

1. Labeling a Plant - Practice TeacherMade Activity

2. Organize the parts of Speech - Practice TeacherMade Activity 

If you want to recreate these activities from scratch and practice using Drag and Drop on your own, here are the PDFs:

1. Labeling PDF for Upload 

2. Categorization PDF for Upload 

How To Make a Drag and Drop InterActivity in 3 Steps

When you make a Drag and Drop, you’re actually creating two types of objects: those to be dragged and the area to drop them into (also called a "bay" by some testing platforms). You’re telling the TeacherMade app “okay, this is the object I want my students to select. And now I want them to place it right over here. When they do, it’s correct. If they don’t, it’s incorrect.”

To make this interaction happen, you will need to use the: 1. ‘Drop Zone’ question type from the pop-up menu that displays whenever you click in your activity. You will also need the: 2.‘Snipping Tool’ found on the toolbar.

1. The first is the “Drop Zone” tool
   This tool is how you’ll identify the Drop zones/area(s) on your worksheet. After selecting the question type Drop Zone, you simply draw an answer box like any other tool you've ever used in TeacherMade.

2. “Snipping Tool”
   This tool allows you to digitally cut out static objects on your screen and make them moveable-- aka "draggable."

Now for the fun part! Here are the three steps when creating Drag and Drop questions:

STEP 1: Create the “Drag” portion of your activity

There are three kinds of “Draggable Items” in TeacherMade:

1. those that you add to your worksheet via Image and Teacher Text tools,

   
   

2. things that are already a part of your worksheet that you want to make draggable, and              

3. objects that you snip from other TeacherMade activities and paste into your current one, 

1. You use the Image and Teacher Text tools all the time to add content to your TeacherMade activity, especially changing instructions. Well, now you can use those tools to create draggables! Upload a few photos of important Women in Herstory with the Image Tool. Type out a word bank using the Teacher Text tool, etc.

When you use these tools to add content to your worksheet, you will now see the option to make the item “Draggable” on the Options bar:

➽ Be sure to check the box next to “Draggable” to activate.

2. When you upload a worksheet that already contains pictures or words that you want your students to manipulate, use the Snipping Tool to make them able to be moved around.

When you click on the Snipping Tool, it turns your mouse cursor into crosshairs. Click and drag over the area you want to be a draggable object.

Once you have created draggable items, a pointing finger icon will appear in the upper left corner of the object.

3. You can also use the Snipping tool to copy from other TeacherMade activities into your current one. Open the activity where the desired object is located. Simply click on the scissors icon to get into Snipping mode, draw a rectangle over the area you want to copy and select 'Copy' from the Edit menu or use Ctrl-C. Then open the activity where you want the snipped item to be placed and hit Ctrl-V (or select 'Paste' from the Edit menu).

STEP 2: Identifying the “Drop” area(s) on your activity

When you select the Drop Zone from the Question Types pop-up menu, your cursor will change to crosshairs, allowing you to create a drop zone anywhere on your assignment. Draw your Drop zones, or bays, onto your activity.

➽Use the Ctrl-D shortcut to quickly duplicate a Drop Zone box and drag it into the desired position.

Once you have drawn your Drop Zones, your drop boxes will look something like this.

Each Drop Zone will be a gray box with a small gray flag in the upper left corner. Select a Drop Zone box and a corresponding Options bar will display right underneath the tool bar. 

The Paint Can icon allows you to control the color of the box; the Pencil lets you change the border. The Clear Link button is used to clear all links connected to the Drop Zone.

By default, Teachers can only attach one draggable item to each Drop Zone. That works great for labeling activities like in our plant example above. If you’re creating a categorization worksheet, though, you may want to allow students to drop more than one item into a Drop Zone. To do that, just check the box labeled "Allow multiple items."

STEP 3: Connecting the Drag Objects to their Drop Zones

Once you’ve set up the draggable objects and drop zones, now you must start connecting them so the app knows how to auto-score your activity!!

Here are the steps to connect them:

1. Click and drag the "hand" icon inside one of your draggable elements.

2. Drag the hand icons to the appropriate drop zone and release the mouse button.

3. A blue line will appear between the object and the zone. (This is similar to the Matching tool.)

4. Continue until each Draggable item is matched to a Drop Zone. Your worksheet will look like this:

5. When connected, your worksheet should look something like this:

   

    

   

To detach a Draggable item from a Drop Zone, select the item you want to detach and then click on the Clear Link button from the Options bar:

Making the Drag and Drop Question Auto-Scorable!!

1. Start by selecting one of the Draggable items.

2. By default, each Drag and Drop pair will be worth 1 point (unless you change your default score). If you have 6 objects paired with Drop Zones, it'll be worth 6 points.

3. To change the point value, simply click on the green value box and choose a new point value from the drop down menu.

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end  You now know how to create a Drag and Drop question. Go give it a try and let us know what you think! Once you know how to do it, they really are quick to make.

What Your Students See

When your students open a Drag and Drop assignment, they will see a much cleaner version of Drag and Drop. All the blue lines and links will be invisible to them.

All they have to do is click on one of the draggable options, hold the mouse button down, drag it where they want it to be, and release the mouse button. When they drag it over a Drop Zone, the Drop Zone will highlight. Release the mouse button and the item will snap into place (unless you selected “Allow multiple items” in the Drop Zone.) Once they are done, their worksheet will look like this:

Your students will take to Drag and Drop activities like chocolate to ice cream so be sure to include them whenever you can. In the coming days, I’ll be making Drag and Drop videos and reading your feedback in the forum. Enjoy!!!

Drop Zone Tool Explainer Video 

Watch this short video to learn about the Drop Zone tool: