SWI Jeopardy

SWI Jeopardy is a two-part classroom game for the RealSpelling Toolbox. It consists of a Question Bank for building and managing questions, and a Game Board for running the game. Both run directly in your browser — no download or installation required.

How data is stored

Your questions are stored in your browser's local storage — a private area on your own device. This means:

  • Your questions are only on the device and browser you used to enter them. If you switch to a different computer or a different browser, you will start with an empty question bank.
  • Two teachers using the site at the same time have completely separate question banks. Nothing is shared or mixed automatically.
  • To move your questions to another device, or to share them with a colleague, use the Export and Import buttons described below.

Part 1: The Question Bank

Open the Question Bank to enter and manage your questions.

Entering questions

Fill in the following fields for each question:

  • Question — the clue shown to students on the game board
  • Answer — the correct answer students must supply
  • Level — Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced; used to filter questions when setting up a game
  • Points — 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500; determines which row the question appears in on the board
  • Category — choose from the dropdown, or select + Add new category…new categories are saved to your local question bank and sorted alphabetically

Click Save question. The Question and Answer fields clear, but Level and Category remember your last selection to speed up batch entry.

Managing categories

The category dropdown has two special options at the bottom:

  • + Add new category… — type a name and click Add (or press Return). Click Cancel to dismiss without adding.
  • − Delete category(ies)… — opens a panel listing all categories with a question count next to each. Check one or more and click Delete selected. A confirmation tells you how many categories and questions will be permanently deleted. This cannot be undone. Deleting a category also deletes all questions in that category.

Editing and deleting questions

The question bank is displayed at the bottom of the page, filterable by level and category.

  • To edit: click any row to load it into the form. Make your changes and click Update question. Click Cancel edit to discard changes.
  • To delete: click the Delete button on a row.

Saving your questions

Questions save to your browser automatically as you work. When you have made changes since the page loaded, a gold banner appears reminding you to export.

To export:

  1. Click Export… in the top right.
  2. Choose a category or All categories.
  3. Click Save to file. A .json file downloads to your computer. This is your permanent backup — keep it somewhere safe.

Important: if you clear your browser data, your local questions will be lost. Your exported .json file is the only permanent record. Export regularly and keep the file in a reliable location such as Google Drive or iCloud.

Importing questions

To load questions from a .json file (your own backup or a colleague's export):

  1. Click Import in the top right.
  2. Select the .json file.
  3. Questions merge into your existing bank. Questions already present are not duplicated. Any new categories in the imported file are added to your list.

Part 2: The Game Board

Open the Game Board to set up and run a game. It reads questions directly from the same browser storage as the Question Bank — no import step needed, as long as you are using the same browser on the same device.

Setup

Before starting, configure the following:

  • Categories — check the categories to include; each becomes a column on the board. The number of available questions is shown in parentheses next to each category. Use Select all / Deselect all to toggle all at once.
  • Point levels — check the point values to include (100–500); each becomes a row. Use Select all / Deselect all to toggle.
  • Difficulty levels — check one or more levels (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced); only questions at those levels will be available. Use Select all / Deselect all to toggle.
  • Teams — choose 0–6 teams. Select No teams (non-competitive) for a session without scoring. For competitive games, you can enter a name for each team.

The board assignment grid fills automatically when you make selections. You can also click any cell to hand-pick a specific question, or use Randomize all to fill all cells at once. Cells showing No question have no matching questions in your bank for that combination.

Click Start game → when ready.

Playing

  • Click a cell — the question appears in the cell, replacing the point value.
  • Click the cell again — an overlay opens showing the category, points, question, and answer.
  • Click a team's award button to give that team the points. The cell goes dark.
  • Click No award if no team answered correctly. The cell goes dark with no points given.

Team scores are shown at the bottom of the board. Each score card has + and − buttons for manual adjustment.

Double Jeopardy

Click Double Jeopardy at the top left to double all point values on the board. This can only be used once per game — the button grays out after use.

Saving and resuming a game

Click Save game at any point. This downloads a .json file and also stores the game state in your browser. To resume:

  • If saved in the same browser: a Resume saved game panel appears at the top of the setup screen next time you open the Game Board.
  • If you have a saved game file: use Load saved game file at the bottom of the setup screen.

Ending the game

Click End game to show final scores, with the leading score highlighted. Click New game to return to setup.

Returning to setup

Click ← Setup at the top left at any time. Your selections are preserved.

Sharing questions with other teachers

  1. Export your questions from the Question Bank (all or by category).
  2. Send the .json file to your colleague.
  3. They click Import in their Question Bank and select your file. Their existing questions are unaffected.

Using on multiple devices

Since questions are stored per browser per device, to use your question bank on a different computer:

  1. Export your questions on your current device.
  2. Open the Question Bank on the new device.
  3. Import the .json file.

Tips

  • Export after every session where you add questions. Keep the file on your computer or in Google Drive or iCloud so it is always backed up and accessible from any device.
  • Use difficulty level filtering to run Beginner games early in the year and Advanced games later.
  • The non-competitive (0 teams) mode works well for whole-class review without scoring pressure.
  • Keep category names short — they appear as column headers on the projected board.
  • You can have different sets of questions for specific students or classes just by adding their name to the categories. (Thanks, Jennifer!)