Here’s how I did it at no cost (well except a bit of my time).

Step 1: Create a basic website to house all your content

Reading the title above I bet lots of you thought “well I can’t do that”. Yes you can! It’s a doddle. Google Sites allows you to create websites for free and is unbelievably easy to use. If you can make a Word document you can do this.

My A-Level site is a simple job with three columns. The column on the left is a list of all the bits of content the students need to know. The column in the middle is a list of all the content essay questions they might get asked and the column on the right is a list of all the interpretation questions they might get asked.

Step 2: Set up a GoogleDoc for each bit of content

For every bit of content create a separate GoogleDoc (granted this takes a few minutes). Then you need to link each document to the correct bit in your website. This is the fiddly bit. First off in the relevant GoogleDoc click Share and get a shareable link. Copy that. Then in your website highlight the words you want to link to and click on the link button. Paste in the link. Hey presto you’ve done it. Repeat for all.

Step 3: Get the students to make the content

Give each student a bit of content to create (choose carefully and give tricky bits to very able kids and easier bits to less able). To bring consistency to the site I wrote the students a very strict author brief (see below). I also gave them a really rigid template (see below) that they had to write in.

I told them they then needed at least three sources to create their bit of the site (handily there are three textbooks for my bit of the course). I gave them a week and slowly but surely they all poured in. Here’s one:

Step 4: Copy and paste these into your website

Once the students send you their work you can then just copy their work and paste it into the relevant Google Doc you have created on the website. This way you have edit control and own the material if you ever want to add to it or play about with it.

Extra hard core level revision website fun:

To make my site even better I am also adding multiple choice quizzes to each content bit. I have got Year 12 to make the questions and create the quiz in Google Forms (instructions here) and then I will then just add a link to the bottom of every Google Doc.

There is a wealth more material about how you can support your A-Level students at: http://www.history.org.uk/secondary/categories/curr-a-level. Do follow the HA on Twitter @histassoc for more updates, to send comments and to share ideas.

Thanks to Richard Kennett, Assistant Head at Redland Green School, for this post.