Google+Forms

=Learn about all the cool things you can do with Google forms and spreadsheets, including online voting, surveys, electronic self-checking quizzes, data gathering, and more!=

Jana Baxter Allegheny Intermediate Unit Instructional Media Services Coordinator jana.baxter@aiu3.net 412-394-4602 June 17, 2010

For more information on how Teachers are using Google in their classroom, check out the Google Docs for Teachers Page!

Today we will focus on the following classroom applications of Google Forms:


 * Online Voting
 * Survey
 * Self-Checking Quizzes
 * Data Gathering

Online Voting
Create live polls using Google Forms and Spreadsheets and share the data while the poll is taking place. Basically, you have to create a Spreadsheet and then setup a form on the spreadsheet. I’ll go through the steps to do this as it’s pretty easy to do and very cool!

First step is that you need to log into your Google Docs account and create a new spreadsheet.



Be sure to save you spreadsheet and give it a name. In this case, I named my spreadsheet "Poll."

Under the Form menu choose Create a Form.



Create your Poll question(s).



Click Save when finished.

You can now share your Poll. I have choosen to Embed my Poll below:

media type="custom" key="6397117"

Our Poll from class

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Survey
Why might you need to **create your own online survey**? Need to get the opinion of several of yourpeers about an idea you have? Or maybe you are interested in assessing your students' prior knowledge? A form is always linked up with a spreadsheet, so if you create a form, then you’ll get a spreadsheet and vice versa. This is because all of the responses are automatically added to the spreadsheet and kept track of there. To begin go to the Create New menu and choose form. You can type in a form name and description as well as start typing your first question.



The interface is very slick and works fast, no need for page refreshes to add more questions, etc. Everything works while you’re on the same page. You can also re-order the questions in any order you like. After your online survey is completed, you can share it with your students. Here is a sample survey

media type="custom" key="6399891"

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Self-Checking Quizzes
Using forms in Google docs lets anyone create forms quickly and share those forms via email, embed them into a webpage or blog. If you are a teacher, you can create formulas that allow you to have these forms graded in minutes.

To Create a form, go to the Create New menu and choose form. Google will open up a new window with the form. You can type in a form name and description as well as start typing your first question.



Type in your questions, help text and question type



There are different types of questions you can choose from. It's best if you try to make a question that has each of these elements to familiarize yourself with them.

Make some questions required



Choose a test quiz type



I'm going **ask 5 questions** of different types on this quiz. I'll also add a section for the student's name. Google docs will **automatically create a timestamp** that lets you know the date and time the students filled out the test. To add each questions, just go to the top of the screen and choose Add Item, choose the question type and start typing your questions and options. This part is pretty self-explanatory and shouldn't take you very long.

Finished quiz example

Here's what my final test looks like. Take a moment to complete the quiz.

media type="custom" key="6396633"

How will your students take the quiz

Once you've finished the test, you have three options to give people access to your quiz. You can click on the **Email this form** at the top of the screen, then fill out a list of recipients in the box provided, you can click on More Actions, then choose **Embed** from the pop-up. You can then copy this code and put in on a Wiki or a Web page. Finally, you can click on or copy the list at the bottom of the test and send someone the URL where they can take the test online.

Create an answer key

In order to make the test grade itself, you'll have to create a KEY of answers. Click on the link at the bottom of the test and fill out the test yourself. Hit submit when you're done.

The second time you take the test, you'll pretend to be a student, answer all of the questions correctly. This will help you check to make sure your formulas are correct when you create them. The last question is an open ended question and will have to be treated differently than the others.

Here are the test results



You can go back into Google Docs and see your form in the list of documents. Click on it and you'll see something like the spreadsheet above, it will contain all of the entries that have been submitted. A really great feature of Google Docs is the ability to see the information in graphic form. You can see that by going to the FORM menu and choosing Show Summary of Responses.

Create additional columns to calculate total points

You need a few more columns to finish up. We'll need a column for points someone would get since it's open-ended. That will allow me to give the student points for the open-ended question. I'll call this column Open-ended Points. Then, I'll add another column to calculate the Correct Points from the other questions. I'll call that Other Points. Finally, I'll add a final column for the final grade called Total. I'm also going to fill out some sample points in the open ended points column to test my calculations.

Formula to calculate the Total points



This is the hard part. To calculate whether a question was filled in correctly, You need to award a point to a student if their answer matches the answer in the key. We'll need to use a spreadsheet if statement. The IF statement works like this IF(CELLID2=CELLID1, TRUEVALUE, FALSEVALUE). So, if the answer on the current cell matches the answer on the key, then the spreadsheet will give the TRUEVALUE, otherwise it will give the FALSEVALUE. So, for our first question the formula would look like this: =IF(C3=$C$2,1,0). The = sign at the beginning of a formula tells the spreadsheet software that this is a special cell that needs to be calculated. Notice something peculiar about our cell references. The first cell reference C3 is a **normal cell reference**. The second cell reference is a bit different $C$2. This is an **absolute cell reference**.

To calculate the Correct Points, we need to add the value of each correct answer. Here's what that formula would look like: =(IF( D3 = $D$2 ,1,0)+IF( E3 = $E$2 ,1,0)+IF( F3 = $F$2 ,1,0)+IF( G3 = $G$2 ,1,0)) Here's a couple of caveats about doing it this way. For a Checkbox question, the student must click all of the correct Checkboxes in order for the question to count. There are **no points for partially correct answers**. Also, for questions that are fill in the blank like the question about the URL, the answer **must match exactly**.

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**Data Gathering** There are several kinds of anonymous data gathering activities you might want to carry out with students during the course of a semester, inside the classroom or out.
 * Determine class demographics
 * Choose which activity to do next
 * Survey opinions on an issue
 * Check background knowledge on a topic
 * Conduct an early course evaluation

Google provides a very flexible tool for gathering data – and all you need is a plain old free Google account! From the Google Docs screen, choose Form from the Create New menu. Select the type of question you want and fill in the blanks. After entering questions you are ready to collect the data. At the bottom of the screen is a web page address you can send people, OR choose “More Actions” > “Embed” to get the code that allows you to add the form to a page in your Wiki or on your Web site.

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