Google Forms: Which Link Do I Give Students?

When it comes to Google Forms, a question I get often is, "Which link do I give the students?"  There are a few ways to find the link to give your students (or whomever else might be filling out your form).

Preview Link
When you are ready to send out your form, click on the preview icon (the eyeball) at top of the screen.

This will take you to a live preview of the form.  You can then copy the URL from the address bar and give this URL to your students on the class page, or as an assignment, in an email, etc.  (If you are going to do an email - it's a good idea to make a hyperlink instead of pasting the long ugly URL.  Click here to see how if you are unsure.)  

Send Button

You can also get the link by clicking on the "Send" button across the top of the screen.  

Clicking "Send" will take you to a window with a variety of options for distributing your form.  Be sure to click over to the link section by clicking on the chain link icon.  Then you can click "Copy" to copy the URL to your clipboard.  You can then go and paste it where ever it needs to go (Classroom webpage, assignment, email, etc.). 

Quick and Easy Assessments with Google Forms

Making assessments with Google Forms is quick and easy - no really!  I promise!  Google Forms will automatically grade multiple choice and fill in the blank questions while allowing you to quickly and easily add or adjust points for longer answers or fill in the blank answers that might have been just a little off.  You can share the grades with the students immediately if it is all multiple choice, or send feedback to them later as an email.

Google Forms may sound daunting, but it really is so easy to use!  My Google Forms 101 post can help you learn more about making a Google Form, sending it out to students, and handling the results.

The video below shows specifically how to make a self-grading quiz using Google Forms.  It shows the different question types you can use and explains how the answer key works.  You'll also learn how to view the responses and enter scores for questions it can't grade automatically.  Between these two resources, you have everything you need to start building Assessments with Google Forms.

Google Forms: File Upload

I have many teachers wishing there was a better way to collect files like videos and photos from their students.  The separate emails or share notifications from each student can get frustrating and overwhelming.  There is a really easy way to collect these types of files - or any other file for that matter - and you won't have to search through your email inbox or Shared With Me to find them.  The answer?  Google Forms!

There is a question type in Google Forms called "File Upload" and it will ask the person filling out a form to add a file.  Once they hit submit, this file will be uploaded into a folder in your Google Drive and you have sole ownership over the files.  They are not shared with the person who uploaded them - nor can they access the file once they have uploaded it.  This is simply a way for them to quickly and easily submit a file to you.  Keep in mind that the person submitting the file will be required to log into Google - so only people with Google Accounts will be able to upload files.

If you are not familiar with Google Forms at all - check out my Google Forms 101 post which gives you all the information you need to get started making your own form.  You can always feel free to set up an appointment with me as well to help you get going.  You can read on to see how to start a new form and how to find the "File Upload" question type.

To start a new Google Form, browse to your Google Drive and click "New" --> "More" --> and "Google Forms".

Make sure to give your form a title so it looks nice and you will be able to find it in your drive later.  Then you can change the question type from "Multiple Choice" to "File Upload" by clicking on the little drop down for question type. 

You'll get a warning about how it will make the person responding log into Google in order to access your form.  You can just click on "Continue" when this message comes up. 

Now you will see some options for your file upload.

If you turn on the "Allow only specific file types" option, then it will give you some checkboxes to choose which types to allow. You can also choose how many files a respondent can upload and put a limit on the file size.  If they are uploading pictures and videos - you will want to choose a larger maximum size.  You'll also want to adjust the total file upload limit for the whole form by clicking on that little blue "Change" link you see under the "Maximum file size" (pictured above).  You can then set the total file upload limit in the settings there (pictured below).

When someone goes to fill out the form, they will see a little "Add File" link and all they have to do is click to upload their file and hit submit.  Easy!

To find the files that have been uploaded, click on the "Responses" tab of your Google Form.  You will see all the files listed there and you can click the links to open them one by one.  If you'd like to view the folder that contains all of the files, click on the "View Folder" link.  You'll notice that the name of the person who uploaded the file is included in each file name.  Thanks, Google!

Google Forms: Digital Assignment Tracking

You can use a Google Form to easily keep track of the turn-in rate of homework or other student assignments.  Make the first question the name of the assignment for easy sorting.  As the second question, use a multiple choice grid with each row being a student name and each column being a turn-in status.  You can even make it a required question so that you force yourself to never skip a student.

This type of form could also be used to take a quick snapshot of student mastery or progress on a particular skill.  The first question would be used to identify the skill or subject you are assessing.  For the second question, the multiple choice grid, you would use the rows again as student names, but make the columns be progress indicators - struggling, emergent, proficient, mastered, etc.

Make this even better by using the add-on for Sheets called Row Call.  This could put the responses for each unique topic or subject into their own tab in the spreadsheet for a more organized view of the responses.

I always mark the option to provide a link to submit another response, so after I submit, I’m ready for the next assignment or topic.

Thank you to Kyra Bowers (@KyraBowers) for sharing this idea with me!

What to ask?

• Assignment name, Topic, or Skill
• Multiple Choice Grid with student names as rows and assessment criteria as the columns. 

If you'd like to copy a sample form to make it your own - click here. 

Here is what this form could look like:

Google Forms: Anecdotal Student Notes

I have tried all kinds of ways to take anecdotal notes.  Spiral notebooks, 3x5 cards, Evernote, Google Docs with a table of contents, you name it, I’ve tried it.  Nothing was just what I was looking for.  I wanted something easily accessible, private while I’m taking notes, organized, and not something that someone can find lying around my desk.  Then it dawned on me - Google Forms!

I made a form that I use over and over again to take notes on students and it puts all the information into a sortable, searchable spreadsheet in my Drive.  I can sort by date, subject, or student.  Perfect!

I always mark the option to provide a link to submit another response, so after I submit, I’m ready for the next student.

What to ask?

• Student Name - you can always enter your students in ahead of time so you just pick them from a dropdown menu.  Saves time!
• Date
• Subject
• Leave a field for comments

If you want to get fancy - you can use an add-on for Google Sheets called rowCall to make a separate tab in your spreadsheet for each child.  This means you will have every note for Tommy in one tab, every note for Suzie in another tab, etc.  Try it - it's amazing!  If you do this, I recommend using a dropdown for student names instead of typing them in each time to make sure you always put their names in the same way.  This will allow rowCall to do its magic correctly each time.

Here is what my form looks like:

If you'd like a copy of this form so you can make it your own - click here.

Google Forms 101

Google Forms is a digital form and survey tool.  It allows you to gather, organize, analyze, and manipulate data.  Put very simply, you create questions, give people the web address to your form, and sit back while Google automatically compiles the data for you.  It is so versatile!  Not only is it handy for information gathering, but it can help with class discussions and also streamline and make paperless many of the processes and routines that occur daily in your classroom.  This is a pretty powerful app, and it has many unique features.  In this post, I'm just giving you the basics of what it can do.

To create a Google Form, you just navigate to your Google Drive and click on the blue "New" button, mouse over the "More" option at the bottom and then choose "Google Forms".

(You could also download an awesome extension that allows you to create a new form (slide, doc, spreadsheet or drawing, too) from anywhere on the web, just by clicking the button.  Read about this must have extension here.)

This will take you to a new untitled form.  The first thing I recommend is to give your form a title so that you can find it again later.  Take a look at the interface you'll see.

Settings Menu

Let's take a look at the settings menu you can access by clicking on the little gear icon in the upper right.  This menu has three tabs.  The first one that comes up is "General".

The top checkbox will collect the email address of those filling out your form by adding a question at the top of the form that asks for an email address.  If you have also chosen to restrict the form to just your organization, this question won't appear as the email address collection will happen automatically in the background.  

The second box, "Response receipts" is only usable if you have chosen to collect email addresses.  If you do collect email addresses and want people to get a copy of their responses, you can check this box.  It will give you the option to always send a copy of responses, or allow the respondent to choose if they want one or not. 

The third check box, "Restrict to...", allows you to lock down the form so that only those individuals in your organization can fill out the form.

The next check box does just what it says - only allows the respondent to submit once.  If you check this box, it will require users to log in with a Google Account - though it won't tell you who they are unless the "Collect email addresses" option is also checked. 

The bottom two links will decide what the respondent can do after they submit. 

The next tab in the menu is "Presentation".

The top option shows a progress bar for the respondent so that if it is a long form with many pages or "sections" they will see how close they are to finishing.  

The second box will shuffle the question order on each page or section.  It will not mix questions with questions from another page or "section" of the form. 

The last box allows you to show a link to return to the beginning and take the form again - this is nice if it is a form you are filling out repeatedly for different students.  

The last section is a place for you to put a confirmation message.  This is what your respondents see once they hit the submit button.

The last tab in the settings menu is "Quizzes".  You can use this to make your form into a self-grading quiz.  If you want to know more details about how to do this - you can check out this tutorial video. 

Question Types

There are many question types you can choose from.  The default first question is a multiple choice question, but if you click on "multiple choice" it will give you a list of other question types. 

Once you choose your question type, it will give you the options to enter your answer choices.  You have most anything you could want here, except true and false - but I just do a multiple choice question with only two answer choices - true and false.  

Question Options

You can make a question required  - meaning the respondent cannot submit the form without answering the question - by clicking on the "Required" slider to turn it on.

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To get a few more options for your questions you can click the little three dots icon in the bottom right corner of the question.  It will give you different options depending on your question type.

The most common ones you might need are to show "Description" which allows you to give a little direction about how to answer or if you want to put in an example.  Another one might be to show "Data validation" for a paragraph or short answer question, which allows you to make the answer be something specific like it must have an @ symbol because they are supposed to type an email address or something like that.  You can also choose "Go to section based on answer" for multiple choice which can send them to a separate page depending on which answer they choose.  

Adding Images to a Specific Question or Answer

You can add an image as part of your question, or as part of a multiple choice answer option.  Click on a question to edit it.  If you put your mouse on the Question text, a little image icon will appear to the right and you can click on it.  Same for putting your mouse over an answer choice.

Question

Answer choice 

Adding Other Items

You can add other items to your form using the vertical bar on the right.

You can click to add a new question or to import a question you have already used on a different Google Form.

Adding a title and description lets you put additional text into your form that isn't necessarily tied to a question.  It can be instructions or other information that your respondents need to know. 

Adding a section adds another "page" that your respondent will see.  For example, they might answer some questions and then click next to answer more questions.  It only shows them one "section" at a time and they will need to click to go to the next section or page. 

Customize the Look

You can customize the look of your form by clicking on the color palette in the upper right.  When you click on the palette, you are shown a variety of colors.  If you want something a little more decorative, click on the little image icon in the bottom right to be taken to a window where you can choose from many different themes or even upload your own image.

Responses

You can learn all about how to find and analyze the form responses in this "Where Are My Responses?" post. 

How to Send Out My Form

When you are all finished creating your form, you can click the "Send" button in the upper right and get some options on how to distribute your form.  

There you go!  That should give you everything you need to know to start creating your very own Google Forms.  Have fun!

Google Forms: Deleting Responses

You made a Google Form and then you filled it out to test it.  Or maybe you are reusing a form and you want to get rid of last year's responses.  You can do this very easily.

You can delete the responses in the form only, or in the spreadsheet only.  You can delete them from both places - but these are two separate actions.


Deleting Responses From the Form

1.  Click over to the responses section.

2.  Click on the little three dots icon in the top right corner.

3.  Choose "Delete all responses" from the menu.

4.  Click "ok" when it warns you.

As it stated in the warning, this does not delete the responses from the spreadsheet if one was created.


Deleting Responses From the Spreadsheet

1.  Go to the spreadsheet where your responses are.
2.  Delete the entire row for each of the responses you wish to delete - you can select more than one at a time.

If you just delete the text and not the entire rows, Google Forms will still skip those rows when new responses come in.  If you want to clear the responses for good, you should delete the entire row.  

If you want to keep the responses but not see them, you can simply hide the rows.

You can also duplicate the sheet so that you can save old responses before you delete them from the "live" sheet.

Google Forms: Where Are My Responses?

Now that you've made a Google Form and you've got some responses - let's talk about where to find the response information and all the options you have to choose from.

Responses live in the Google Form itself.  You can click on "Responses" across the top to see them.  You'll notice it will tell you right at the top how many responses you have received.

Once you click over to the responses, you'll see a variety of things.  

Some of these options are pretty self explanatory, but I want to detail a few that might not be as obvious.  

Getting to the Spreadsheet

In the older Google Forms, a spreadsheet was automatically created.  Now, if you want a spreadsheet - which is where all the magic happens in my opinion - you have to tell it to create one.  To do this, you can click on the little green spreadsheet icon near the top.  

On a brand new form, the first time you click the spreadsheet icon, it will prompt you with two choices: 

1.  Create a new spreadsheet named after your form.

2.  Select an existing spreadsheet where you want the answers to go.  This can be very handy if you are creating a different copy of a form for multiple classes.  It allows you to have different forms for each class, but then all the answers feed into different tabs across the bottom of the spreadsheet.  You can click here to watch this quick video to see how that would look.

Once you have made your choice you can click on the blue "create" button.

Any other time you click the spreadsheet icon, it will take you directly to the spreadsheet where your responses can be found.   

Other Options

If you click on the three dots icon next to the spreadsheet icon, it will give you a variety of other options.  

You can choose to get email notifications, change a response destination from one you have already set up, unlink the form from a spreadsheet, download all of the responses into a .csv (spreadsheet file), print all the responses, or delete the responses.  Deleting can be tricky - you can read my post about it for more information.  

Viewing and analyzing your Google Form responses could not be easier!

Google Forms: Changing Response Location

Unless you have specified otherwise, Google Forms will create a new responses spreadsheet for each of your forms.  Did you know you can change this location?  One reason why you might want to change this location is to have responses from multiple forms in the same document.

Scenario:  I'm doing a review activity in all of my 6 periods of Science.  I'd like to have all the responses in the same document to be more organized and save me some time while I'm looking over the results. 

How?

Step 1 - Create your form for the first period as usual.  Forms will automatically set up your responses document.  

Step 2 - Copy and rename your form for the second period.  Forms will automatically set up your responses document, but you are going to change that.  Click on the "Responses" menu and choose "Change response destination".  

This will open a window.  Mark the option for it to be on a new sheet in an existing spreadsheet and then click "Choose".

It will open another window where you can choose the spreadsheet where you would like your responses to go.  In this case, I'm going to select Science Review Period 1.  Choose your spreadsheet and then click "Select".

Now, if you go to the spreadsheet you chose, you will see both form responses tabs are there.  You can rename the tabs so you know which period is which.  It puts the new form in front, so the "Form Responses 2" tab will be my Period 2 class.   

Step 3: Repeat Step 2 for all the other Science periods.  

Step 4: Delete the extra response sheets that were created when you made the forms since you won't be using them.

All done!  Handy, right?  

If you are new to Google Forms - check out my Google Forms 101 post.

Stop in again soon for more helpful tech tips!

Google Forms: Deleting Responses

Sometimes you need to delete responses from a Google Form.  Maybe it is a new year or a new class period and you don't need to save the previous responses.  It might also be because you tested your form a few times and now you want to delete those test attempts.  I want to give you a few tips about deleting form responses.

Something to keep in mind is that Google Forms essentially inserts a new row into the spreadsheet when it puts in a new response.  If you have any extra text populating any of the cells of a clean row, it will be pushed down and the new responses will be above it.  This means that in the background, Forms is keeping track of where the next response should go.  If you simply delete the text of the responses you want to get rid of, you will end up with a bunch of blank rows at the top of your sheet.  Forms will continue inserting responses where it left off.  If you want to truly delete the responses, you need to select the whole row by clicking on the far left cell that has the row number in it.  Then you can right click and delete the whole row.  This will remove the row entirely and Forms will now put new responses at the very top (assuming you deleted all the existing responses).

Now, before you delete anything, think about if there is a chance you might want these responses at any point in the future.  If the answer could be yes, you have a few options.  You can go to the bottom left corner of your spreadsheet and duplicate the sheet and save those answers in another tab across the bottom of the page.  Then you can delete the answers from the first sheet and you will be ready to go.

You can also choose to hide the rows with the responses in them.  This way you don't have to see them, but they will still be there.  To do this, select the entire row(s) and right click.  Choose the option for hiding the rows.

Keep in mind that hidden responses will still show up when you run a summary of responses from the form menu.

If you are new to Google Forms - check out my Google Forms 101 post.

Stop by again soon for more handy tech tips!

Customize the Look of Your Google Form

Google Forms has some pretty nice looking themes for you to choose from when you go to create your form.  I was happy with the standard themes.  I was even happier when I realized you can customize them!

When you are editing your form, you will see the "Change theme" button across the top.  

When you click "Change theme", you will get a theme chooser window that opens on the right side of your form.  You can scroll through and choose the theme you like best.  Once you click on your desired theme, you can use it as is, or you can click on the "Customize" option that comes up.

Once you click "Customize", you will see all the options that you have control over.  

Click on "Header image" at the top and click "Choose image".  You can then scroll through all the fun header images they supply or upload your own image.

You also have options for font style, color, and size for titles, descriptions, questions, help text, and options.  They give you the chance to change your form background color and the page background image as well.

To get back to editing your form once you have made all your choices, click on "Edit questions" across the top of your screen.

Have fun customizing your forms!

If you are new to Google Forms - check out my Google Forms 101 post.

Stop in again soon for more handy tech tips!