Summer Series: Google Forms

Palm Grove Beach, Vaimaaga, Raratonga (Bob Linsdell, photographer)

Happy Summer!

This blog series supports our summer course, Self-grading assessments using Google Forms. Save yourself time, personalize engaging learning experiences for students, and gain critical insights to focus your instruction.

Browse our full selection of Google Forms topics in the The Top section.  Intrigued?  Scroll down to The Bottom learn more.

The Top:

Create your first assessment -- With just a couple clicks, transform your form into a self-grading assessment.  Follow these simple steps to get started...

Provide faster, better feedback -- Timely, descriptive, targeted feedback helps students learn from their mistakes.  Build descriptive feedback into assessments that is automated so that students get the help they need when they need it.

It doesn't have to be boring -- Assessments can be visual and interactive.  Discover the world of media options available to you and your students in Google Forms.

Get the right kind of answers -- Sometimes, kids answer questions in a way you did not expect.  Response validation is a Swiss army knife for getting the kind of response you want.  Chances are you have seen it but didn't know what you were looking at.

Make meaning out of mayhem -- The assessments are done.  You have the data.  Now what?  Learn simple strategies using google Sheets for making data actionable.

How secure are your assessments? -- There are a number of steps you can take to secure any Google Forms assessment.  Learn about your options before choosing what works for you.

Choose your own (learning) adventure -- Do you remember those books?  The choice given to readers was so powerful.  Are you using the power of choice and personalized pathways within your assessments?  Adaptive quizzes may be the game changer you need.

Forms can be more than surveys and tests -- We've found a wonderful resource filled with formative assessment templates that can be used as is.  Browse this great collection today!

Great Sand Dunes, (Daniel Schwen, photographer)

The Bottom:

Create your first assessment -- Teachers Tech creator Jamie Keet provides this step-by-step walkthrough:

Provide faster, better feedback -- Timely, descriptive, actionable feedback is better feedback.  Google Forms has you covered!  This video highlights the simple steps you can take to raise the impact of your assessments.

It doesn't have to be boring -- Google Forms has a number of media options for form creators and students.

In addition to creating a new question, editors can insert standalone titles and headings, images, and video.  These tools can be used to preview new learning, review important ideas, reward progress, and support learning.

But wait, there's more!  Answer choices can be images, too.  Take a close look at red circle on the image below.  Sometimes overlooked, this option helps assess early readers and provides an option for asking questions that are visual in nature. 

Get the right kind of answers -- Have you ever filled out an application only to be prompted to correct the form because your phone number or the date was entered improperly?  The question to correct was highlighted in red and there were instructions on how to correct your mistake.  Well, you can do that in your own Google Forms, and it's called response validation.

As teachers, sometimes we ask questions in a way that result in our students submitting answers that we frankly did not want.  Response validation is an amazing tool that allows you to guide students to a specific answer, type of answer, or range of answers.   Watch the video to learn how to activate this super power:

Make meaning out of mayhem -- The assessments are done.  You have the data.  Now what?  Learn simple strategies using google Sheets for making data actionable.

How secure are your assessments? -- There are a number of steps you can take to make your online assessment more secure.  Aaron Maurer gives you his top five strategies in this video:

Choose your own (learning) adventure -- When I was a kid, I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books.  Unlike any other books, I was transformed into the main character and I had the power to make decisions.  What happened in the story was up to me.

Now, think about your assessments.  How many of your assessments play out like a a Choose Your Own Adventure?  By creating new pages within your form and then sending students to different pages based on their responses, you can make this happen.

In other words, you can design Google Forms assessments that twist and turn according to each students understanding of (or interest in) the content.  The strategy requires a little planning up front, but the results are amazing.  Check out Stephen Johnson's video more the steps to get started:

Forms can be more than surveys and tests -- Formative assessments are a mainstay in modern teaching pedagogy.  The better we (and they) understand where students are at in their learning, the more responsive our teaching can become.

Bradley Lands has shared a wonderful resource filled with formative assessment templates that can be used as is.  Scroll to the bottom of the article to pick and choose timeless templates for everyday use in your classroom.  Browse this great collection today!