Google Drive: Forms

          I’m fairly new with utilizing all that Google Drive has to offer.  This week I spent time playing around with the features available.  I became inundated with ideas of how I could use these features in the classroom!  Google Drive has so much to offer!

          For today’s post I’m going to focus mainly on the “Forms” option.  You are prompted to select a “title and theme.”  There are a few themes, not many though.  If there are more available I haven’t yet figured out how to get them.  Then comes the fun part!  You create questions using the many formats available.  They can be simple text box answers, multiple choice, or even drop boxes for selecting dates.  When you are satisfied with the form you created you can send it out via email.  The recipients receive the email, complete it, and send it back to you.  You have the choice of sifting through the forms yourself OR Google will sort the responses into a nice little spread sheet for you.  Wow!  I tested it out on a few friends and I have to say, this is a Godsend for busy teachers! 

          When you receive the results back on your spreadsheet, you can then convert that info into graphs and charts!  Teachers can see which questions were challenging for students and which concepts maybe need another lesson to clarify things.  Oh how we love our data in the educational field!

          Also, there is a way to send out quizzes made in this app that are self-graded.  I haven’t figured out how to do this yet, I’m afraid that this part is not very user-friendly.  BUT, when I do find out how to do it, you can be sure that I’ll post a how-to and I will be using it as often as I can.  Teachers, keep in mind that if you do send out quizzes through this app that your students will most certainly have an open book in front of them to help find answers.  With that said, I would make it more of a practice exercise rather than a quiz.  A great option for this would be to have students broken into groups and each member must create a quiz on recent material and send it to each other to complete.  It’ll really drive home the principle of repetition!  Another option is to test on content that isn't necessarily found in their textbooks.  I’m talking about putting their brains to work with a practical application (math)! 

          So, that sums it up for Google Forms!  Have you used Forms in your classroom?  How?