Columns Tech Talk Attempting to create a paperless classroom with Google Forms Lucius Von Joo Kanda University of International Studies, Japan Lucius Von Joo currently teaches at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan. He holds an EdM in Comparative and International Education and has teaching experience in deaf education, elementary education and EFL/ESL in California, Japan and New York. His research interests include computer assisted learning, film and documentary content-based learning, student educational backgrounds and learning approaches, video-cued multivocal ethnography, and family and communities as educators. E-mail: lucius-v@kanda.kuis.ac.jp
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n the past decade, teachers, administrators and students have been attempting to create paperless classrooms. Whether the appeal behind such an approach is organizational, environmental or the promise of permanency and accessibility, it is important not to make more work with the new system. For example, if the only driving force is to have a lower carbon footprint, a paperless class might actually create more emissions, depending on the time spent online. It is also easy to get overwhelmed trying to find a new path for something that has traditionally been done on paper. Having said that, organization, permanency and accessibility still hold great appeal for both teachers and students. Making an online syllabus is pretty easy to do, but making assignments that students can do online can pose a greater challenge. In this Tech Talk I will explain one tried and tested method for making reflective tests, surveys and worksheets through Google Forms. Like the software I have mentioned in previous Tech Talks, Google forms is easy to access, quick to learn and free. Setting up your first form can take time, but once you learn the system, there are many different ways you can utilize the platform. As a precursor to this, I should mention that I am not a Google loyalist; however, it is one of the biggest platforms out there and it has really come a long way in the last year in terms of ease of use. In this column, I will explain step-by-step the setting up of a Google form and Google spreadsheet for the collection of data. I will also explain ways in which I personally have used forms in my classes. Google forms:
The easiest way to understand what Google forms are is to think of them as a form of surveymaking software. If you have used Survey Monkey in the past, Google forms will be especially quick to learn, but Google Forms does not have a ten-question cap for free accounts and the data collected will be free to access and manipulate. The range of question styles available in Google forms suits any kind of work, from making an online test to a worksheet or even a wiki. Setting up a Google form: 1. First, sign into the Google account where you want to store the form and spreadsheet. If you do not have a Google account already you will need to set one up. 2. Next go to Drive
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3. Once you are on the Google Drive, go to Create and select Form from the drop-down menu. 4. The new form will open with directions. Click on Get Started. 5. Title your Form (this will show up at the top) and pick a Theme for your form. You can change the theme at any time to suit your needs. There are not that many themes, but you can almost always find a match for your assignment or test. 6. Now you can enter the questions for your form. This fill-in template is not what your final form will look like, it is only where you enter your questions. You can view what your form will look like at any time during your design by clicking There are multiple types of questions you can have on a form. The first question and type I always start with is: Question Title: Name: Question Type: Text This is a really important step or you will not know whose response is whose, on your spreadsheet. I learned this the hard way: there is nothing worse than having responses with no names. If you were doing an anonymous survey, you would, of course, not include this question. You can choose the question to require an answer before submission by checking the option at the bottom of the question field. Next click on add item to add another question.
Here is a brief explanation of the types and some uses: BASIC Text: This is for short answers. Example: Name or fill in the blank type questions. Paragraph text: This is for essay questions or responses that require more detail. Multiple choice: You can add as many choices as you want, and also add the “other” type answer where the respondent can write in their own choice. Checkboxes: This is very similar to a multiplechoice question, but the respondent can check multiple boxes. This is good for making test questions more challenging, since learners can identify more than one correct answer. Choose from list: This is identical to multiplechoice except it is a pull-down menu. This gives a cleaner look for surveys. ADVANCED Scale: You can choose the scale to range from 110 and have your respondent pick a number. I’ve found that combining a Likert Scale followed by a paragraph text question yields really strong results on surveys and reflections. The Likert scale gives confidence to respondents and the follow-up explanation helps clear up any ambiguity that number-only responses might lead to. Grid: This is a combination of multiple-choice checkboxes and could be used as a scale. This type of question can make a clean style multiplechoice set or match-up question. Date: Just as it sounds, this is for the respondent to enter a date. The responses are already timestamped so this date section could be used for planning a date, asking a birthdate or something similar. Time: You can use this for time of day or duration, e.g., How many hours did you study for this test?
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LAYOUT Section header: This is a good tool to give separation to different types of questions or to give different direction in the middle of a worksheet. Page Break: If you want to separate your questions and have only one come on the screen at one time. The default allows the respondent to page back, which can be helpful for worksheets but may not be desirable in tests. Image: This is a great new option that allows you to insert banners for your worksheet or images that correspond with any questions you add.
2. You can then email the link, or embed it in servers such as Moodle or Edmodo or other social networking platforms.
Viewing Responses: There are two main ways to view responses to your Google form. There is the summary of all responses, which is great for forms that are meant for surveys, or you can get a detailed spreadsheet. To access the responses to your form, at any time, go to your Google Drive and click on the form you want to see responses for.
Sharing the Google form: To share the form is simple and your respondents do not need Google accounts, which is a major plus since setting up accounts often takes up valuable class time or is too demanding for survey participants. 1. To share your completed Google form all you have to do is click
Now that you are in the form, open Responses from the file menu. SUMMARY OF RESPONSES For a quick summary, all you have to do is choose Summary of responses and you will get graphs of the responses.
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The summary of responses is good for questions that can be displayed as a graph. However, if you have more qualitative questions, they will be merged and abbreviated into a list. The summary is also not very good for grading. SPREADSHEET OF RESPONSES If you need more detailed and sorted information you are going to want a spreadsheet. Go to the responses tab and select Choose response destination Next you will be prompted with a window that looks like this:
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8. All you have to do is select ‘Create’. In the future, if you wanted to use the same form, but store the responses on a different spreadsheet, you would change the destination. Now any time you want to see the spreadsheet, click on This will now be on your form. You will then be linked to the spreadsheet that will have all your responses. This spreadsheet is like any Excel spreadsheet and can be edited or reorganized in any way.
This spreadsheet format is a great way to grade assignments quickly because all the responses are in one place. The Overall Benefits of Google Forms: 1. The application is clear and free to use. Being free, it‘s really a nice option for software in a class because there is no commitment for continued use if it does not work out. 2. Google Forms organizes all responses from students in one place, where they can easily
be compared and referred to, both by students and teachers. If you have multiple forms as assignments from your students you can type any student’s name into the search window and a list of all their assignments will appear. The responses will be stored online, so you do not have to worry about any lost papers. If you plan to use the same form in a future class, all you have to do is give the link or you can also duplicate the form at any time. The forms are easy to share amongst colleagues. All you have to do is invite someone else who has a Google account in order to be able to collaborate on form development together. Students can produce their own forms to get responses from peers. I have done this through embedding the forms into student websites. Google forms can easily be integrated with other software packages. If you are comfortable using a package such as Moodle or Edmodo, it is very easy to embed Google forms into your existing one.
Possible Limitations of Google Forms: 1. Google forms do not save responses until the user clicks Submit. If the respondent does not click Submit, all the answers will be lost if the computer crashes. The one-time submission system can pose problems for students who did not have enough time to answer all the questions. I usually let my students submit responses up to two separate times. If you do more than that, it becomes very hard to remain organized. 2. You are limited to the templates that Google provides for you. This could pose a problem if you need formatting that is very specific. Final Remarks: I use Google forms more than any other online software in my classes. The forms are very versatile and can easily convert a paper-based assignment to an online version with a little creative cutting and pasting. The more you use Google forms, the more uses you will find they serve. Google forms are a great way to create reflective assignments to help students with their metacognitive learning skills. The forms
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can also be used as wikis for students to interact with peers, creating a facilitated autonomous learning forum. I have had great results in having students make their own forms once I got comfortable with making them myself. The forms are also very smartphone friendly which allows students more access and control of their learning experience. Dear Readers, If you have any requests for future Tech Talks please feel free to contact me. Any request is greatly appreciated and can range from a specific program you want explained to a general lesson you have that you want to incorporate technology into. Thank you, Lucius lucius-v@kanda.kuis.ac.jp
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