Using Google Forms in the Classroom

Google Forms is a Google tool that is part of our Google Apps for Education Suite that allows users to collect, organize, and analyze data quickly and easily.  Google Forms provides several templates to create polls, surveys, and/or quizzes in the classroom and beyond. You can even insert videos, add images, create your own theme, or have others collaborate on creating your form.

After creating the Google Form, the link can be shared with anyone to complete.  Responses to your form are automatically collected and organized in a Google Sheet for easy reading and sharing.

There are many ways that Google Forms can be used in the classroom.  Below are the ITF Team's favorite five!

1. Quick Formative Assessment
A Google Form can be created to gather quick, formative, data from your class.   Teacher's can include multiple choice, short answer, paragraph text, checkboxes, or choose from a list.  Data from the Google Form can be used for class discussions and to drive future lessons.

2.  Collect Parent or Student Data and Digital Work
Sending parents a Google Form to fill out at the beginning of the year is a great way to collect important information that you might need throughout the year. In the past, parents have often had to fill out several different back-to-school paper documents that the teacher ultimately has to organize and file throughout the year. By using a Google Form, parents can click on the Google Form link & simply fill out one survey with all of their contact information.  The teacher will then have all parent information in one digital document that can be accessed from anywhere at anytime.

Keeping and organizing students' digital work can sometimes be overwhelming.  Teachers inevitably have an email inbox full of links that have to be sorted and opened individually. Instead of asking students to email the links to various digital projects throughout the year, teachers can use a Google Form to collect all of the links to student work. Students can fill out the form with their name, hour, and also the share link from any online work they have created.  Once the data is collected on the Google Sheet, the teacher can filter by name, hour, or link to the project. The teacher can even share the Google Sheet with students, parents, or others so everyone has an opportunity to see all students' work.

3. Exit Slip

Google Forms can be utilized as a quick and easy way to create and administer an exit slip. While Forms are not extremely efficient for lengthy quizzes, they can be exceptionally useful when gathering a few quick pieces of data on an exit slip. Best practice would be to create new forms and require the user to sign-in as well as collect the respondent’s username (both can be selected at the top under “form settings”). Then request that the student enter his or her first name, last name and follow-up with your question fields. Then, post the link to the assessment in your Brightspace course or on your classroom website. 

4. Students Collecting Data

Students can create and send out Google Forms to collect data in various subject areas for various projects.  This is a fast and accurate way to collect data simply by attaching the link to an email, a website or even social media.  Students can even work collaboratively to create the form by going to “File” and “Email Collaborators”.  

5. Sign-Up Sheet for Clubs, Sports, or Events
Teachers can easily use a Google Form to have student sign-up for a club, sport, or event.  By using a Google Form, teachers can set a specific date range for when the Form is available.  Student can sign-up at home or by using their phone on their own time. Teachers can easily see who is signed-up, schedule times, and organize the data within the Google Sheet to move forward!