Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Tech Tip Tuesday: Advanced Tools using Google Forms


If you use Google Forms to creating quizzes and online assessments, there are many advanced features of using Forms that may be help you enhance the features of the assessment or grade it.  

I will list 3 tips that will provide you with more functionality with Google Forms. Note:  be sure you are comfortable with Google Forms and Add-ons.

1.  The first tip is to install the (gmath) for Forms add-on.  It will allow you to insert mathematical expressions, graphs, and a statistical display directly into your Google Form as an image.
For example, if I wanted to include a mathematical expression in my quiz, I would select the following options from the add-ons menu:
  • Select 'Add-ons' from the menu
  • Select '(gmath) for Forms' from the drop down menu
  • Select 'Math expressions'
  • scroll down to the 'Prebuilt formatting area' and click on the type of expression you want to enter
  • then go to the 'LaTex' box and add your values into the expression.
  • the expression will be displayed, click on 'Insert' to add it as an image to your Google Form.

2.  The second tip is to insert a section header item in the Google Form to include a small reading passage for your quiz.  After you insert the section header, you can the reading passage in the description area, as shown below.  Then you can add questions that correspond to the reading passage.



3.  The last tip is to password protect your quiz.  The purpose of providing a password is to allow you to make the link available for the Google Form, without worrying about students completing it prior to or after the lesson.  

You can easily set a password by adding a text question, click on 'advanced settings', and check off 'data validation' in the question, as shown below. Next, be sure to select 'Regular expression' as your data validation type and select 'Matches' then type the desired password and error message.  


I found these options to be beneficial when implementing different types of questions and content into an online assessment using Google Forms.