Google Drive

Google Drive seems to be an endless amount of awesome. Every time I feel like I have mastered Google Drive, Google releases something else that completely changes the game and makes my job as an educator a little easier than the day before. While exploring Google Forms this week in Google Drive, I found a newer, built in tool that does just that! (New to Google Forms? Click HERE for a Google Forms 101 session) Previously, I had used Google Forms to give my students quick assessments for quizzes, exit tickets, and to check for understanding. After creating the form, I could then easily export my students' answers into a Google Sheets document to grade. Last year I stumbled upon an "Add On" in Google Sheets that would AUTOMATICALLY grade those quizzes, exit tickets, and checks for understanding. This teacher's dream add on is called Flubaroo. The video below shows how it works!

Flubaroo works great, but my only real complaint was that it got to be a little time consuming when I was having to juggle two different programs and then run an "Add-On" and then also transfer those grades into my district's online grading system.What I found this week is an even easier way to make this happen IN Google Forms! Google has now added a "Quizzes" option to their Google Forms sheet that grades itself in the same program! Even though it is just a slight change, it eliminates two to three steps of the process. Nobody knows that time is precious more than a teacher! Watch the video below for a demo of the on-demand grading within Google Forms.

As much as I love Google Forms and the ease of the process, I will say that the one downfall of using Google Forms to self-grade over using Flubaroo in Google Sheets is that it limits the type of questions you can ask in your quiz. Multiple choice, checkboxes, and drop-down questions are the only options available for the Google Forms self-grading system. If you choose to use Google Sheets + Flubaroo instead, you can also add in short answer questions. As an English teacher, I REALLY appreciate that added question type that is ideal of fill in the blank questions and even single answer open ended questions. Both features have their strengths and I will continue to use both in my classroom! The immediate data that Google Forms lets teachers gather about their students is truly invaluable. Let Google do the hard stuff. You just reap the benefits!