Ten Things to Love About Google Forms

1. You can create various formative and summative assessments.

Surveys, exit tickets, pretests, and post tests are all possible using Google Forms. They can be as simple or as complex as you want.

2. There are a variety of question types.

Choose from any of the question types on the list below when creating your forms. Read more about each choice in Google's Help Center.

3. You can automatically collect student emails.

No need to make students type their name in Question 1, just make sure you click the checkbox in settings that automatically collects their student email.

4. You can lock student screens on Chromebooks.

If your students use Chromebooks you can put their devices in locked mode. Then they aren't able to open other tabs or apps while taking the quiz.

5. Quizzes can grade themselves.

You can set up point values for each question and select the correct answer choice. Google Forms will grade all submissions and can even release the grade immediately to students. You can also include questions that need to be manually graded and submit grades to students after they've been reviewed. Learn more in the Google Help Center.

6. You can shuffle the question order.

In Settings under Presentation it gives you the option to have the questions display in a random order so that each student's quiz questions appear in a different order. This is great for in person classes where all students are in the same room when they take the quiz.

7. You can insert videos and images

Google Forms allows you to add YouTube videos. You can use this feature if you want to provide an instructional video in your form, add a screencast of directions on how to fill out the form, and provide video feedback or instruction based on students' answers. 

You can also add images in the body of your form. This feature can be used for adding pictures/screenshots from learning materials or old copies of tests you are digitizing. It's also great for adding diagrams or other visuals students will need to answer questions. Images can even be added to answer choices. This is great when making Google Forms for young learners. Learn how here.

8. Sections allows you to set up the form to send students to different questions based on their answers.

Setting up sections will help you differentiate the quiz based on student responses. This allows you to send students on to the next question or have them skip a section if needed. Learn about this feature in Google's Help Center.

9. Google Forms gives you options for how you view results.

Once students have completed the Google Form you can view the results in the Responses section. There are four ways to view the results. Summary will give you graphs of the results, Question lets you view a question at a time and provides a list of student names for each response choice, and Individual allows you to see the results from one student at a time. You can also click create Spreadsheet to view all results in Google Sheets. Check out Google's Help Center to learn more.

10. There is a template gallery.

It's not extensive, but it's a start! Check out the templates to help you get started if you are new to Google Forms. Even if they don't match what you are looking to do it can be helpful to see samples. Learn how to access the template gallery here.