Google Forms are great for exit tickets, quick assessments, surveys, and even differentiation. It’s probably my favorite GSuite app because of its potential to help teachers and schools be more efficient.
The end of the semester is looming and teachers are looking for ways to collect student work done outside of their LMS – like student portfolios. Google Forms might very well be the answer!
Collect Links from Students with Google Forms
Create a quick Google Form where students fill out their name, class period, and then paste in the link to their portfolio. This is also a great way to collect those “Hour of Code” projects!
When I make a google form for this purpose, I always make sure to use one field for first name and another for last. I have found it makes sorting alphabetically much more reliable. For secondary teachers, definitely include the class period as a drop-down field. Now you can sort by both class period and name.
Use formMule Sheet Add-On for Feedback
A single spreadsheet with links to all of your student work is fabulous – now let’s take it up a notch with formMule.
formMule is a simple and easy-to-use mail merge Sheet Add-On. After installing it, the add-on walks you through every step you’ll need. There’s a video below if you want to see it in action.
To make formMule work the way we want, you’ll need to be sure to collect student email addresses in the form. If you are a GSuite for Education school, you can just turn on the preference in the form and emails will be collected automatically. Otherwise, just add a field for email.
When you are ready to give feedback, open up the google sheet, click on the student-submitted link, and then come back to the sheet when you are done. Create a column at the end of the sheet for feedback. Enter your feedback, then move on to the next student.
When you have finished giving feedback to your students run formMule to send the feedback. I always include the link to the student’s work in my generic message so that there is no question what the feedback is about.
Use formMule Again on the Same Sheet
You can use formMule over again by going to the sheet and deleting the confirmation message in the formMule column. Just don’t erase the column!
This is helpful when you are giving interim feedback on a project – like a Scratch coding project, or a project where your student is building a Google Site. The link to the project doesn’t change, just your feedback as you assess over time. If you want to keep the old feedback, just make a new column with a slightly different column header, delete the formMule confirmation message in the sheet and run it again.
Below are some videos walking you through the steps. Next time you need to collect something that doesn’t fit neatly into your LMS, give this method a shot. It was a true time-saver for me when I had 185 Scratch coding projects to assess!
Video Tutorials
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