This week I spend a little time investigating Google forms. I had heard people discuss these online forms as a great way to collect information and had thought this was yet another Google application. In fact this data collection system is merely an addition to the Google Docs online spreadsheet application. All you need to do after setting up the form is send the URL to your intended audience and wait for incoming data to accumulate in your spreadsheet. To me, this is a key strength. In my world, a spreadsheet is the most likely mechanism for final data storage in any case. What a time saver.
Another attractive feature is the level of customization available in form design. Each question can be formatted in one of seven different ways. Question setup options include: text, paragraph text, multiple choice, checkboxes, choose from a list, scale and grid. These last two might require explanation. The scale option is similar to choosing from a list but the list is preloaded with numbers. Users might rate a particular statement on a scale from 1 to 5 for instance. The Grid option essentially embeds multiple questions that share the same possible answers all in the space of a single question. With each question set up to best meet your needs it’s easy to choose from available themes to make the form itself more attractive and professional looking.
When the form is submitted, each answer will be lined up in its own column of the initial spreadsheet, ready for analysis. One additional column is maintained to hold an automatically generated time-stamp to signify when the user submitted the form. They really did think of everything on this project. I will soon be employing this powerful tool to gather information from each incoming class.
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