Google Drive

This week I had the opportunity to explore even more features Google Drive has to offer.  The main focus was on Google Forms, which I have previously used.  Even though I have used Google Forms in the past to survey students, I have never used it as a means to assess students.  Then I discovered a couple things that have me eager to try Google Forms as an assessment tool in the future!

The first thing I discovered is that you can add videos directly into a Google Form!  There are often times when I want students to analyze and respond to real-world examples, but pictures don't quite cut it.  For example, we're currently studying volcanoes and I want my students to know and understand the difference between quiet and explosive eruptions.  It's hard for students to deduce whether an eruption is quiet or explosive based solely on a picture, and sometimes it's difficult to get the description just right without giving away the answer.  With Google Forms, I can insert a video for my students to watch and answer questions over.  Click here to see a quiz I made on Google Forms that incorporates a video into the assessment.  Feel free to actually take the quiz!

I have heard from other teachers that Google Forms was a great, paper-free way to assess student learning; however, I did not see how using Google Forms would be any less time consuming than grading by hand.  Then I was introduced to Flubaroo and it's a real game-changer!  Read below for more information on Flubaroo.  Flubaroo is available as an add-on in Google Forms and makes grading super quick and easy!  Flubaroo is great for grading true/false and multiple choice questions.  It even allows you to grade certain questions by hand so teachers can still include essay/short answer questions to their quizzes.  Not only does Flubaroo show individual scores, but it allows me to see how students are performing concept by concept.  It even highlights questions that a majority of students are answering incorrectly.  This can help me reflect on whether or not the question is poorly worded, or if I failed to adequately teach the concept to my students.  Here is a screen shot of the scores from my assessment posted above so you can see some of the features.

I took my quiz a couple times, providing some wrong answers, just to see how Flubaroo worked.  I have to say, I'm quite happy!!

I highly recommend using Google Forms and Flubaroo for your next assessment.  Check out the video below for step-by-step instructions!