Activity 6: Assessment Part 2

So nerds, how long did it take you to grade a quiz or a test last year?  Have you ever given a formative assessment and then run out of time to look at it before the next class period?  Have you ever wanted to know if your students “got it” before moving on?  Have you ever wanted to figure out which questions your students struggled with?  Have you ever wanted to travel through time? Well, now there is a way to do all of those things: A Delorean with a flux capacitor charged to 1.21 Gigawatts traveling at 88 mph or for those of you with a more British flare, you can try a Tardis! Okay, so neither of these things are real, unless they are, in which case I hope someone tells me, but Google Forms can do all of those things except the part about traveling through time (Side note for you science nerds, that is Gigawatts with a 'j' sound not Gigawatts with a 'g' sound).

Google Forms are an excellent tool to use for assessment and feedback.  You can use a Google Form to create a pre-assessment, a formative assessment, or a summative assessment.  You can create dynamic lessons or assessments by adding videos or images to your Forms.  You can also create a Google Form that branches in different directions so you can create lessons that allow students to choose from multiple options or lessons that differentiate instruction based on a student’s understanding of a concept.  

In addition to being a powerful assessment tool, Forms can also give instantaneous feedback to students, can be auto-graded for multiple choice or short answer questions which can save a ton of time, and can be used for test item analysis.

__________________________________________________________________________

Google Forms Introduction:
 

A new version of Google Forms came out during this past school year. This video shows all of the basic features of Google Forms. It also discusses how to access Google Forms templates. If you like templates, you can access Google Docs, Google Slides, and Google Sheets templates in the same way.

Whenever I find a video that I want to use from YouTube, there is always something that I don't like about it or that I think is missing. I mention this here because I think it is relevant for all teachers that look for resources on YouTube and even good videos might need a little planned follow up. In this video, I disagree about not setting questions to required right away, but this is a personal preference so figure out what works for you. I also think he previews his form way too often, I don't know if he does this for the video or if he actually checks the view after he makes every question but I only view my forms a couple of times and often just once when I am done. Again this is a personal preference so figure out what works for you.

So, after all of that rambling, there are a few additional features that I want to point out which include copying questions, data validation, and collecting student usernames.

Introduction Tasks:
Side note on these Google Form tasks: you can currently go back to the old Google Forms when you make Forms. Even if you like the old version better, eventually it will be gone for good so form all Google Forms tasks, complete them using the new Google Forms.

1. Create a basic form that includes multiple question types, a video, and at least two sections.
2. Change the color palette or theme of the form.
3. Change the confirmation page message for when students have completed the form (this is found in the settings wheel menu.
4. Embed the Form in your blog. To embed the form, get the embed code from the send menu of the form, change to HTML editing on your blog (top left), and paste the embed code where you want it to go. If you can't get this to work, you can just copy and paste the link.

__________________________________________________________________________

Branching Forms

Watch the videos on branching forms and the video on Form results and using Flubaroo to grade assignments then complete the tasks for this activity.

What is a branching Form and what it looks like when someone takes a Branching Form.

Mapping out your branching Form and what a branching Form looks like when you edit it.

Creating a branching Form.

There are many different ways branching Forms can be used. The example from above could be used as a review of to teach a new skill with a pre-assessment so students could bypass the lesson if they already were proficient. You can also create review lessons where there are different topics to choose from and students can choose which topics they want to cover from a drop down menu so they can focus their review on their greatest needs. There are also other different and fun ways branching Forms can be used. One is a choose your own adventure story that students can create. Here is a link to a website that explains it in more detail. This is actually something I (Ryan) would like to create a template for next year so if anyone want to try this as a writing project next year, let me know and we can work together on it.

Flubaroo:

Flubaroo is awesome. You can grade assignments instantly and you can even set it up to autograde an assignment and share the results with students instantly for them to look at or make corrections. Often technology implementation creates a situation where there is some additional front end time needed to prepare. Flubaroo is one example of how that front end time can create huge time savings on the back end. Imagine not taking a stack of 120 quizzes home to grade for 4 hours because the quizzes were graded automatically at the click of a button. It doesn't get much better than that unless you bank that time so you can watch a 10 hour marathon of the extended versions of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Conditional Formating:

Now Flubaroo is great and allows for quick and easy grading of multiple choice answers, but what should you do if you want to grade short answer responses or mathematical equations quickly? Well, the solution is conditional formatting. Conditional formatting allows you to have google spreadsheets highlight or color in answers that use specific wording, expressions, numbers, or equations that you may be looking for. 

Branching Forms and Flubaroo Tasks:

1. Create a new form that includes a name question, at least 5 multiple choice questions and 2 short answer questions with exact responses.
2. Take the form yourself with all the right answers. You will use this as an answer key later on.
3. Have your counselor and 5 students take your multiple choice question/short answer question form (you can take the form yourself multiple times to get several “student” responses). To share the form with your counselor and other students, click on the share form button, get the link, and email the link to everyone who will take your form.
4. Go to the Responses spreadsheet and add Flubaroo as a Google Sheets add-on.
5. Use Flubaroo to grade your student’s responses.
6. Look at the different analysis tools within Flubaroo and identify 1 way you could use this to differentiate instruction and 1 way you could use this to modify whole class instruction.
7. Create a branching form with at least 2 branching points
8. Test your form to make sure it works correctly.
9. Embed the form in your blog.

Blog:

1. Post your thoughts on how Google Forms can help with formative assessment and how you could use it to differentiate instruction. 
2.  Comment on 3 other nerd's posts.

__________________________________________________________________________

Bonus Learning (Not required, just extra nerdy):

All right campers, it is time for you to choose a side. Are you DC fan or a Marvel? Star Wars or Star Trek? Batman or Captain America? Buffy or Angel? The Arrow or The Flash? Firefly or Battlestar Galactica? Dr. Who or Sherlock? Ferris Bueller or Breakfast Club? The Hulk vs... Ok, Ok, the other counselors told me to stop. The real choice for your advanced task is to choose between Form Publisher, Conditional Formating, and Autocrat to create customized feedback for your students, parents, or anyone else who takes a form.

__________________________________________________________________________

Form Publisher Tutorial

_______________________________________________________________________

Autocrat Tutorial

Bonus Learning Tasks:

1. Choose whether you want to try Form Publisher or Autocrat.
2. Create a new form that includes a name question, at least 5 multiple choice questions and 2 short answer questions with exact responses.
3. Create a Google Doc that you are going to share with your students. Use the correct formatting for either Form Publisher or Autocrat
4. Have your counselor and 5 students take your multiple choice question/short answer question form (you can take the form yourself multiple times to get several “student” responses). To share the form with your counselor and other students, click on the share form button, get the link, and email the link to everyone who will take your form.
5. Set-up Form Publisher or Autocrat and create documents to send to each person that completed your Form.