Monday, June 27, 2016

New Google Forms Quiz Feature vs Flubaroo

Google Forms has long been a favorite tool for schools, and one of the most popular uses for Forms has always been online assessments. Digital quizzes have many benefits for schools including:

  • Automatic grading for quick feedback for teachers and students.
  • Easy analysis of the results to determine who needs help and what content needs retaught.
  • Use of assistive technology to have text read aloud or zoomed in for easier reading.
  • Preparation for high-stakes online tests.
  • Savings on paper and printing.
  • Easy to update in the future or share with others for collaborative editing.

Google Forms has always made it super easy to create quizzes, send them out to students, and collect all the responses. The only pain point has been how to grade the student submissions.

Thankfully for years we have have the awesome add-on for Google Sheets called Flubaroo. This add-on allows educators to automatically grade the quiz responses as they get submitted from a Google Forms and collected in a Google Sheet. Over time more and more valuable features have been added to Flubaroo to make it a powerful tool for online assessment.

Suddenly though, there is a new option. At ISTE 2016 Google announced that Forms will now natively support the grading of online assessments without the need of an add-on such as Flubaroo. What does this mean for all the schools who have been using Flubaroo for years? Does it still have a place? Do these new features make it obsolete?

For all the details, see the rest of the blog post below for an in depth comparison of what Forms does, what Flubaroo does, and where they are different. Spoiler alert: Don't throw out Flubaroo just yet. Also, I cover a detailed overview of how to use the new Google Forms Quiz feature.


Google Forms Quiz option vs Flubaroo Add-on

There are many similar features between the new quiz option in Google Forms and the Flubaroo add-on we have been using for many years. However, there are some key differences between the two. See below for a table comparing and contrasting many of the most important options:


New Google Forms Quiz option
vs Flubaroo Add-on
Forms
Quiz
Flubaroo
Add-on
Requirements
Add-on requiredNoYes
Google Sheets requiredNoYes
Question Options
Can grade multiple choice, checkbox, and drop-down questionsYesYes
Can grade other question types such as textboxYesYes
Option to hand grade subjective questionsYesYes
Option for alternate correct answersYesYes
Option for partial creditYesYes
Option for case sensitvityYesYes
Option for range of mathematical answersNoYes
Option for extra creditYesYes
Results for Teachers
Bar graph of grade distributionYesYes
Average quiz gradeYesYes
Median quiz gradeYesNo
Range of quiz gradesYesNo
List of most missed questionsYesNo
Scores for individual studentsYesYes
Scores for individual questionsYesYes
Results for Students
Option to give student results immediatelyYesYes
Option to send student results laterYesYes
Results shared via emailYesYes
Results shared via Google DocsNoYes
Include missed questions in student resultsYesYes
Include correct answers in student resultsYesYes
Include points in student resultsYesYes
Feedback Options for Students
Specific feedback for a wrong answerYesYes
Specific feedback for a correct answerYesNo
General message for entire classYesYes
Specific message for individual studentYesYes

The Verdict

In short, the new Google Forms quiz option is easier to use than Flubaroo. However, Flubaroo currently provides some extra features.

  • If you are looking for a quick and easy way to deliver auto-grading online assessments for your students, then the new Forms quiz option should work fine for you.
  • However, Flubaroo is still a valuable choice for schools where students do not have Gmail turned on for their students, since Flubaroo can generate a Google Docs grade report for the students.


How to use the new Forms Quiz option

If you would like to try out the new quiz feature in Google Forms, below are the detailed directions.  For this post, I will assume that you understand the basics of creating a typical Google Form, and will just explain the new steps you will need to take to turn it into a gradable quiz.

Quiz Settings

First, create your Google Form as normal and add questions as usual.

  • Next, you need to switch the Form into “quiz mode”.
  • Click the gear icon in the top right corner and then choose the “Quizzes” tab.
  • Toggle the slider on for “Make this a quiz”. You will now have several new quiz options.
  • For “Release Grade” you can choose if the student gets their quiz score “Immediately after each submission” or if you will email their grade out later by choosing “Later, after manual review”.
  • You can also choose whether or not to show the student their “Missed questions”, and the “Correct answers”, and the “Point values” when done.




General Settings

While still in the “Settings” window now you also have a new option on the “General” tab.  In the past one of the biggest concerns teachers had when giving quizzes through Forms was the ability for students to get a copy of their responses emailed to them after submitting. This then made it easier for students to share the quiz with others. That option can now be turned off.

  • In the “General” tab be sure to check the box to restrict the Form to users of your school domain.
  • Next check the box to automatically “Collect email address”.
  • This will open a new setting where you can uncheck the “Response receipts” option. With the option unchecked the students will not have a choice to get a copy of their responses.



Answer Keys

If you have not done so already, you should now create your quiz questions. Google Forms can only autograde questions that are “Multiple choice” or “Checkbox” or “Drop-down”.

  • After you create a question, click the “Answer Key” link below it.
  • This will switch you to answer key mode where you can select the correct answer or answers.
  • You can also set the amount of points the question is worth.
  • If you want you can click “Add answer feedback” to provide messages the student will get if they answer correctly or incorrectly. The feedback can also include links such as helpful instructional videos.
  • When done editing the feedback, click “Edit Question” to exit.


Quiz Results

Results for the quiz can be seen in several ways:

For students

  • If you set the “Release grade” option to “Immediately after each submission” then students will be able to see their results right after submitting their answers by clicking the “View your score” link.
  • If you set the “Release grade” option to “Later, after manual review” then students will have to wait for you to email out their grades (see below).


For teachers

The “Responses” tab in your Google Form will display your graded quiz results. This will include:

  • The average quiz grade.
  • The median quiz grade.
  • The range of quiz grades.
  • A bar graph of grade distribution.
  • A list of the most frequently missed questions.
  • Scores for individual students.
  • Item analysis for each question showing how often each answer was chosen.

If you set the “Release grade” option to “Later, after manual review” you can click “Release Scores” on the “Responses” tab to email out the grades to the students, including an optional message.



Post by Eric Curts. Connect with Eric on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts and on Google+ at plus.google.com/+EricCurts1

55 comments:

  1. Thanks for the detailed comparison. I think for flipping your class or formative assessments Google Quiz feature is the way to go. I like how Google finally fixed the problem with allowing students to automatically check "Receive Copy of My Responses" when they log in with their GAFE gmail accounts and Google automatically collected their GAFE gmails. I always hated that feature of Forms because if I didn't want my students to get copies of the questions on a quiz, I had to have them type their names and emails manually as text questions in the Form. Takes a log to time. I hope Google expands this to include short answer and paragraph questions.

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    Replies
    1. I agree. Such a little change makes such a big difference!

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  2. Nice that you can collect email addresses now and not have the students email the forms to their friends. We can use the email address to identify the students for Flubaroo and that will make it much more streamlined.

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  3. Nice work Eric - when do you sleep? ;-)

    Some of the functionality is currently missing when you use a personal Gmail account. Although you can limit form to 1 response (forces login with a Google account) and set to mark later, the Scores section and the ability to Release Scores does not display.

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    Replies
    1. Sleep? What's that? Interesting about the limitations with the personal version of Forms. Since the personal version can't collect email addresses automatically, that would make sense that you can't send the grades out at a later time.

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    2. As per recent updates, Google forms are now allowing you to mark Text based questions. Also now personal gmail account can be collected via google forms (if not using GAfE)

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  4. Thank you for the comparison! Great job!

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  5. Thanks for the info - now if there would be a way to use the functions of goobric and doctopus without all the add ons...

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  6. This is super helpful - thanks!

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  7. Thanks Eric! This is extremely helpful!

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  8. I am really thankful for these instructions!! Make it easy!!

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  9. Hi Eric, Thanks for the important info, especialy for the comparing table.
    I would like your permision to translate the table to Hebrew for my GAFE blog.
    Many thanks

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  10. Thanks Very much Eric for the update. I tried that and noticed the following:
    1- To have the release later feature you must use a GAFE or a google for work account.
    2- "A copy of my responses" option may confuse the students in case they are able to see their results immediately after submission.

    My suggestion is to add the release later option to personal accounts and expand the question types to include short text and paragraph ASAP.

    Thanks again !

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  11. Eric, this was a very helpful update and has prompted me to try Google Forms again as Exit Tickets!

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  12. Hi Eric,

    I am trying to release the grade and I looked for Release Grade under the Responses tab, but I cant find it. Please help Eric.

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  13. The info you provided in your comparison chart really helps educators make the right choice for their needs in the classroom. Thanks for clearing this up!

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  14. Wonderful, informative post, Eric. Thank you!

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  15. Thanks for the info. I can't get the checklist option to work. When I go to select my answers on checklist it won't allow me to choose the the correct answers. The multiple choice and drop down work perfectly. Am I doing something wrong?

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  16. Love! Going to share right now:) Always quality work, Eric. Much appreciated.

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  17. Thanks again--I follow your blog and learn something new every time!

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  18. Thanks a lot!
    So, I can't grade by hand by selecting "the manual review".

    From Taiwan

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  19. I am new to Google Drive and setting up quizzes. If I have already created a quiz but did not put the answers in, is there a way to go back and do this? I am not seeing how to do that. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. To set the answer key, select a question to edit, click on the ANSWER KEY button in the lower left corner below your choices then choose the correct answer. While you're at it, go back up to the upper right corner of the question and set the point value for the question.

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  20. Thanks for this detailed overview. I have just tried this adding an "answer key" once, but it seems unnecessary that I should have to add a point value for each and every question. I think they should have put "1" as default.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I agree, Cecelia. It slows down the creation of the quiz.

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  21. I am helping a teacher who followed all the directions and the results emails will not arrive in the students email boxes. We have Hapara so we can see their inboxes. He has and I have each clicked release scores twice now. Is there a reason the students might not get that email? They receive all emails from Google Classroom. Do the emails come in as a "Forms" that might be blocked?

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  22. If I am going to give the quiz to multiple classes, does the quiz stay in my domain so they no longer have it on their computers? I don't want them sharing it from class to class. So, I'm wanting to make sure that it doesn't go to their drive.

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  23. Thanks for this post! Can someone please let me know if there are any restrictions on the number of email results that can be sent to respondents via google form quizzes (on a daily basis - eg. 100 email quota or anything like that)?

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  24. I wish they would put the grade by their name by the Classroom assignment where I usually enter their grade manually. If not, the score should at least be the first column of the responses by their name.

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  25. As, a teacher I want the kids to have that instant feed back from the quiz but do not want them be able to see actually questions since we are one to one with Chrome Books. Kids will be able to share the questions with other sections of the same course. I wish Google had a way of only give the kids their score and wait for teachers to release the questions later. Google needs to think of test integrity.

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    1. agreed. test integrity is a problem with the google quiz feature. I decid to release scores later, after I graded open-ended questions. When I pressed release scores, google sent an email containing the score to each student. Unfortunately, the email to students contains an option where students can view their form, which of course gives them access to the test questions and answers via the email. There is no way for me to send only the score without the test questions/view form attached. This is a deal-breaker for me!

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    2. is there anyway to prevent this?

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    3. have you ever found a work around for this Ms. Fill?

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  26. I agree with "Anonymous" about being able to release TEST SCORES without the questions. I just did a training with one of our Academic Departments, and their issue was that they didn't want to share the questions. Hopefully this will become and option soon!

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  28. Some of the things you marked "NO" in the Google Quiz column are now available, specifically Option for partial credit and Option to hand grade subjective questions

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  29. Can you randomize, or scramble the questions and multiple choice answers? This would help a lot when students are sitting next to each other in a computer lab.

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  30. can I edit the key answer in a google (auto-graded) form after students submitted their work? I know I can use it with Flubaroo, but I'm afraid to edit the key answer and loosing my students work.

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  32. Thanks for this comparison! There's a subtle (but important) distinction with Google Quiz regarding answer feedback. In the table, "Specific feedback for a wrong answer" (or right answer) says "Yes" and I found it misleading.

    In fact, Google Quiz allows only ONE feedback for ALL wrong answers and ONE feedback for ALL right answers of a question. In the example you give, it works fine. But many multiple-choice questions will have several distractors (wrong answers) with different reasons why each is wrong.

    Having only one feedback for right and one feedback for wrong answers is not as powerful as other systems (Moodle, GIFT, etc.) which allow choice-specific feedback. I use this feature a lot in Moodle, and the fact it's missing is stopping me from migrating to Google's solution. I hope Google will understand this and change it.

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  34. I am able to see individual scores next to student E-mail addresses when I click Responses for one of my quizzes but not for others. Is there something in settings that I'm neglecting to do?

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  38. How do you grade matching questions?

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  40. Thanks this is super helpful, but one thing I noticed is that Flubaroo allows the student to take an assessment multiple times. It allows me to set a minimum percent they need to obtain. Google Quiz does not seem to have that functionality, unless I missed something??

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  41. If I remember correctly google quiz does not allow the student to submit multiple times. For example if I wanted my students to score a minimum percentage in order to get credit flubaroo allows me to do this, but google quiz does not. Unless I missed something.

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