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 required	No	Yes
Google Sheets required	No	Yes
Question Options
Can grade multiple choice, checkbox, and drop-down questions	Yes	Yes
Can grade other question types such as textbox	Yes	Yes
Option to hand grade subjective questions	Yes	Yes
Option for alternate correct answers	Yes	Yes
Option for partial credit	Yes	Yes
Option for case sensitvity	Yes	Yes
Option for range of mathematical answers	No	Yes
Option for extra credit	Yes	Yes
Results for Teachers
Bar graph of grade distribution	Yes	Yes
Average quiz grade	Yes	Yes
Median quiz grade	Yes	No
Range of quiz grades	Yes	No
List of most missed questions	Yes	No
Scores for individual students	Yes	Yes
Scores for individual questions	Yes	Yes
Results for Students
Option to give student results immediately	Yes	Yes
Option to send student results later	Yes	Yes
Results shared via email	Yes	Yes
Results shared via Google Docs	No	Yes
Include missed questions in student results	Yes	Yes
Include correct answers in student results	Yes	Yes
Include points in student results	Yes	Yes
Feedback Options for Students
Specific feedback for a wrong answer	Yes	Yes
Specific feedback for a correct answer	Yes	No
General message for entire class	Yes	Yes
Specific message for individual student	Yes	Yes

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