Professional Development Service for Teacher

Step-by-step to using Google Forms

Google Drive is a free, web-based office suite and data storage service offered by Google. It allows
users to create online documents and edit them collaboratively. As well as word processing,
spreadsheets and presentation Google Drive offers a forms option that can be used to generate
online surveys and then collate and present the results. ‘Google Apps for Education’ is a package
of free online tools, including Google Drive, compiled specifically for schools/colleges. It enables
schools setup email accounts for its teachers and students, facilitates shared calendars, shared
documents and even the creation of websites that could become class or project websites e.g.:a TY
website. It gives the administrator control to limit access to the emails/sites. If you are considering
setting up Google Apps for your school then it is advisable that it is done in consultation with the ICT
Administration person in the school. For the purposes of setting up an online questionnaire (Form)
then a regular gmail account will suffice.

Step 1: Setting up a Google Drive Account

You will need a gmail account to use Google

Drive so if you do not have one already:

1. Go to www.google.com and click on

‘Gmail’ at the top of the page

2. In the next page click to ‘Create an account’

3. Enter in the required details setup details

4. Once you have successfully created your account, click on ‘Drive’ towards the top of the page to
access your Drive suite of office tools.
5. You should get a page similar to that shown
here. Once you have created a number of
documents they will appear on the left hand
side, as will documents that others have
created and have shared with you.
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Step 2: Creating your Questionnaire (Google Form)

On the left-hand-side, there is a ‘Create’ button to

create a new document. Beside this button is
another that will allow you upload files to your
Google Drive account.

1. Click on the Create Button, a list of

options will appear
2. Select ‘Form’ from the list

This will take you to the Form template page

Here you will see several options to create

your questionnaire but respondents will
eventually see a much simpler version. There
are two sample questions created for you
already.

3. Fill in the ‘Title’ of your questionnaire

by replacing the text in the ‘Untitled form’ box

If you have any guidance for the recipients,

e.g.: “please answer these questions honestly
and without consulting others. Your responses
are confidential and you cannot be identified.”
Then that may be typed into the next box.

The first two sample questions are in the form of a simple text answers, however, you may wish to
change this.

There are 6 options:

Text: Used for short answers

Paragraph Used for longer, more

text: detailed answers
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Multiple Respondents select one

choice: option from a list

Check Respondents can choose a

boxes: number of options from a list

Respondents select a value

Scale: from a rating scale e.g.: 1-5,
1-7 etc

Respondents make a
Grid: selection considering two
factors.

Questions can be added by a process of duplicating and then editing. There are three editing buttons
on the right-hand-side

 The Pencil for editing

 The Squares to duplicate questions
 The Rubbish bin to remove a question
4. The first question is active when you start editing first. If not already so: click on the pencil next to
the question to make it active (a question is active when the three buttons are to the right-hand-
side and the question has a slight peach coloured background)
Professional Development Service for Teacher

5. Replace the text in the ‘Question Title’ box with your question e.g.: which class are you in
6. Add a comment to the ‘Help text’ if necessary but this is optional

The answer to this question will be short so the

‘Text’ Question Type is suitable

If you want to make this a compulsory then click

the ‘Make this a required question’ box

An error note appears if a respondent does not

answer a required question.

Click on the ‘Done’ button when you are finished

That is your first question done! Click the pencil again to leave the question editing mode

It is a good idea to select your ‘Question Type’ first as this has a bearing on how the question is
asked.

7. Move on by selecting the pencil next to

Sample Question 2
8. We will make this a ‘paragraph type’
question so select this option from the
‘Question type’ list.
9. Fill in the question as previously.
10. To see what your questionnaire looks like
click on the link at the bottom of the page (or
right-click over the link and select ‘open in
new tab’ option). Every form will have a
unique url (web address).

The easiest way to create a new question is to

duplicate an existing one and use it as a basis
for the new question.

11. Hover over the desired question and click on

the double squares to duplicate it. This time
we will create a multiple choice question so select this option from the ‘Question Type’
12. Fill the Question Title and Help Text

There is an option to go to another page based on the selection the respondent makes to the multiple
choices. This may be a Google Drive document or, perhaps, another form/questionnaire. This option
is beyond the scope of this guide.

13. Enter in the alternative options that the respondent can choose from. Click ‘Make this a required
question’ if you wish and then click ‘Done’.

The ‘Choose from a list’ is a similar style question where the respondent selects one answer
whereas the ‘Check box’ allows the respondent selects a few options.
Professional Development Service for Teacher

If you want to delete a question, simply click on

the ‘X’ next to the question, to add more
question, do so at the bottom of the list. You
cannot re-order the appearance of a list
within a question.

‘The Scale’ requires the respondent to select a

number rating but you can enter the values at
both extremes ie: like/dislike, agree/disagree

The grid has horizontal and vertical variables:

Never or A few times About Several Several

almost a year once a times a times a
never month month week

Magazines     

Comic books     

Fiction (novels, narratives,     

stories)
    
Non-fiction books
    
Newspapers

To ‘delete’ the question, click on the rubbish bin on the

right-hand-side.

To reorder the questions on the questionnaire, first click

‘Done’ then click somewhere in the editing area of the
question (a crossing-arrows symbol should appear) then
move the question vertically to the desired position.

Instead of duplicating and then editing questions, you can

also select ‘Add Item’ at the upper left hand corner and
select the desired question format.

You may also wish to add a ‘Section header’ which will

enable you divide your questionnaire into sections or add
additional text that is in the form of a statement rather than
a question. For example: you may have a single
questionnaire for students and parents and include a
section unique to each group.
Professional Development Service for Teacher

If you have a long questionnaire or you are addressing a number of topics you may wish to insert a
‘Page break’ which will divide your questionnaire into separate pages. You can remove the Section
Heading and Page break by clicking on the rubbish bin similar to removing a question.

You may wish to add a design to your questionnaire and to do

so click on the ‘Theme’ button next to the Add item button.

Click on your preferred theme, you will get a preview of what it looks like, click the ‘Apply’ on the top
left and then ‘Back to editing’.

Google provides a standard confirmation message that appears

once someone has submitted their form. If you wish to change
this then click on the ‘Edit Confirmation’ button under the
‘More actions’ button on the top-right-hand side.

14. Check that the form is correct by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page. It can become
cumbersome to edit the form once several respondents have completed the questionnaire.

Step 3: Publishing your Questionnaire (Form)

There are basically two ways of distributing your

questionnaire: send it by email or sharing the web
address (Url) (e.g.: making it a link on your website.)

To distribute by email:

Click on ‘Email this form’ on the top right-hand-side of

the page

Fill in the email addresses for your recipients in the

dialogue box
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To embed in a website:

Embedding forms such as this in your school

website can be very useful for compiling a lot
of information (e.g. entrance information) very
efficiently. All the information can be
correlated onto a single spreadsheet.

Click on the ‘More actions’ button and then

the ‘Embed’ option. This will generate the
HTML code that should be copied into your
school website, however, the questionnaire
acts independently of the website. How the
code is copied into your website will depend
on what you are using to design your site.

Step 4: Conducting a Google Forms in an ICT room

A convenient way to share the questionnaire is to give respondents its web address. This can,
however, be cumbersome because the address tends to be very long and complicated. You could
use a URL shortener to simplify the address. We will use goo.gl

1. Right click over the questionnaire url at the bottom of the page and select ‘copy this link’.

2. Then go to the website www.goo.gl and (right click) paste the link into the box. Then click
‘Shorten url’

You may be asked to confirm a code but subsequently the site should generate a much shortened url
for the same website e.g. http://goo.gl/D07Iv

This could be written on the board for students to copy. If you are signed into your Google account
then you can keep a record of your website address and their shortened versions.

You may wish to have several classes complete the questionnaire under your supervision. You may
therefore, write the shortened version of the url on the board and ask the first group to take the
questionnaire to copy the address onto their own computers.
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After they fill in the form they click the ‘Submit’

button at the bottom of the screen. A dialogue
box will then appear with the confirmation note
you made earlier. If you want another group
to sit the same questionnaire immediately
afterwards then the student should click
‘Submit another response’ in preparation for
the next student.

Step 5: Analysing the responses

Once you create your questionnaire then it will appear in ‘My Drive’ in your Google Drive homepage.

The file now opens the questionnaire as a spreadsheet.

Once respondents start filling in the questionnaire the number completed will appear in brackets
adjacent to the ‘Form’ option on the menu bar. This Form options includes: Edit form, Send form,
Go to live form, Embed form, Show summary of responses, Accepting responses and Delete
form.

To see what form respondents will see go to ‘live form’.

To see a graphical representation of the results

then select ‘Show summary of responses’
from the Form list.

Depending on the type of question asked, the

results may be presented in pie chart, vertical or
horizontal bar charts or just text. Two negative
features of the way the results are presented are
that the paragraph text tends to run in together
which can be difficult to read. The other is that
the formats cannot be altered and findings
reordered. This can, however, be done by
coping into excel.
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Step 6: Coping graphics into Powerpoint

The easiest way to copy a graphic from your

Summary of responses is to use Print
Screen/Screen grab. This basically takes a
photograph of whatever is on your computer
screen. This is a button on your keyboard often
in the vicinity of the Delete button. It may be
called ‘Prnt Sc’ or derivations for Print Screen or
Screen Grab.

Make sure the graphic you want to copy in on the computer screen (ideally it should take up as much
of the screen as possible.

1. Click the Print Screen button on your keyboard

2. Open Powerpoint, Word or what every program you are using
3. Click Paste

A copy of your graphic should now appear in your document. You will probably have to reduce the
size and do so by clicking on the picture, holding the mouse over a corner until a double-arrow
appears and then dragging the corners in towards the centre.

You should crop the image to the area you want but the instruction for this will depend on the version
of Windows you are using. When you have the selected the image for cropping (8 squares/circles
should appear at the corners and the centre of each edge) a picture toolbar should become available.
Select the ‘Crop’ button from the menu. Then gradually drag the corners into the area that you wish
to present.
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Step 6: Downloading to Excel

The presentation of results can be limited so, for the

purpose of presentation (e.g.: Powerpoint) you may
wish to copy from Google Drive into Excel and design
your own charts or reorder the information.

Highlight and copy the statistics you want and paste

them into MS Excel. Generate the chart in your
desired format.

If the data is mainly in numerical format then it

may be easier to download the whole spreadsheet
into Excel. In the spreadsheet format, click ‘File’
and ‘Download as’ then select the format you
wish, we will use Microsoft Excel.

Once you are in Excel you must generate the

charts as you would normally in Excel.