New Grading Features of Google Forms

Google has revealed a new quiz feature in Google Forms during the ISTE 2017. Like clockwork, Google has updated Google Classroom every month with additional capabilities since Classroom’s release in 2014. One of the big ones of last summer were automatic parent notifications. This month’s ISTE update wasn’t Google Classroom but it’s quizzing tool: Google Forms. Additional features were added to make it easier to grade and to receive additional data.

Google Form’s Quiz Grading Changes

Educators are now given a new option that allows for batch grading of questions. You can now grade on question-by-question basis rather than student-by-student.

This means that you can grade all responses to one question instead of grading one’s students responses before moving to the next one. I know that I have struggled with using Google Forms to grade assignments quickly and this was a big sticking point.

When grading open-response questions, teachers are much more efficient if they can have a single rubric and move from student to student with the same question. Results are more consistent and the experience is better for the educator having to correct 100s of questions.

Google Form’s Quiz Data Changes

Another upgrade to Google Forms lets educators see how their students have performed on each question and it is ideal for providing formative assessment. The datas from the quiz will help you identify which topic your students need to relearn and what topic you should review with them.

The new feature sends feedback immediately to student, which the teacher can include supplemental resources for the student to review a certain topic. Just make sure to “collect email addresses” in your options to allow students to view their score and your comments on their responses.

This is a big addition that increases the educator’s ability to quickly differentiate based upon the assessment data. Formative quiz data is much more valuable feedback before the final assessment, not after. I know I have been guilty of returning quiz feedback too late for it to count. It is tough to return actionable feedback quickly but these new upgrades will help.

Are The ISTE 2017 Google Form Changes Enough?

I’d like to say yes but the honest answer is no. Enough for what? What is my benchmark? Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Schoology, Edmodo or Canvas.

I know what many of you might say, “Google Classroom isn’t a LMS.” Maybe not officially but whatever original intent of the platform was for distributing Google Docs is gone. Educators are using it for more than simply Google Doc management, it is becoming the main tool for educators to run their entire classrooms. Therefore, here are 3 missing assessment features that I think Google should add to Classrooms/Forms:

1. Quiz Question Banks
2. Ability to Add Rubrics
3. Automatic Addition of Quiz Scores to Google Classroom

Would these make Google Classroom an LMS? It honestly doesn’t matter. It would make life easier for the classroom teacher looking to give online assessments through Google Forms. And let’s face it, it is the teachers who are the ones adopting this tool for its use in the classroom. Google should be looking to add any small feature or tweak to make their working lives easier and better.

Additional Resources

1. Create & grade quizzes with Google Forms
2. Google EDU Releases Expeditions and ‘Cast for Education’ Apps, Introduces Quizzes to Google Forms
3. New Grading Options in Google Forms
4. Fabulous Updates to Google Forms

Question

Are you happy with the new ISTE 2017 updates to Google Forms / Classroom? What is still missing for you? Let us know in the comments below 🙂