5 Tips To Make The Most Of Google Forms
Google has provided a lot of free services online that have eliminated the need for expensive software for the most part. From having a word processor to spreadsheets and pretty much everything in between, Google Forms has made life easier for people to be more efficient. While larger companies may use Microsoft products like Word and PowerPoint, Google Forms offers similar products entirely for free for those that are self-employed or simply want to use them for fun.
With that said, there are a lot of different ways that you can use Google Forms to increase your efficiency and learn a lot about collaborating with people and creating surveys. Let’s take a closer look at how Google Forms works and give some tips on how to get the most out of the web application.
Let The App Guide You
Those that are using Google Forms for the first time will likely be treated to a pop-up window showing you the basic ins and outs of the application. While a lot of people will skip this and try to figure things out themselves, it’s important to take heed of the advice that Google offers when you open Forms.
These pop-up windows will show you how to add a question, how to format, change the style, and much more. If you ignore Google’s guidance, you might miss out on some of the key features that Forms offers and not finish your document the right away. Just like video games, it’s best to not skip the tutorial.
Quiz Grading
One of the many uses of Google Forms is the ability to create a quiz. Whether you’re using this option for a fun quiz on your blog or you’re a teacher that’s running a quiz that counts toward a grade, Google Forms can help. What some users might not know is that Google can automatically grade a quiz for you.
Under the settings options on Forms, you can set the document to be a quiz and assign set answers and point values. From there, you can set the Form to immediately show the grades and even the answers after they’ve been guessed. This can help students know what they got wrong right away, allowing them to jot down what they should be studying.
Get Your Responses
You don’t have to wait until everybody has finished the form to see the results, and you can have those real-time results sent right to you. Under the responses tab, there will be an icon of three dots that allows you to find more options. From there, you’ll be able to change the destination for the results or responses, creating a spreadsheet that gets emailed directly to you.
This spreadsheet will also change in real-time so that you can see the trends in the responses. You can set up notifications so that you get an email for each new response, or set a number of responses before you get an email. After all, if 10,000 people are taking your survey, you don’t want an email for each one.
Templates Galore
There are options for scripting on Google Forms, but not all of us are very good at scripting and coding. With that in mind, there are plenty of templates that Google has available, and it’s best to use these if you want to make sure you have a foolproof option for making a survey. There are templates for all sorts of categories, including personal use, education, and office.
These templates are incredibly handy and perfect for those that aren’t tech-savvy. If you’re in that intermediate level between a novice and a coding master, you can add your own template from scratch. It’s fairly easy to do and allows you to give your own spin on each template.
Visualize Results
While the standard is to have the results of a survey listed in numerical form, there are many other ways to visualize the end data. When clicking on the settings tab, go to ‘general’ and then ‘respondents’ to select the different ways to show the data provided.
From there, you can select whether or not to see your summary in chart form along with the text responses. Many people love this option since it allows them to get a better visual of how the data stacks up. Don’t be afraid to play around with all of the features of Google Forms and you’ll be an expert in no time!