Distance Learning: Google Forms

In these days of lockdown, I have been very lucky that my school has used Google Classroom for a few years which has made it quite easy to set work. I used Google Forms a little when we first started using Classroom and then dismissed them as a gimmick. I have rediscovered and embraced them for distance learning.

The main attraction of Google Forms is that, if you set up the activity as a quiz, the students will see their marks straight after submitting their answers. This is a great way for students to get instant feedback as well as being a better use of teacher time. I don’t need to mark true/false or multiple choice answers anymore.

I can do listening work via Google Forms by inserting a YouTube video or a link to an audio file. When setting up the answers, there is an opportunity to leave answer feedback, so you can give an explanation of items which will catch out students, e.g. in French “fruits de mer is seafood, not fruit”.

I have tried to use Google Forms for translations and vocabulary tests. The problem here is that, to be marked as correct, the student must write exactly what you have specified in the answer key. I have had too many occasions where I have missed a capital letter or put an extra space in a sentence by mistake, so this hasn’t worked as well!