Google Forms Update: Total Number of Points in a Quiz is Totally Cool!

Last fall our school librarian and I were tasked with creating an online Digital Citizenship curriculum for our student population in grades seven and eight. We decided to use Google Classroom to deliver the content and Google Forms with the quiz feature enabled to assess students on their comprehension. It wasn’t until a good portion of our student population had completed several of the assessments that we discovered a discrepancy in the scores being returned by Google Forms. Specifically, we failed to assign a point value to one of the quiz questions.

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How it works

• In Google Forms, click on the Settings gear icon.
• From the pop-up window, click on the Quizzes tab.
• Toggle the switch at the top to “Make this a quiz,” then click SAVE.

• And that’s it, you’re done!

The “Total points:” option:

• Will stay visible at the top of the gForms editor as you scroll up and down through your questions.
• Will be visible both in the QUESTIONS and the RESPONSES windows.
• Will update automatically in real time as you assign, change, or remove point values on your questions.

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For more information on this and other recent additions to Google Forms, please check out Google’s post on The Keyword blog.

Classroom Gets Cooler with Grade Importing from Forms

First Google improved the communication between Google Forms and Classroom so that, when a student submitted the Form they would see an option to TURN IN the assignment (more info. here). Then Google introduced the “Quiz” feature to Google Forms with point values, pre-written feedback options, and the ability to decide when student grades would be released to them. Now, Classroom and Forms are shaking hands once again, allowing us to important grades from a quiz-enabled Form directly into a Classroom assignment.

• When you add a Google Form to an assignment in Classroom using the Drive icon, a note and toggle switch will appear at the bottom of the window. The note explains how your Google Form quiz will be configured in order for grade importing to be carried out successfully.

• Once the assignment has been posted, students have submitted their answers, and their responses have been assessed then you are ready to import the grades into Classroom.
• Open the assignment, and in the top-right corner click on the IMPORT GRADES button.

NOTE:

• Importing grades in this fashion will overwrite any grades previously entered.
• If you neglected to enable grade importing before posting the assignment, then you can still use the traffic light icon (i.e. 3 vertical dots) to ‘Edit’ the post and turn on this feature.

Because this feature was announced literally just yesterday I haven’t had time to go through the process yet with one of my classes. However, I do have an assessment ready to go and will be posting it later today. And then, we’ll see what happens!

Please refer to the Google Education Help Article and look under the Grade and return an assignment to a student section for more information.

Website of the Week: Quia Web

Quia Web –  Quintessential Instructional Archive

Quia Web is an archive of interactive tools and assessments for teachers to create and students to use to help enhance understanding and check for comprehension. Choose from up to 16 types of online activities to insert your content into and then share. Before you re-invent the wheel, check out their archive of shared activities organized into over 100 sub-categories ranging from American History to French and Greek to Speech Therapy and more. A site account (FREE) is required to create content and/or bookmark activities you’d like to save for later.

INTEGRATE

• Many of these activities are simple and would be great for both an introduction activity as well as for review.
• Below are screenshots from two Technology games I found on Internet Safety: Hangman and Battleship!

Hangman

Battleship!

Website of the Week: Quiz Factor (Gr. 4-12)

Quiz Factor – Free, fun quiz questions and answers online

This UK-based site contains hundreds of online quizzes covering a wide variety of topics. You can search through their general topics list that include Animals & Nature, Geography & Travel, Literature & Books, Music, Science and more, or you can search for topics alphabetically. The site employs three types of quizzes: Time Trials, the Ladder Board, and True/False. With an account (free) you can take advantage of their newest feature: create your own quizzes and host them on the website.

FYI: I tried my luck at the Robin Hood Time Trial quiz and got 16 out of 20. Can you best my score?

INTEGRATE

• If you have access to two computers, divide students into teams and challenge them to who can get the best score in a Time Trial quiz.
• Because the site is not Flash-based, these quizzes can be accessed from an Apple iOS device, such as an iPad or iPod Touch.

Website of the Week: 24/7 Science (Gr. K-8)

24/7 Science – The best projects and activities whenever you want!

From the Lawrence Hall of Science, this website is chalk full of interactive games and activities covering a wide variety of science topics. The first collection of activities are designed to be hands-on with titles like Sticky Situations and How Old is Your Penny? The second collection of activities are designed to be interactive games and challenges, organized into categories such as Arcade Games, Earth & Space, nanoZone, and Quizzes. I tried my hand at the Alien Juice Bar, where I had to serve a clientele that only consume acids, bases, or neutral drinks. The site is still under development and notes that an educational resources section is forthcoming.

INTEGRATE

• Here is another example of a website who can suggest ideas and activities to integrate into your lessons without having to re-invent the wheel.
• The interactive games section can act as both an introduction to a topic of study or a wrap-up activity to help students prepare for a final assessment.

Alien Juice Bar Activity:

Website of the Week: QuizGeo

QuizGeo – Create, play, and share quizzes about geography (Gr.5-12)

“QuizGeo allows you to create and play quizzes based on geography using Google Maps. This can include anything from locating all of the countries in the world to locating all of the playground equipment at your local park or school. Since you place the questions on the map you can decide how large of an area your quiz will encompass.”

No registration is required to browse the list of pre-made quizzes, but is needed if you want to make one of your own. As of this post the site is still in beta testing, so please give them feedback so that they can make improvements to the service.

Thanks to FreeTech4Teachers for sharing this find.

Website of the Week: CNN Student News

CNN Student News – (Gr. 5-12)

CNN’s Student News bureau covers news that students should know to stories students will want to know. Topics range from serious news stories reflecting current events to stories on the lighter side of the spectrum. Many of the stories are streaming video-based, so Flash is required to use the site. Download maps (in PDF format) to go along with some of the news stories and each episode is accompanied by a daily news quiz.

INTEGRATE:

• Make the viewing of this site a part of a regular assignment for students. Students can select one or two stories that interest them and bring them to class for a group discussion. Do any of these news stories affect them and their community? If so, how?