Today for Day 8 of Google, we will explore Google Forms. Over the summer, I was introduced to a Google Form add-on called DocAppender and my mind was blown away with its capabilities. Here is the scenario:
- You have asked students demonstrate their competency in some format.
- You have also determined that it is important for the rest of the class to provide feedback on their peers work.
- You want students to immediately see the feedback from their peers with little to no effort on your part.
- You are scratching your head as to how to complete this task…until now. DocAppender will be your new best friend.
DocAppender in Action
Take a look to see how this works below. I have a simple Google Form that asks students to provide feedback on two component areas. Based on the name that I choose in the “student evaluating question”, that feedback immediate appears on that student’s google document. You will notice in the gif below, one person had already provided feedback on the Google Doc and the new entry was added below it. NOTE: All response entries still show up in a Google Spreadsheet. However, we are using the magic of this add-on to separate all of the feedback for us so that there is no copy and pasting going on in separate emails or documents. AMAZING!
I first learned about this idea from Kim Pollishuke and she has already created excellent step by step instructions on how it works. You can find her Google Slide instructions HERE.
Here is the quick snapshot of the instructions:
- Make sure students have their own blank Google Doc (make a copy via Google Classroom to streamline this process – also required that all google docs are in one google folder)
- Create a Google Form that you would like students to provide feedback through – be sure to follow Kim’s instructions though to make sure that DocAppender is attached to the Google Form correctly
- Provide link to Google Form via Google Classroom for the students to submit feedback
- Have students complete form
- Students check out their own feedback in the what is no longer a blank Google Doc
I know that this is a very quick blog post about this topic. And yes, it does take some time to wrap your brain around how this works, but trust me, once you have it you will be very happy!
I do think that there is a lot of value into using this tool in your curriculum. It does not just have to be about students providing feedback. Administrators could even use this feature when doing walkthroughs of classrooms. If you would like to talk more about how to make DocAppender happen OR want to just learn more about it, please don’t hesitate to ask.
And that is my Spiel…
Craig M Sheil 