Using Google Docs to Create and Embed an On-line Quiz

I am a Google Docs novice.  I just started using them about a month ago.  This week I learned how to create a quiz using Google Docs forms.  Then I embedded it in a page of our class wiki.  Many of you may be saying “Well, duh!,” but I didn’t know you could do this, and I think it is so cool. 

 

Once again this is something I learned through my ongoing professional development on Twitter.  I’m not even going to try to explain it to you, because I couldn’t possibly do it as well as Richard Byrne, (@rmbyrne on Twitter), on his blog, “Free Technology for Teachers”.  His post from Friday, January 29, 2010, How to Publish a Quiz Using Google Docs,   explains it all.

You can create a quiz including multiple choice questions, essay, check lists, or a short line of text.  I found it easy to create the quiz and easy to embed it.  Once it was embedded, it was simple for my fourth graders to use.  

I tested it first, by taking the quiz myself.  This turned out to be a really good idea, because then my answers were posted first on the spreadsheet, and that gave me my answer key.  Your first question needs to be “Student Name” so you know whose work you are looking at.  All the answers that students give are displayed neatly on a spreadsheet.   

I really liked the spreadsheet.  It made it easy to analyze the questions that my students had difficulty with.  Now I know where reteaching is necessary.  When it came to grading the quiz, I found it easier to print off the spreadsheet.  Then it was very easy to correct the quiz and interpret the results.   There is also a date stamp, so you know when each student completed their work.  

 

Google Docs are so great for those of us who work on multiple computers.   Thanks, Richard Byrne, for teaching me something new!