Overview: 

Google Forms is a quick and easy way to collect all different kinds of information. You can customize Google Forms in a variety of ways, from theme and colors, to font and the use of videos and images. Forms look professional yet is easy enough for students of any level to create.

You can add the following question types to your form:

• Text — respondents provide short answers
• Paragraph text — respondents provide longer answers
• Multiple choice — respondents select one option from among several
• Check boxes — respondents select as many options as they’d like
• Choose from a list — respondents select one option from a drop down menu
• Scale — respondents rank something along a scale of numbers (e.g., from 1 to 5)
• Grid — respondents select a point from a two-dimensional grid
• Date — respondents use a calendar picker to enter a date
• Time — respondents select a time (either a time of day or a duration of time)

You have the option to make a question required, so users must answer the question before submitting your form.

Information can be collected within minutes, as Forms can be shared instantly and read via computer or mobile app.   You can share the form with as many respondents as you like by emailing a link to the form, emailing an embedded form through Gmail, or adding the form link to a website.

When you send out a form to others, you can choose to collect/store the responses in three ways:

• You can create a new spreadsheet for the form responses.
• You can choose to store the responses in an existing spreadsheet. If you choose this option, it will create a new page in the spreadsheet.
• You can choose to keep the responses in the form itself. If you choose this option, you can either view a summary of the responses or download a CSV file with individual responses.

Your Google Forms can be linked to Google Sheets for a quick and easy way to read results that is automatically linked to one's Google Drive.   

As a part of the Google Apps suite, Google forms can be accessed from any mobile device, laptop, or desktop computer. Since Google Forms, like all Google Apps, is on the cloud, a simple user account can access personalized forms from anywhere.  There are also a growing number of Google Forms add-on features that give users more options and control over the forms they create.  For example, Flubaroo (for Google Sheets) can grade quizzes and email the results to the student and g(Math) for forms allows the user to insert equations, graphs, and charts to the quiz.

Video:

Uses:

There are variety of ways to use Google Forms in the classroom. Here are just a few!

• Create a survey
• Collect information
• Form groups
• Select options for a project
• Create tests and quizzes 
• Tracking discipline referrals
• Collecting science data
• Teacher or student observations
• Formative and summative assessments
• Student feedback 
• Peer evaluations 
• Parent questionnaire 

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Free 
• Easy to create
• Very quick way to collect information
• Results are displayed in an easy to read format 
• Can be collected anonymously if needed
• Can be used to survey students (or anyone!) for a variety of reasons
• Can be shared quickly and easily
• Can limit number of submissions to one per user
• Can shuffle question order 

Cons: 

• Not a large variety of options to customize, such as themes or layout
• Somewhat limited as to the types of questions that can be created - for example, a drag and drop option
• Answers to questions are not auto-graded by the program
• No immediate feedback provided to students during or after a quiz  

Alternatives:

FluidSurveys: Users can choose from over 40 question types and can build surveys using a drag & drop editor or by choosing a template.  Surveys work on any devices.  Various pricing plans are available 

Formstack: Formstack is an online form building application to create web-based forms including surveys and contact forms. 

LimeSurvey: LimeSurvey is a free open-source survey program that is available in 80 languages.  Users can create an unlimited number of surveys with an unlimited number of questions.  There are at least 28 different question types available.

Surveymonkey: Surveymonkey is a cloud-based survey tool that provides free customizable surveys which include a variety of ways to analyze the collected data.

Wufoo: Wufoo is an online form builder that allows users to create a variety of contact forms, surveys, and event registrations. 

Resources:

Google. (n.d.). About Google Forms. Retrieved July 5. 2015 from  https://www.google.com/forms/about/

The Gooru. 5 (n.d.). Creative Ways School Can Use Google Forms That Aren't Surveys. Retrieved July 5, 2015 from

http://www.thegooru.com/5-creative-ways-schools-can-use-google-forms-that-arent-surveys/

Gupta, S. (2014, October 23).  Add-Ons for Forms Bring a Little Something Extra to Your Surveys [Web log post].  Retrieved July 5,         2015 from  http://googledrive.blogspot.com/2014/10/formsadd-ons.html

Orwig, S. (2015, May 5). Google Forms Or Moodle Quizzes the Pros and Cons of Each [Web log post] Retrieved July 5, 2015 from

http://www.eclass4learning.com/google-forms-or-moodle-quizzes-pros-and-cons-of-each/

Stiglitz, Julia. (n.d.). 32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom. Retrieved June 17, 2015,      from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_6fh7wXkugHQbbA2ILrjsFqysvclJCbul2I3Oc912D8/present?slide=id.i0