Simple self-grading quizzes with Forms - or surveys or other things

I’ve gotten quite a few questions and requests about simple self-grading tests and how to create them yourself. So in this slightly shorter post I thought I’d show how you can do this with forms — in this case Microsoft Forms. Of course it works similarly in Google’s environment with Google Forms.

Forms are also great for much more than creating tests, so also think about other data collection like exit tickets, booking parent-teacher conferences, polls, absence notification forms and more.

Example: math test

In the video below I show a simple example of a math test. The idea is that you enter questions and specify the correct answers, and when you distribute the task and the student submits their answers, they immediately get feedback on how many were correct and what the right answers were. — But I want to see how they worked out their calculations, you say. Solve that, for example, by asking them to photograph their paper and email it to you, while entering the correct answer in the form. That way you at least avoid some of the grading. This kind of solution of course doesn’t suit all types of tests, but they’re quick to create and you avoid grading. Think vocabulary quizzes, the provinces of Sweden, 1X2, exit tickets and more. Only your imagination sets the limits. :) Under the video I write a bit more about each step.

Keep in mind that if you create an open form where students don’t need to log in, add a question asking for the student’s name so you know who submitted what.

1. Sign in at forms.office.com with your credentials. Under My forms, create a New quiz.
2. Name the form to something that describes what it is — in my case Math test.
3. Now we’ll create the test’s first question, so click Add new.
4. Here I choose the Text type, because I want students to be able to enter text. There are several different types and in the video below I quickly show what the others do.
5. Now I write my test question.
6. Here I enter the correct answer that the form should check the student’s answer against. The form doesn’t distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters (worth knowing, since stockholm and Stockholm are equally “correct”).
7. Now we fill in how many points a correct answer should give.
8. That’s it for this question and we move on to the next test question by repeating steps 3–7. You can also use Math to enter formulas and similar. Of course you can insert images and videos in your questions.
9. Now we’re done and it’s time to Share the test with our students. We can do that in several ways.
10. One simple way is to create a link to the form that anyone can answer.
11. Now we can copy the link and, for example, email it to the students. Or put it in Teams or similar. We can also copy the embed link and embed our form on our blog or website.
12. We Preview our test and check that it works. Here I deliberately fill in something wrong and something right to see that it works. When it’s ready I click Send at the bottom.
13. When the student clicks View results they get immediate feedback on how many were correct and what was right or wrong.
14. You can also see statistics about the answers. This can be useful if you want an idea of how many answered similarly on a question, for example in an exit ticket.
15. Here you can also Review responses and see each student’s individual answers, where you can flip through the users who submitted the test.
16. You can also download all responses as an Excel file.

Different question types

In the video below I add the various question types — apart from Text which we already tried — so you can see how they work. The one I missed, however, was Ranking, where you can drag and drop — simply order a number of options. As usual, the best thing is to try it yourself.

Which is better? Microsoft or Google?

To be honest, I think they work similarly and it doesn’t make much difference. Most schools use either O365 or GAFE, so choose the tool you have available.

GDPR

Also consider how you collect personal data if you’re doing larger surveys or involve people other than your students. Just a small reminder.

Questions?

If you have any questions, tips or thoughts, feel free to get in touch here in the comments or via social media.