google form class tools

Dijital MaestroGoogle FormsAdd-ons For Education

Use Images and Videos In Assessments

Set Time Limits for Assessments

Set The Maximum Number of Responses

Look For Specific Answers

February 20, 2015

In this issue I’ll look at ways we can use Google forms to enhance our assessments. We’ll look at adding images and videos to assessments. Images and videos are a great way to add di-mensions to any assessment. With images in our assessments we can add charts for students to use as a reference in the question just like pa-per versions. We can use any image as long as it doesn’t violate copyright laws. When insert-ing images Google Forms provides an option to take a screen shot of something on your computer. This can be very useful for math and science teachers that use tools like Math-ematica to develop equations. With the screen capture utility, take a picture of the equation that you want students to refer to in a question. When using images in most web based tools like Google Forms, its important to prepare your images ahead of time. Google Forms is a tool for collecting information. It is not very good at edit-ing images. Before uploading images to use in Google Forms, make sure you edit them ahead of time with software that is designed to re-size, crop or annotate your image as needed. There are several free tools out there and your com-puter already has some of these tools available.Videos can be very useful and can add lots of useful information for any question. Videos can be used for contextual questions. A typical ques-tion can ask a student to make inferences or to use context clues. Videos provide visual and audio clues to help students answer questions. Many videos include closed captioning which can be useful when differentiating content. Any video used in Google Forms must be acces-sible on the Internet. The most common place to access these videos is with services like YouTube or Vimeo. There are many other services out there and they can also be used. To use these online videos all you need is the link to the video. There is a wealth of videos out there but you might encounter a situation where a video is not available or you don’t care for the way the con-tent is covered. In this case you can upload one of your own. There are a variety of tools to help

you create informational and instructional videos for free. You probably have one available right in your pocket. That smart phone or tablet has soft-ware to record, edit and upload video to servic-es like YouTube. Science teachers can record a chemical reaction, math teachers can record the steps in a formula, language arts teachers can re-cord concepts like poetic sound patterns and his-tory teachers can include images and narration.There are a few things to keep in mind when us-ing videos in an assessment. Make sure to keep videos brief. This is more closely related to the amount of time your students will need to fin-ish the assessment. Thirty seconds or less is usually a good rule of thumb for video length. Make sure the audio quality is good. Nothing ru-ins a video more than bad audio quality. Make sure the sound is not too loud or too soft. Make sure there is no disturbing background noise. Your students will need headphones or earbuds to listen to the videos during an assessment. Make sure you have some extra cheap earbuds avail-able for those students that don’t have some or forgot them. Hey, they always forget their pencils, pens and paper, why not headphones or earbuds.

Images and Videos in Assessments

formLimiter Add-on

Google provides several useful applications and services. One of these services is the abil-ity for anyone to develop scripts that work with applications like Google Forms. These scripts are developed into what are called add-ons.

The add-on called formLimiter is one of those scripts that has been developed by New Visions Cloud Lab. New Visions Cloud Lab is a com-munity of people that develop scripts for free. They are a non-profit organization and work to develop tools that can be used by teachers everywhere.

The formLimiter add-on has three useful tools. With formLimiter you can set the date and time to automatically stop accepting responses in a form. Another option allows us to set the maxi-mum number of responses to accept before the form stops accepting responses. The third option is interesting because it looks for a value that triggers the form to stop accepting responses.

The first two tools are very easy to setup and use. The third tool takes a few more steps to use. You might not use this tool as often as you would the first two. In my example for this tool, I look for the first five correct answers before the script stops accepting responses. This tool is different from the maximum number of responses because in this case we are look-ing for the number of answers that matches our criteria. We can have fifty responses but if only four of them match our criteria it will con-tinue to accept responses until the fifth answer matches our criteria.

This can be a useful tool if we are looking for a specific answer in our assessment or survey and want to keep it open until we get the number of answers we need.

In these lessons I’m demonstrating how to use these tools for assessments, but they can be used for a varity of reasons when using Google Forms. The option to stop accepting responses

on a specific date and time can be used to set a deadline for students to submit some informa-tion. For example, you might give them a week to select a topic for their science project.

Google Form Class Tools

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Creating assessments in Google Forms can be a rich experience with images, animation and video. In this first lesson we will learn how to create a basic assessment which includes each of these elements. We will also learn how to use form pages to segment our assessments into manageable views for students.

Go to your Google account and click on the apps launcher icon.

Click on the Drive app.

Click the red create button on the left and select Form.

Let’s provide a name to our test. Click once where it reads untitled form.

Questions With Images

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Type a name in the form name field and click the OK button.

We need to make some decisions about our assessment in the form settings section. I will be using pages to separate my test by question.

When we use pages to divide a form into sections, the student can’t see the form all at once and can’t see how much is left of the assessment. A progress bar provides feed-back so they have a visual clue for how much of the assessment they’ve done or is left. I’ll place a check mark to show the progress bar.

I’ll also place a check mark to allow only one response per person. This requires the stu-dent to log into their account.

I’ll be using pictures and other media in my test. When I do this, I can’t shuffle the questions.

I’ll place a check mark on the first two options and opt out of shuffling the questions.

Let’s provide a short description for our test and create the first question.


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We’ll start with a simple question without an image. This will be a multiple choice question.

Enter the answers for our multiple choice question.

Click on the advanced settings option.

When we created the form we could not choose to shuffle the questions because we will be using images and other media in our quiz. Under the advanced settings we have the option to shuffle the answer options within the question. I’ll place a check mark in the option to shuffle the answer order. Remember to make the question required so students don’t accidentally forget to answer a question.


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Click on the add item pull down menu.

Select the option to add a page break.

You’ll be presented with the option to provide a title and description for the page. Page titles are a great way to help keep the assessment organized.

Provide a descriptive name for the page and click the add item pull down menu to add our question for this page.


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Click on the image option.

An insert image box will open with several options for placing an image in the form. The upload option is automatically selected for us. Other options include the ability to take a snapshot of something on your computer, a link to an image, a photo from your Google photo album, or an image in your Google Drive. In this first example we’ll select an image from our computer.

We have the option of either dropping an image into the upload panel or clicking the choose image to upload button.

I’ll select an image taken from a screen shot and saved on my computer. It’s a good idea to place all the images into a folder ahead of time for easy access. You can use most image formats but I recommend using JPEG or PNG image formats.

I also recommend preparing your images ahead of time because Google Forms does not include tools to edit images.

Let’s see what happens when we don’t pre-pare the image ahead of time.


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The image I’ve chosen is very big. This size can be cumbersome and it might be difficult to see both the image and the question on small displays.

We can re-size the image using the blue cor-ner handles available. There is one on the top left of this image.

When I talk about preparing your images, I mean that you should use a program dedi-cated to working with images so you can re size, crop rotate or enhance them before uploading.


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Use the handle to shirk the image size. You can’t enlarge an image without reducing the image quality.

I’ve re sized the image but the quality and size of the image could make it difficult for my students to answer the question properly.

Now I’ll take the same image and prepare it for the quiz.

To swap out the image with another, click the change image button.

We’re presented with the same options to upload an image.


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I’ve cropped the same image to show me a 200 by 300 pixel area that I want the students to see for the question.

The image is the size we need and clearly shows the information our students will need to answer the question.

Use one of the alignment buttons to posi-tion your image for the question. I’ll leave the image aligned to the left.

Above the image we have the option to pro-vide a title for the image and some informa-tion when the user hovers the mouse over the image.


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I’ll use the question for the image description and for the hover over text information. This isn’t the question students will answer. This is just information for our image. Let’s create the test question.

Click the add item pull down menu. Let’s cre-ate a multiple choice question based on this image.

Type in the answer choices.

Place a check mark to shuffle the answer choices and to make the question required.

That’s it, we’ve added an image and associ-ated it with a question for our test.

Questions With Video

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Let’s add a question that uses a video as part of the question. We’ll segment this question by adding a page break.

Provide a title and description for the page.

Click on add item and select video from the options.

An insert dialogue box will open. A video search box is automatically presented so we can search for videos in You Tube. There is also a URL option where we can type the URL for the video we want to use. I’ll use the URL option.

YouTube has missions of great instructional videos. Type a description for the video you need and a list of available videos will appear below the search box.


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Let’s provide a title for the video and a caption.

I’ll paste the link to one of my videos in You Tube.

Click the select button to finish the video insert process.

You’ll see a thumbnail of the video display. Use the buttons below the thumbnail to adjust the video position.

Below each YouTube video there is a share option. Click on this share option to get a link to the video. This is how I was able to copy and paste the video link for this example.


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This is an assessment so we don’t need a link to the form results. I don’t want my students to go back and edit their answers after finishing the test so I won’t place a check mark on the second option either.

We can write a message for our students when they complete the quiz. Replace the information that reads “Your response has been recorded”, to something that is a little more relevant for your students.

Click on the view live form link at the top of the page.

Click on the add item menu and select mul-tiple choice.

I’ll create a question that uses the informa-tion in this video for the answer. Make sure to shuffle the answer order and to make the question required.

That’s it for this example. We’ll only add one image and one video for our short quiz. I’ll click the Done button.


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We see our first question, which is a multiple choice. Below the answer options, we see a continue button. This button is here because we used pages to separate our questions. Answer the question and click the continue button.

Separating our questions with page breaks is a nice way to separate questions and keep the questions visible for students.

In our next question we see an image above the question. The students will use this image as a reference to help them answer the question.

Below the answer choices we have a back and continue button. Answer the question and click the continue button.


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When playing the video, students will have access to the same controls for playing, fast forwarding, rewinding and re-sizing the video.

On this last question students will answer the question and click the submit button to finish.

Using images in your assessments is a great way to include rich media options.

In the question with a video, the students will see a thumbnail version of the video above the question. To see the video, the students can click the play button and the video will play in the same box above the question.


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In a previous issue I demonstrated some basic ways that Google forms can be used to conduct surveys and assessments. Since that issue, I’ve had several questions about options that might be available for assessments. One question was about setting a time limit for an assessment or survey.

Google provides tools for developers to enhance the functionality of Google Apps. In Google Forms these are called add-ons. For the most part, add-ons are free to use. Let’s look at an add-on to schedule when an assessment will stop being available to students. This add-on also includes an option to set the maximum number of responses before the form stops accepting responses. The third option available with this add-on is where we are looking for a specific value before the form will stop accepting responses.

I’ll be using a test I created in the last issue. If you don’t have a test or survey, go ahead and create one. I want you to be able to use what you learn here today or tomorrow in your class.

In the form edit page, click the Add-ons menu option and click Get add-ons.

A panel will open showing several tiles of add-ons that can be used with Google Forms.

On the right side of the panel is a search box. Search for an add-on called formLimiter.

FormLimiter: Timer

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You should see the formLimiter add-on infor-mation appear within the panel.

On the right side is the installation button. This add-on is free, click on the button.

A module will open with information about the installation of formLimiter. The information is used by formLimiter to access information about your account and documents in your Google Drive account. This is essential for formLimiter to work properly.

To install the add-on you need to accept the listed options and the agreement. It’s impor-tant to note that Google will keep to the terms of privacy you agreed to when the account was created.


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The add-on will be installed in a few seconds and you will see a message under the Add-ons menu to let you know it’s been installed.

On the right side of the form you will see a panel open. This is the formLimiter configura-tion panel.

Click on the Limit pull down menu. The menu has the options to select a date and time, the maximum number of responses and the desti-nation spreadsheet value.

Select date and time.

The panel will show a place where we can add a date, time and message. Click once inside the first box.

FormLimiter: Timer

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A menu will display below the box. Use the menu to select the day the assessment will stop or type the date inside the box.

After entering the date, click in the next box to enter the time. Like the date option, you will get a helpful tool to enter the time. Use this tool or enter the time manually. Make sure to include AM or PM.

After you enter the date, provide a message to let your students know the time has expired and they can no longer submit responses.

If you would like to be reminded that the form is closed, place a check mark to be automati-cally e-mailed.


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If students try to access the form after the day and time you specify, they will see a message similar to this one.

Within the Google Form editor you will see this message at the top of the page.

If you want the form to accept responses again, click on Responses in the form builder and click Not accepting Responses.

You can disable a time limit set on a form by going back to the panel and clicking the dis-able button at the bottom.

If students have already started working on the assessment, they will be allowed to finish and submit. They will not be timed out while taking the assessment.

FormLimiter: Max Responses

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With form limiter we can also set the form to stop accepting responses once we’ve reached the number of responses we want. This is use-ful when working with surveys. Click on the limit menu and select max number of form responses.

You will be presented with a box to enter the maximum number of responses before the form will no longer accept any more.

Enter a number for the maximum number of responses and provide a message to display when the maximum has been reached.

In this case it would be a good idea to get an e-mail letting you know when the form is closed.

This is a great way to have competitions in your classroom. You can select 1 in the maximum number for the first team to submit a response.

Tip: Create several of these forms ahead of time and have them ready for one or more class periods.


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The third option is destination spreadsheet cell value. Select this option from the menu.

With this option we need to look for a value in a cell to stop accepting responses.

It took me a while to see the need of this option in education but I think I have a good example for how we can use this in a lesson or assessment. Before we can enter values here, we need to setup some instructions in the spreadsheet that will collect our responses.

Click on Responses in the menu and select view responses.

In this example I have a quiz with just one question. I want to stop accepting responses once one person gets the answer correctly. This is different from accepting only one answer because we are looking for the first correct answer. This means we can accept multiple answers but the form will only stop accepting responses once we have the cor-rect answer.

In this example I’m looking for the first correct answer, but we could easily set this to stop accepting responses after any number of cor-rect answers.

FormLimiter: Cell Value

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All our responses are automatically collected in a spreadsheet labeled Form Responses 1. We need to create another sheet for our instructions. Click the plus on the left to create a new sheet in this workbook.

A new sheet will be created next to the Form Response 1 sheet. It should be names Sheet2. If it named something else that’s fine. Just keep the name of the sheet in mind for later.

Let’s begin with the instructions.

In cell A1 I’ll provide a description to help as a point of reference. You don’t need to do this but I think it will help us understand what is going on.


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We’re going to use an instruction that counts the number of times something takes place. This instruction is going to count the number of times we have the correct answer. In cell B2 type =countif.

We need to tell the spreadsheet where to look for the information to count. We are collecting all the responses in the Form Response 1 sheet.

After =countif, type an open parenthesis fol-lowed by the sheet name, Form Response 1. Make sure the sheet name is within single quotes like this, ‘Form Response 1’.

We’ve written the instructions for which sheet to use, now we need to tell it where in the sheet to look for the answers. The answers will be located in column B. Cell B1 is used for the question so we need to start looking in cell B2. The instructions !B2:B tell it to look in col-umn B and start in cell B2. Type these instruc-tions after the single quote in ‘Form Response 1’.

After we’ve told it to look for the answer in column B, we need to give it the correct answer we are looking for to stop accepting responses. After !B2:B, type a comma fol-lowed by the correct answer. In my example that would be “Hypertext Markup Language”. Make sure to place text answers in quotation marks. If the answer is a number, don’t use quotation marks. Finish the instructions with a closing parenthesis.


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You should see a zero where we entered the instructions. If you don’t, check the instruc-tions. Notice how the instructions are color coded. The form and cell reference should be in orange and the answer in green,

Go back to the form edit page and into the formLimiter panel. In first box enter sheet2!B1. This tells form limiter where to look for the value. This is also where we typed the instructions. In our example that would be the number of correct responses.

In the next box, enter the number value we want to use to stop accepting responses. In this example I want to stop accepting responses after I get five correct answers. Below the box we see that current the number of correct answers is zero. Let’s start entering some answer so we can see how this works.

Type a message to display when the form is closed. Choose if you want to receive an e-mail when the form is closed and click the save and enable button.


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Let’s enter some responses to see how this works. Go back to the form editor and select view live form.

I’ll select the correct answer and click submit.

Go back to the form edit page and click the view responses button, or if the responses sheet is still open, go to that page.

In the bottom of the workbook, click on sheet 2 where we have the instructions.


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The cell now has the number 1 to record our first correct answer. I’ll take the quiz a few more times.

I’ve gone back and entered five more answers. Of the six answers seen here, only four are correct.

Looking at sheet 2, we can see that the instructions are recording the four correct answers and ignoring the wrong answers.

On the fifth correct answer, the form will stop accepting responses.

This add-on is a great tool with several useful features.

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