Conducting Public Education classes online can be challenging. One of those challenges is maintaining the integrity of the final examination in the absence of a proctor. Google Forms is a viable option for creating and scoring exams, although it does rely on the integrity of the student and not a proctor.

This presentation will lead you through the main steps, with screen shots of adding your state’s questions, sending the examination to the students, scoring the examination and creating a spreadsheet of the class scores.

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These are the topics this presentation will discuss.

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Remember that the E-Dir template version of the exam does not include your state’s required questions. The first step toward using the exam with your students is to get the template copy off the E-Dir Google Drive and place the copy onto your own site. If you do not do this first step, your edited version will also be on the E-Dir drive. That’s not necessary and will take up E-Dir space on the drive. It is important that once you receive the exam, that you copy it AND rename it for your purposes. Otherwise, any change you make will simultaneously be made to the core test on our drive. The purpose of Google Drive is to allow many people to see and edit documents together. We do not want that to happen to the core exam; so it’s important to copy the exam to your google drive and rename it, and then edit your rename copy on your Google Drive only.

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In Google Drive, whether using Google Forms, Classroom, and other Google Drive items, you can either request, or an invitation to view can be sent. Once that is done, you can then access and use the Google documents. It is important that you make a copy and save it to your own drive so that 50 copies for each state do not end up on the original E-Dir drive.

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This WORD doc. Is available on the E-Directorate site in E-Resources. It helps to explain how to set up a Google account. That will allow access to the Google Drive. In Google Drive, whether using Google Forms, Classroom, and other Google Drive items, you can either request, or an invitation to view can be sent. Once that is done, you can then access and use the Google documents. It is important that you make a copy and save it to your own drive so that 50 copies for each state do not end up on the original E-Dir drive.

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This step may be obvious, but make sure you are using Google as your search engine, not Yahoo, Bing, or other start pages. The Browser does not matter. You can use Chrome, Safari, IE, etc. as the browser, but your start page needs to be Google.

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Open your Gmail account. You should see this screen. Click on the box of dots circled at the upper right side of your screen. It will open the selection of Google Apps available.

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Click on your Google Drive icon.

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In “Shared with me” you should see the test. Drag the test into the “My Drive” file. Then click on “My Drive” and you should see it. You will still need to rename it to avoid the E-Directorate Master copy getting your edits later. It is important to understand that you will not “download” a document in the traditional manner. Google Drive was established for several people to “share” and edit documents simultaneously. Because of this you MUST copy the document and then RENAME it. Otherwise all your changes will appear on everyone else document.

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In “My Drive,” right-click on the test to open Options. Choose “Rename” and then rename your test to avoid duplication of your edits onto the E-Dir. master copy. Once renamed, you can now edit and customize your test and also share it with others. Once you share it, the next person who receives it will also have to copy and rename it to avoid also editing your test.

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To share the test with someone else, right click on the test and then choose “Share” from the options.

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Enter the email address of those with whom you wish to share the test. It is very important that those receiving your test go through the same steps you just did to copy and rename their test to avoid having all of their edits show up on your copy of the test.

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The Google Forms exam contains the 50 basic exam questions. You will need to add your state’s questions at the end of this exam beginning with question 51. How do we get there?

There are three sections you see at the top of the page that are required items: Email, Name, and the Integrity Statement. All of these must be completed in order for the test to continue. The integrity statement is only part of the security efforts placed in the test. No system is perfect. We’ll see others as we move through the presentation.

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You will want to collect student email addresses so that the system will automatically send messages about the test to the students.

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By making sure you have your settings as above, the students will not be able to keep or see copies of the test after they submit it. They also will not see their grade. You will need to email the students their results. This restriction is critical to keep the test out of their hands after the test is completed.

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To add your state specific questions, first scroll to the end of the test, the 50thquestion. You can then add your next question. Click on the + (plus) icon which will open the window to write the question. The system does not automatically number your questions, so you will have to also add the subsequent numbers: 51, 52, 53 etc.

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Type your questions. Make sure the drop down box is set for “Multiple choice.” In Option 1 write the first multiple choice answer, then press return. A second option will appear for the your next response, and so on for the four choices. After typing in the four responses, click on the ”Answer key” in the lower left to identify the correct response. Click on the circle with the correct answer to highlight it in green. Be sure that “Required” is on so the question counts toward a score.

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Once the correct answer is identified for the answer key, be sure you give your question a point value of 1 for scoring.

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Here is where you can add another level of security by shuffling the order of the answer choices. This means that each test you send out will have a different order to the answers choices. Because you already identified the correct response, that will automatically track to the shuffled choice. We do NOT recommend shuffling questions. Doing so will also shuffle where the Name and Email sections follow. You want those to stay at the top of the test. Shuffling the order of answer choices is much more effective and easier to do. To do this, Click on the “Snowman.”

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Choose “Shuffle option order.” This option is tedious. You will have to do this with each question to have them all shuffle. You can skip around and shuffle some and not others as you wish. But, if you use this option only once, only that question will have the answers shuffle.

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The Preview button (eye icon) allows you to preview the test. Having the email address option on is important so that you know who the exam is from for scoring. You will notice an “integrity statement” below the email address. The student must check this box in order to continue with the exam. The exam will not allow students to continue with the test unless the integrity statement is affirmed. The Settings button (gear icon) will allow you to do several things which we’ll see as we move through the presentation. One of those things is the ability to randomize the order of the answer choices. This option allows a greater degree of integrity to the test.

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In the Settings section (gear icon) be sure to mark the check box for “Collect email addresses.” This is important information for the spreadsheet option later.

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The “Send” button is what allows you to send the test to students. This opens the email option for you.

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This part is a bit tedious, but here is where you will choose an option to send the test to students. Type the email address of each student to receive the test. Each address is comma separated. You have three choices: you can send it as an email invitation to open the exam, or as an email link to open, or as an email attachment. The email attachment option is the most open and could violate test security. Either of the other options is more secure. On the “Message” line you can customize your message to the student to invite them to take the test.

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Once you have entered the student addresses, Send it to the students.

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The students will receive an invitation to take the exam. Once they click on “Fill Out Form’ the exam will appear to begin the test. In addition to your customized message above, the basic instruction is the same as the student sees on the exam itself. This is somewhat redundant, but part of the system.

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Students will type their email into the space provided. This is set as a required item and the student will not be able to proceed with the test until their email is completed. This allows their score to immediately be sent to them upon completion of the test.

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Once students complete the exam, they will “Submit” the test. This sends it to immediate scoring. You and the student will see the score simultaneously.

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The student receives notification that the test has been scored. You will need to respond to the student with their score. If you allow the score to be included in this response, all the questions will be sent as well. We do not want the test to be available.

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Sample of correct and incorrect response feedback if you allow the score to be immediately available to the student. This why you do NOT want to do that. The student’s correct response is confirmed in green. Any incorrect response is highlighted in red with the correct answer provided. This allows the student to copy and distribute the test.

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If you open the Responses tab above you can view test data. “Summary” provides the average, median, and range of all the scores. “Question” will tell you which questions gave the students the most trouble. This option will be useful to help focus some of your teaching on more complicated information. “Individual”will provide you each student’s individual score by email address.

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By clicking on the green icon at the top right of the page you can create a spreadsheet for the information and your flotilla records as well.

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Spreadsheet view of the test information. This can provide you email addresses and scores for your records and future communication with students.

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