How to enable locked mode in Google Forms

With Google Forms, you can create quizzes your students can access online. These quizzes are a valuable way to monitor student progress and evaluate how well students are understanding and retaining the material you’re teaching.

But online quizzes introduce a slight wrinkle — when students are taking them, they may think about using the internet to look up answers. Doing so would skew the results of the quiz and give you an inaccurate picture of what they’ve learned.

Google Forms offers a locked mode that can help you prevent this. When the locked mode is activated, students using Chromebooks won’t be able to access other apps. Plus, if a student exits the quiz or opens another tab, you’ll get a notification. You’ll also get a notification if a student reopens the quiz within 30 days, which can help you monitor the accuracy of the quiz responses.

The benefits and limitations of locked mode

Once a quiz is locked, students who access that quiz will receive a notification that locked mode is on and that they should save their work in any other tab before beginning the quiz. With locked mode on, students can’t

• Open a new tab
• Use Chrome apps or extensions
• Copy or paste text
• Take a screenshot
• View page source information

Locked mode does have its limitations, though. Students on devices other than Chromebooks can’t access the quizzes while they’re in locked mode. If students are using older versions of Chrome, they’ll need to update their browser before being able to access locked quizzes. For these reasons, you may need to provide extra help and troubleshooting when first implementing locked mode quizzes with your classroom.

Additionally, it’s important to maintain student privacy and security when using locked mode, especially when handling student data. Be sure to discuss any educational regulation compliance concerns with your IT department and administrators before implementing locked mode.

Steps to enable locked mode in Google Forms

To enable locked mode in Google Forms, you’ll need to use a Google Workspace for Education account. You’ll also need Chrome OS 75 and up.

Remember that your students must access the form using a school-managed Chromebook. Students using other devices won’t be able to open or complete the quiz.

To turn on locked mode, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Google Workspace for Education account.
2. Create a quiz or open an existing quiz.
3. Click the Settings tab at the top of the quiz.
4. Locate the Chromebook settings heading and click the turn on locked mode option.

The locked quiz function is helpful, but if you need to turn it off again, it’s an easy process. Here’s how to remove locked mode:

1. Sign in to your Google Workspace for Education account.
2. Open the quiz you want to change.
3. Click the Settings tab at the top of the quiz.
4. Locate the Chromebook settings heading and unclick the turn on locked mode option.

Jotform: A more flexible way to create and share quizzes with students

Jotform is a powerful form builder that allows you to create quizzes for your classroom. It offers more than 160 quiz templates to help you get started, or you can build your own quiz from scratch. Jotform’s drag-and-drop form builder is easy to use, and you can choose from an wide assortment of question types to custom-build the quiz for your class.

When you use Jotform to build quizzes, you can also take advantage of the platform’s advanced features, like conditional logic. You can choose to let students save their work and continue the quiz later, and the form disable function lets you choose when to accept submissions. With these advanced features, Jotform gives you a lot of flexibility in building your quiz, making it a popular alternative to Google Forms.

Jotform’s integrations also set it apart from Google Forms. Jotform integrates with popular programs and platforms like Google Sheets, Dropbox, and Google Drive. You can collect and organize quiz responses in your Google spreadsheet, upload responses to Dropbox for storage, and more. Plus, since you can share quizzes via links or through email, or by embedding them into a website, students can access and complete the quiz on any device — not just Chromebooks.

Jotform is an affordable option for teachers and schools. Educators enjoy a 50 percent discount off of Jotform’s already affordable rates, and Jotform’s free Starter plan includes all features, so you can try out the platform and see how well it works for your class. And with Jotform Enterprise, your educational institution can get access to a powerful form-building and data management platform at a 30 percent discount.

If you’re already using Google Forms or you’re looking for a quiz builder for your class, try Jotform for free today and see how its powerful quiz features can help support your class.

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA