16 ways to use Google Forms in the classroom

Google Forms is a powerful tool for gathering data in an educational setting, and it’s easy for both parents and students to use. Teachers and school administrators can use the intuitive drag-and-drop interface to create custom forms, surveys, quizzes, and polls that help them get the information they need to make better educational decisions.

Here, we share 16 ideas on how to use Google Forms in the classroom — and we offer an alternative data-gathering tool that may be a better choice for your school.

16 ways to use Google Forms in the classroom

1. Bell ringers

Get kids excited to learn by asking them a quick question at the start of the day and having them answer in Google Forms. The question can be about something they learned the day before or a new topic.

2. Quizzes and surveys

“One way to use Google Forms is to create quizzes and surveys,” says Scott Winstead, founder of My eLearning World, which covers online learning both in the classroom and in business settings. “Quizzes can be used for assessment purposes, and surveys can be used to collect data about students’ learning experiences.”

3. Permission forms

Use Google Forms to create permission slips for field trips and email them directly to parents. This saves students the hassle of taking paper forms home and remembering to bring them back.

4. Emergency contact information forms

It’s important for schools to have emergency contact information for students’ families, and Google Forms makes it easy to collect this information and organize it in a spreadsheet.

5. Schedules

“Google Forms can also be used to create schedules and sign-up sheets,” says Winstead. “For example, a teacher could use a Google Form to create a schedule for small group work, and students could use a Google Form to sign up for clubs or extracurricular activities.”

6. Pulse polls

Quickly polling students on how they’re feeling on a given day or whether they have any specific feelings on certain topics can be really helpful for teachers and students. “Polls can be used to gather data about student opinions on a variety of topics,” says Winstead.

7. Lesson plans

Teachers can use Google Forms as a planning template for creating daily lessons. Simply add fields to your form for learning objectives, activities, and more, and then fill it out each day.

8. Progress logs

Google Forms is a great choice for tracking progress in daily or weekly logs. Teachers can easily see how students are doing in any area — from exercise and nutrition to math and science.

9. Choose-your-own-adventure activities

Google Forms offers skip logic, which is a great way to create more tailored activities. Teachers can branch questions based on students’ answers to previous questions.

10. Visual activities

If your students are still learning to read, Google Forms can help you make it easier for younger students to participate. It gives you the ability to add images to your form and provide visual cues that can help them.

11. Student-created activities

Google Forms is so easy to use, even students in earlier grades can create their own forms, polls, and quizzes to share with their classmates.

12. Evaluation rubrics

Teachers can create rubric templates in Google Forms and use them to grade assignments, essays, projects, and more.

13. Self-assessments

It’s important for students to learn how to evaluate their own work and performance, especially in group projects. Teachers can use Google Forms with self-evaluation questions for students to fill out.

14. Parent volunteer signups

Many schools allow parents to help out in the classroom or during special school events. Collect parent information and availability using Google Forms.

15. Teacher assessments

Google Forms makes it easy for teachers to gather feedback from students on specific lessons and topics, teaching styles, curriculum, and more.

16. Exit tickets

Before heading out for the day, have students fill out a Google Form with the answer to one question that’s based on something they learned that day. “Exit tickets can be used to assess student understanding at the end of a lesson,” says Winstead.

A Google Forms alternative: Jotform

While Google Forms can support teachers and school administrators, an excellent Google Forms alternative may help you do even more. Jotform is a data-gathering tool that comes with hundreds of ready-to-use form templates specifically made for educational settings, such as scholarship application forms, multiple-choice surveys, course evaluation forms, and much more. In addition, Jotform also offers free table templates to help organize form data such as class attendance, student information, progress tracking, and more.

Jotform offers a robust feature set that may be a better fit for your school than Google Forms. Check out our toolkit for teachers to learn more.