Tech Thursday: Turn Forms into Docs

Form Publisher add-on turns a Google forms entry into a document that can be emailed & saved.

If you are a dedicated Google docs user, you might find this add-on to have lots of interesting applications for how you use Google Forms. If you aren’t familiar with using Google Forms, this article is a good starting point for some of the ways Forms can be used in educational contexts.

I often use Google Forms for quick learning checks (quizzes, but ungraded), mid-course surveys, collecting peer review responses - anything that doesn’t need to be tied to the LMS gradebook. Form Publisher uses a template (that you can create or choose one of theirs and edit) to turn a form response into a Google doc (or spreadsheet or presentation), and then email copies of the document to anyone.

Setting it all up is a little complex, but once it’s created here’s the basic breakdown of how it works, using the example of a student who is providing peer review to another student’s paper.

1. The Google Form creator (the instructor) invites students to complete the form, which asks students to provide feedback on a peer’s paper.

2. Student A completes the form about Student B’s paper.

3. The Form Publisher automatically creates a Google Doc with the form results, and sends it to Student A and Student B, and saves a copy to the instructor’s Google Drive.

Here’s what the document template and completed version of a Forms entry looks like, once the whole process is set up:

In the document on the right, the fields have been filled in based on what the respondent put into the Google Form. Emails with the finished document (on the right) are sent to the peer review partners, and a copy of the document is saved to the Form creator’s Drive.

I can imagine this being helpful in other contexts, too - anything where it would be more useful to view the data (what the student inputs) by individual rather than in aggregate. Instead of having students individually email you with a midterm self-reflection, or an internship application, or a request to take Honors sections, have them complete a Form. Then you have their responses in one nicely-formatted place, and they get a copy of their responses sent to them automatically.

If you’re interested in learning how to use this add-on, the video below is an excellent step-by-step of what to do.

Past Tech Thursdays

• Two programs to reduce eyestrain

• How to Zoom in in Zoom

• Find free versions of articles

• DropBox Paper for collaboration

• Remove distracting backgrounds from photos

• “Make a copy” function in Google Drive

• Providing audio feedback

• Canvas “What-if” grades

• Working in shared Google docs

• Managing references

• Custom URLs & QR codes

• Text Expanders

• Interactive quizzing

• Screen share in Zoom

• Mailbird email program

• Using screenshots

• Voice-to-text options

• Wheel of Names (random name generator)

• Collaborating in Google Slides