If you’re using a spreadsheet application to record and calculate grades, then each year you have to get your list of students into the spreadsheet. You either do this manually, or you copy and paste the names from some list of your students online.

But sometimes you might want a little more information next to your students’ names in the gradebook. Perhaps you want a nickname column. Perhaps you have your students create a blog and you want a clickable URL of the blog next to their name.  Maybe you want to know how many philosophy courses each of the students have taken.

In my case, I have a single course blog. But since the blog is publicly available, I permit my students to post under an alias. For me, it would be great if I could have each students’ alias right next to their real name in my gradebook.

I just figured out a way to easily do this all with Google Forms. With Google Forms your students can compile the gradebook spreadsheet for you. It’s very simple, and it takes each student almost no time at all. Here’s how to do it.

Construct a Gradebook with Google Forms

1. Go to Google Documents and create a new spreadsheet
2. Go to “Forms” and “Create New Form”
3. Title your form, and start Adding Items.
4. Add your Questions. For example, you could have questions like: Last Name, First Name, Blog Alias,  Email Address. Save your edits and close.
5. You’ll be back in the spreadshet. Go back to the Forms menu, and select “Go To Live Form”
6. Copy the URL and share it with your students however you’d like. I’m putting a link on the course web page.

Whenever a student submits a form, all of their entries will be laid out in a single row. Each column will be titled with whatever you titled your questions. When all of your students fill out the form, the result is a spreadsheet in Google Documents that is laid out exactly the way you would want a gradebook laid out.

Screenshots:

Here’s an Example of What the Form Looks Like When the Students Click on the URL you give them. I’ve typed in some fake answers.

Here’s What the Spreadsheet looks like after I submitted the above form.

3 Responses to “Have Students Create Your Gradebook Spreadsheet with Google Forms”

1. 

   rafal

   September 6, 2009 at 6:44 pm

   Very cool, thanks!

   Reply
2. 

   Steve

   October 29, 2009 at 5:24 pm

   Oh, this is brilliant. Using android, and google to take the tedium out of paperwork. Its fantastic, and I’m going to appropriate your idea with appropriate footnotes!

   Reply
3. Grade Student Papers Using Google Forms « Jolanda-Pieta van Arnhem, MFA

   March 17, 2010 at 10:53 am

   […] not a pain at all. With a good email client like Thunderbird and an alphabetized email list (which the students can generate for you [3]) – emailing papers back to students is  one of the quickest and easiest administrative tasks […]

   Reply