In Session 14 you filled in an online form. Today you swap sides: you will build one. You will make a real survey (a set of questions you ask many people) about your class, share it with a link or a QR code, collect your classmates' answers and watch them turn into charts. Next session, in Spreadsheets 3, you will analyse those answers like a real data scientist.
Imagine your class prefect must find out every pupil's favourite local food for the end-of-term party. She walks round with a notebook: "Kofi, what do you like? Esi? Yaw?" It takes the whole of break time. Then she counts the ticks, loses her place, and counts again. Two pupils were absent, so she has to chase them tomorrow.
An online form does the same job in a smarter way. The prefect types the question once and sends one link to the class WhatsApp group. Everyone answers on their own phone or computer, whenever they are free, and the form counts the answers and draws the chart by itself. Nobody loses their place.
Every question in Google Forms has a type. You choose it from the drop-down box at the top right of the question. The right type makes the form easy to answer and easy to count.
| Question | Best question type |
|---|---|
| a) Which of these subjects do you enjoy? (They may enjoy several.) | |
| b) Which region of Ghana were you born in? (A list of 16 regions.) | |
| c) On a scale of 1 to 5, how safe is the road outside our school? | |
| d) Do you have a computer at home? (Yes / No) | |
| e) Describe the best day you ever had at school. |
1 and 100. Now nobody can type "a lot" or 5000. Add a helpful error message, like "Please type a number from 1 to 100."When people answer your survey, they trust you with information about themselves. A good survey maker keeps four promises:
For a party food survey you do not need names, phone numbers, home towns or birthdays. Every extra question is extra personal data to protect. Google already records the time of each answer, so you don't even need a date question.
Use the form description: "The Tech Club is asking about travel and food to practise data skills. Answers are anonymous and only our class will see the totals."
Share the totals ("12 of us walk"), never one person's answers. Don't screenshot or forward someone's response.
Answering is a choice. Write questions that don't push an answer: not "Don't you agree jollof is the best?" but "What is your favourite local food?"
Before you publish, click Manage → Responders → Anyone with the link (otherwise people outside the school's accounts see "You need permission"). Click Publish. Then click Published → Copy responder link (tick Shorten URL for a short forms.gle link; in older versions: Send → the link icon → Shorten URL → Copy). Paste the link into the class chat or an email. For a QR code, open the link in Chrome, click the ⋮ menu → Cast, save and share → Create QR code, and download it. Print it on a poster and people answer by pointing a phone camera at it.
Open the Responses tab. Summary shows a chart for every question; Individual shows one person's answers at a time.
Your turn: look at Figure 21.4. Write one sentence about what the chart tells you.
First, try the Survey Builder 3D lab on your session page: build a survey with different question types, share it, watch answers arrive and see them turn into a chart. Then, with your partner, build the real thing in Google Forms. Your answers will be the data for Session 22.
Our Class Survey (Pair __). Description: say who you are, why you are asking, and that answers are anonymous.500.| Check | My answer |
|---|---|
| How many question types did we use? | |
| What happened when we typed 500 for the minutes? | |
| How many responses did we collect? | |
| Our prediction: the most popular food will be… | |
| The real most popular food (from the Summary tab) | |
| Name of our linked spreadsheet |
| Statement | True | False |
|---|---|---|
| Checkboxes let people choose more than one answer. | ||
| A survey about favourite foods should ask for everyone's full name and phone number. | ||
| Response validation can stop someone typing 5000 when you asked for a number from 1 to 100. | ||
| It is fine to post a screenshot of one classmate's answers in the group chat. | ||
| "Link to Sheets" puts every response into a spreadsheet, one row per person. |
Question 1: Why is "What is your favourite local food?" better as a multiple choice question than a short answer question?
Question 2: Kwame wants to ask "Don't you think the canteen food is terrible?" Rewrite his question so it is fair.
Tick the column that reflects your confidence at the end of Session 21:
| Online Forms Competency | With Help | Almost Alone | All By Myself! |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. I can build a Google Form and choose the right question type for each question. | |||
| 2. I can use required questions, sections, response validation and settings. | |||
| 3. I can share a form by link or QR code, read the Summary charts and link it to Sheets. | |||
| 4. I can explain how to ask fairly: only what you need, say why, keep answers private. |
BIH JHS Tech Club · a Bozoma Innovation Hub programme · Your answers are saved only on this computer.