A Google Form gives you a keen way to get together responses from people. From a i-question form to a long multi-section quiz, a Google Form eliminates the demand to decipher and tally responses on sheets of paper. A course also serves every bit an elegant culling to asking a group of people questions in email.

Google Forms tin compile all the standard survey fields–such equally text, multiple choice questions, dropdowns, linear scales, and grids–to serve all sorts of data collection needs. They tin can exist used to collect contact information on a website, get together inventory data, collect votes, obtain feedback, evaluate a product or service, exam knowledge with a quiz, or supersede a basic customer intake form.

And Google Forms also handles videos, photos, and files. You can include photos and/or YouTube videos in your class, and y'all can allow people to upload files in their responses. You can apply these capabilities to bear witness people a video, and so ask for a response, or to ask people to vote for dissimilar images. A conference organizer, for example, could ask people to submit a photo or logo for use in a brochure, and enquire people to upload the file. (You can limit both the types and sizes of file uploads allowed in your course.)

Here are 4 steps to assist you lot get started with Google Forms.

ane. Create your questions

Starting time, create your questions. For a brusque class, such as a web contact form that gathers an e-mail accost, proper name, and bulletin, you lot tin likely draft your questions directly in a Google Form. But for longer surveys or quizzes, I adopt to draft my questions in a Google Medico first. I find this helps me focus on the wording of each question.

Ask simply the questions to which you truly need a response. What action will you take based on the responses? Do you really need to know the telephone number, email address, and mailing address for every respondent? Can you omit questions? For case, when you view responses in a Google Sheet, you might notice that the outset column contains the engagement and time that each response was submitted–and so y'all can omit fields you might have used on a paper form to runway the date and/or fourth dimension that a grade was completed.

2. Create your form

Next, become to https://forms.google.com in a desktop browser and select the button the lower right to create a new form. Add a championship and description for your class, so enter your questions. Add new questions with the + to the right of your form. And add text, images, videos, or section breaks, as you wish. Alter the question type by choosing an alternative from the dropdown list in the upper right of each question area.

To plough your grade into a quiz, choose the sprocket in the upper right (to the left of the Send button), select the "Quizzes" tab, and move the slider to "Brand this a quiz." Review the grade release options, and change what respondents tin see here. So salvage your settings.

You tin can configure your class and then that non every person has to respond every question: Forms lets you skip a section of questions, based on a person'southward response to a multiple choice or dropdown question. For example, if a person responds "No" to "Do y'all use a laptop?," you lot can configure Forms to skip to the next section of questions. To do this, when on a multiple choice or dropdown question, choose the three vertical dots (to the right of the 'required' slider), then choose "Go to section based on reply," then specify the serial of questions to ask next for each respond.

If yous intend for your class to be filled out only by other people in your G Suite arrangement, choose the sprocket (to the left of "Send" in the upper right), so bank check the box to "Restrict to <your organization> users."

3. Ship your course

When you're ready to accept responses, select the "Send" button in the upper right. So choose from one of vi ways to share your form: Email, a link, an embed code (for display on a web page), Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.

4. Receive and review responses

You lot tin review responses at least iii different ways. On the "Responses" tab in the course, you can view either a summary of responses or see each individual response. Or, select the Google Canvas icon to view data in rows and columns–with timestamps–in spreadsheet format.

You may choose to receive an electronic mail when you receive a response. On the Responses page, select the three vertical dots (to the right of the Google Sheets icon), then select the "Get e-mail notifications for new responses" to enable email notifications. This can exist peculiarly helpful when you embed a Google Course as a contact form on a website, for example. (Note there are two other ways to admission your class information on this aforementioned menu: Either download it every bit a csv file or print information technology.)

And, that'southward information technology. The adjacent fourth dimension you create–or change–a printed form, have a few actress minutes to plough it into a Google Form.

Your thoughts?

How do you employ Google Forms at your organization? What data gathering processes have you replaced with Google Forms? Have you used video, images, or file uploads in your Forms? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter (@awolber).