Essential Google Forms Add-ons for Educators

In case you were not aware, in October, Google launched add-ons for Forms.  Previously, add-ons had been incorporated in Docs and Sheets but not Forms.  If you have not used add-ons in your Google Drive, I encourage you to explore them.  Add-ons are scripts and services that allow you to perform actions within your Google Drive files that are not available with the stock Google editors.

For instance, autoCrat allows you to take information from a Google Sheet and use it to populate a Google Doc template.  Flubaroo allows you to automate grading of data in a Google Sheet.  There are many add-ons available for Docs and Sheets, but since Forms has just launched add-ons, I will review a few here.

More Information on Add-ons from CNet

Essential Add-ons for Google Forms

1.  Form Notifications

Have you ever created a Google Form for someone else and needed him/her to receive notification when a response was submitted?  Previously, Google Forms only had the ability to email the form creator when responses were submitted.  However, with Form Notifications, you can now have an email sent to any recipient notifying them of a form submission.

I love this add-on.  I have created discipline logs and other forms for people who needed a simple online form for collecting information.  But, the only way that I could get the form to send the person notification was to set the form to email me and then create a filter in my email to forward the message to the person.  Form Notifications corrects that problem!  Just add it to a Google Form and specify the email address to which you wish to send notification.

2.  g(Math)

Do you use Google Forms to give math assessments to students?  Do you hate trying to write complex mathematical equations in a manner that Google Forms will accept?  Use g(Math).  With this add-on, you can write formulas using LaTeX (there is also a built-in editor if you aren't familiar with LaTeX) and insert the questions into your form.  Like magic!

If you are interested in LaTeX, more at Wikipedia.

3.  Form Values and formRanger

Do you want to automate populating of multiple choice answer choices?  Tired of typing the same choices over and over?  Form Values or formRanger will fill the answer choices for you from a Google Sheet.  Just create a Google Sheet with a descriptive column header and then list sets of answer choices in the column.  Then, simply click to insert the choices in the column into your Google Form multiple choice question.  

4.  formLimiter

Another great add-on from New Visions.  Ever notice that Google Forms doesn't allow you to close a form after a set number of responses?  Forms will collect an unlimited number of submissions until the creator turns the form off.  This behavior can be problematic if you are surveying a large number of people but only need a set number of responses.  With formLimiter, just set the number of responses that you want to collect and the form will shut off when that limit is reached.  Easy!

Conclusion

Google Forms add-ons will no doubt keep growing.  Since this is close to the launch, there aren't too many add-ons available.  Keep checking the blog as I will update you as new ones roll out.  Also, watch my YouTube channel as I will be posting some tutorials on using the add-ons listed in this article.  Thanks!