One of the challenges of rolling out Google Docs for all students at our school is in managing all those docs students are turning in. Teachers are experiencing the frustration of cluttered In Boxes taken over by individual messages from students sharing their assignments. Fortunately, I have found an awesome idea from John Miller @162 that utilizes a Google Form as an Assignment Tracker. The idea is innovative, efficient and simple. Here's how John's invention works:
Teachers create a very simple Google Form to be submitted by students every time they turn in work. Information on the form should include name, class period, assignment name and a link to the Google Doc with the assignment. The information submitted by students automatically populates a spreadsheet to be used by teachers to keep track of assignments and also to launch those assignment for grading and review.
Benefits:
- Teachers only have to create one form to used for the entire year. At certain intervals, teachers can simply copy and paste the information into a new page on the same spreadsheet for the purposes of record keeping, then work from a clean sheet.
- Use of an assignment tracker requires virtually no work for teachers. The additional effort necessary for the assignment tracker to work is a very quick task that is completed by students, but the task in itself is easy and it should actually make them feel good when they turn in work. The task is similar to crossing items off of a To Do list and we all know that just feels good.
- When students submit the form, a time stamp accompanies it, so teachers can see when an assignment was turned in. This means there is no need to be diligent about checking the form on that date an assignment is due. There is a digital record.
- Since the information is in a Google Spreadsheet, it can be sorted or even exported to Excel and used as a database for generating form letters for missing assignments.
Samples:
Click the images to view the actual student form and teacher spreadsheet.
Video Tutorial | ||||
5 comments
Thanks for sharing your expertise and insights. We are continually learning from you. http://bit.ly/oriiNu Passing on the versatile blogger award.
ReplyThis Google form is awesome! It is really good in terms of saving time and seeing the development and missing assignment of students effortlessly! Thank you very much for sharing it!
ReplyGreat question Robert. This post was written 3 years ago and since then Google has changed. We now have separate student domains that are protected. To be able to view assignments through links collected in the Assignment Tracker, teacher need to have an account in the student domain. Your tech department should be able to set that up for you. Our teachers have accounts titled "ms.oxnevad@students....." Logging in to this account on a different web browser provides them with easy access to the links in the Assignment Tracker.
ReplyI am a special education teacher that wants my students to be more organized and responsible about their assignments. I was wondering, If I make an assignment tracker out of Google Forms can those assignments that they submit to me be forwarded automatically based on the classes they are for. For example if the assignment is for their second period Biology class can it be submitted to me but automatically forward that teacher?
ReplyCoach Krebs. Assignments collected through an Assignment Tracker land in a Google Spreadsheet. The spreadsheet can be shared with teachers of the class students are enrolled in. Each teacher can access the spreadsheet and if you include a field for Teacher name / class period, that spreadsheet can be sorted by teachers to display on their students.
ReplyIf you are talking about multiple choice assignments you can use Flubaroo to automatically grade and email assignment results. Use the search tool on this blog to find more information about Flubaroo.
Finally,you might want to wait to see what the Google Classroom offers in terms of managing assignments between multiple teachers. They are automating many teacher tasks and I am fairly confident they will include a way to manage assignments between teachers.,
Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog!
Susan