The Google Form Feature I’ve Waited YEARS For!

I have written for years about my love for leveraging Google Forms in my teaching. Click here, here, and here, for some examples. Although other advanced features, such as self graded quizzes, randomized multiple choice, and mail merge are powerful if used well, my favorite google form “hack” is using the edit confirmation message as a feedback tool.

Because the edit  confirmation message is shown to each individual user at the moment of form submission, the proximity of the message to the recently completed form makes the medium a powerful, bur often overlooked piece of “screen real estate” to harness. Immediate written responses, answers to quizzes, links to gather more information, amd a myriad of more applications represent some ways to leverage edit confirmation.

​Perhaps my all time favorite form of feedback is providing a link to a video with more information for the user. For example, if I created a video screencast embedded in a form with subsequent follow up questions, the edit confirmation could provide a link to a ANOTHER VIDEO, made by a different author ideally, to provide even more clarification if needed. Here is the big news: YOU CAN FREAKING EMBED YOUR VIDEO IN THE EDIT CONFIRMATION! 

Yes...yes...yes..., I know, super nerdy and not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but for those of us teaching full-time, subtle changes like this can decrease student clicks, decrease overall extraneous cognitive load, and really add to the overall efficiency of a class in a positive way that focuses more on streamlining information delivery, and presenting a fluid and utilitarian structure for students to learn.