Google Forms interfaceGoogle Forms interface

« Previous step: Questionnaire


You are allowed to use a digital form such as a Google Form to create your Phase 2 questionnaire. Be careful to “self-mark” to ensure that you fulfil all the requirements of the PAT. To do this, unfortunately at this stage, you must still create a questionnaire in Microsoft Word as per the requirements and then recreate it digitally as a Google Form.

1. Creating a new Google Form

Navigate to your Google Drive. Create a new folder in your Drive. Create your Google Form using the Add button. If you do not work in Google Drive, open Google Forms in your browser (Google Chrome works best) and create a new Form. There is no need to save your work, it is auto-saved for you.

Google Forms interface
Google Forms interface

The POPI Act was fully enacted on 1 July 2021.

2. Setting up your Form

Put yourself in the shoes of a person who receives a link to your questionnaire: unlike a survey where you are present to explain the nature of your research, you will not have an opportunity to give background information to the respondent. With this in mind:

  • A sensible, descriptive title to your Form (it should include your topic), for example:
    • Grade 10: A Look Into The Future Questionnaire
    • Grade 11: Drone Technology Questionnaire
    • Grade 12: Protection of Privacy when using ICTs Questionnaire
  • Add a short introductory passage at the top of your questionnaire explaining:
    • who you are (name & school)
    • what the questionnaire is for (your Grade 12 Computer Applications Technology project)
    • what you are using their data for (statistical analysis)
    • that you will not make their private information public (you will not include their name, surname or e-mail address in your project)
  • Add fields for First Name, Surname & E-mail address, but do NOT set them as Required
  • Provide a POPIA disclaimer:
    POPIA Disclaimer: You understand and agree that all information provided, whether personal or otherwise, may be used and processed by the owner of this questionnaire. Your data will be anonymised and will only be used for the purpose of my research project.”
  1. Click and type a name for your Form (include your surname at the beginning of the name)
  2. Click and type a title for your Form (as already explained)
  3. Add a Form description and/or message to your form
  4. Click the plus icon to add a question to the Form
  5. Select a question type
  6. Click and type your question label
  7. Set the question to required if appropriate
  8. You cannot save — your work is automatically saved
  9. Click the Customise Theme button to change the colour and design elements of your form
  10. Click the Preview button to view the form & test it at any time

Re-order your questions by drag-and-dropping!
Delete a question by clicking on the little dirt bin icon!

3. Adding questions

Add questions for each piece of information you need to collect by clicking on the plus button in the floating vertical menu on the right of the screen as described in 2. Setting up your Form above.

Screenshot of general question options
  1. Drag and drop the question using the 6 dots at the top of the question block
  2. Duplicate questions using the Duplicate button
  3. Delete questions using the dirt bin icon

Each question has a number of settings much in the same way that you can apply properties to fields in Microsoft Access. See the post Google Form question types & validation for more detailed information.

You can add a Section to separate your biographical questions from your topic questions.

3.1 Questions types

If you set Name, Surname and E-mail fields as Required you might put some people off due to privacy concerns. The same goes for setting the Form to automatically collect e-mail addresses. Leave these as optional.

Use checkboxes and radio buttons (Multiple-choice) correctly. If you have a closed question that requires only one selection from the options offered, remember that a radio button control only allows one option to be selected so you do not need to add an instruction such as “Select one answer only”.

3.2 Add video

Including a video is a great addition to your form. The video could be purely informational, or you could ask a question based on the content of the video!

Annotated screenshot demonstrating adding a video to a Google Form.
Adding a video to a Google Form.
  1. On the Select Video screen
  2. Search for a video,
  3. or paste the URL of a video
  4. Select the video
  5. Click on the Select button

3.3 Validation

Pay attention to the validation settings to ensure ease of use for your respondent and the collection of valid data (similar to validation in Microsoft Access).

Test your form frequently before sending out invite links.

4. Form settings

The default settings are adequate for your purposes. Be careful of settings such as “Collect emails” and “Limit to 1 response” as these require the respondent to supply an email address which means they will be unable to remain anonymous if they wish.

4.1 General

General settings tab for a Google Form
General settings tab for a Google Form
  1. Activate the General settings tab
  2. Do not select Collect emails as this forces respondents to provide an e-mail address
  3. Do not Restrict users in Wittedrift High School and its trusted organisations as this will prevent anyone who is not signed in with a Wittedrift School account from accessing your Form
  4. Do not activate Limit to 1 response as this requires the respondent to provide an e-mail address
  5. Do not activate Edit after submit
  6. Do not activate See summary charts and text responses

4.2 Presentation

Presentation settings tab for a Google Form
Presentation settings tab for a Google Form
  1. Activate the Presentation tab
  2. Activate the Show progress bar option if your Form has multiple sections so that the Progress bar shows while the Respondent is completing the questionnaire (this is completely optional).
  3. Do not activate the Shuffle the question order
  4. Do not activate the Do not Show link to submit another response options
  5. Add a custom message at the Confirmation message to thank the respondent upon completion of the Form

Do not activate any of the settings on the Quizzes tab.

5. Fulfilling the PAT requirements

Invite your Educator to complete the Google Form by clicking the Send button and entering their e-mail address. Also, add your Educator to the Google Form as a collaborator. That way they have access to the Form to assist you and of course mark the finished work

Save (“print”) your finished Google Form as a PDF as evidence of your work: in Chrome use the CTRL + P keyboard combination to print the Form to a PDF. Export the Google Form results to a Google Sheet and share that Sheet with your Educator.

6. Distributing your Questionnaire

Click the Settings button to open the Send options panel (the panel has three tabs: Email, Link, Embed HTML):

Send options for a Google FormLink sending options for a Google Form
  1. Do not select the Collect emails option
  2. On the Email tab
  3. Add one or more email addresses in the To field
  4. Add a meaningful Subject for the subject field of the e-mail
  5. Add a short Message to appear in the e-mail body (optional)
  6. Do not use the option Include form in email
  7. Add your teacher as a collaborator
  8. Use the Facebook & Twitter options if you have accounts
  9. Click the Send button to send the e-mail(s)
  10. Use the Shorten URL option if you would like to
  11. Click the Copy button to copy the link to your Form to the Clipboard

7. Viewing responses

Click on the Responses tab of your Form. There are several options for viewing the responses you have received. You can view responses at any time.

Avoid problems by testing your Form repeatedly before sending it out!

8. Changing questions

So you have been watching those responses rolling in: MAGIC! But you asked the question: “What are your favourite three flavours of ice cream?” (you even offered the option for the respondent to add their own option) and you keep seeing people adding the same flavour that you don’t have in your options. You missed one.

No problem: add that flavour to your options now!

What you CAN’T do is make changes like adding or removing an entire question (or even just removing an option for a question) or any other major changes.

Unsure? Drop me a line!

Don’t delete your test data.

9. Downloading your data

If at any stage during the process of creating your Google Form, you thought it was not worth the effort, this step is for you! Once you have collected enough responses:

  1. Click on the Responses tab of your Form.
  2. Click on the button to change the Form from “Accepting responses” to “Not accepting responses”.
  3. Click on the green Create spreadsheet button.
  4. Use the default option Create a new spreadsheet
  5. Click on the Create button

A Google Sheet populated with all your data will open in a new tab. To download the Google Sheet data:

  1. Select the File menu
  2. Select the Download option
  3. Select the Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) option

Save the workbook in your Phase 2 folder. Name it something meaningful (for example: add the word “downloaded” to the existing name.

Check out the amazing JotForm Form Builder for an alternative to Google Forms!


Next step: Excel data capture »

By MisterFoxOnline

Mister Fox AKA @MisterFoxOnline is an ICT, IT and CAT Teacher who has just finished training as a Young Engineers instructor. He has a passion for technology and loves to find solutions to problems using the skills he has learned in the course of his IT career.

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