Question and Answer - Thank you Google Classroom

I am so jazzed today about the latest and really super simple upgrade to Google Classroom, the Question and Answer feature. Not unlike an assignment really, and if you have made an assignment in Google Classroom, you know that is easy. This is even better.

You'll notice instantly something has changed. We've got an add button in the lower right hand corner. This is the new interface we see on most Android apps where to start something new you press a + sign. From there, the options are Announcement, Assignment, Q&A, and Reuse Post. After you pick the Q&A, it is the same box to fill in like the Assignment, with an option to remove the due date if you want. (That option to remove the due date is new within Assignments too.) Type up your question and if you need more materials, like a video, a link to a webpage or anything else, attach it directly to the question.

When you press the Ask button there are 2 check boxes that can give you up to four options. The first check box really creates a discussion board around your question. Students are able to respond to each other. You'll see later that the grading on this is awesome if you are trying to judge participation because you can see all their entries in one place by one student. When you uncheck this box, only the teacher is seeing the answers by the students. Perfect option for when you quickly want to check for understanding. (Imagine those individual white boards only easier to read the writing.) The second box is the second chance. On the student side, they have a button that says, "edit your answer". You offer this for those questions that require a bit more thinking.

Students have space to write a long free form answer but can not add any photos or anything but text. 

Below is a real short video going over the feature as if you are asking a quick, on the fly, type question. 

Google Classroom See Form Completion

I've been using Google Forms for years and loved the ease of gathering not just multiple choice answers, but full written paragraphs. But here comes Google Classroom and it is also awesome for getting student work - including assigning a Google Form. Here is the small problem. I can't tell in Google Classroom which student has finished the Google Form. Here is my workaround.

Create your Google Form as you normally would with all the questions needed. Grab the address for the live form and place it as the link within a Google Classroom Assignment.

Copy the Google Form URL.

Add the URL as a link in a new Google Classroom Assignment. 


Now the tricky part comes in. You should click Assign but you will need a few more minutes before students should actually access the assignment. (Really only 1 minute unless you are reading these directions.)

Open the Assignment in Google Classroom. In other words, click on the title of the assignment from the stream.  You will see the list of students there and options to email and add grade point value and such. The URL of this page should end in something like  BIGSTRINGLETTERS/submissions/1.  

Copy the whole Assignment URL.



Now head back to edit the form one last time. Go to the bottom of the form where you can change the text of the confirmation page. Write some instructions to your students about Marking As Done the Google Classroom assignment and give them the link. Here is the example below.

Paste that URL in the body of the text box. It will become a hyperlink when viewed live. 



Now the form is ready to fill in and submit. Each student will need to press submit, click the link, and press Mark as Done. Viola - now you know who has completed the form.