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Covid-19: Google Forms – a great resource for online teaching during coronavirus

Covid-19 has caused so many schools and universities to offer more online classes that teachers need to find resources that will help them with the time and effort required for online teaching. Google Forms is a free resource well known for its use in surveys, but it’s also a very useful tool if you teach online classes.

Quizzes and tests

You can use Google Forms to create quizzes and tests. It is especially useful if you want to create a multiple choice test. I always wanted a way to create a multiple choice test that would let me give the correct answer and explain to the student why that answer is correct. Google Forms allows you to do that. You can also use Google Forms to set tests requiring short answers and for quizzes in which the student can fill in answers in blank spaces.

You can create a test on Google Forms by choosing the Blank Quiz template under the Education section, or you could click on Settings and choose Quizzes.

If you choose to create a multiple choice quiz you type in your question and also type in the options which are possible answers to the question. Click on “Answer key” and that will let you identify which option is the answer to the question.

Sample of question and options on Google forms quiz

Self- grading and feedback

With Google Forms you can choose settings that allow you to let students know if their answer is correct or not. When you include the answer key students can then grade their own tests or if you wish you can let them do peer grading. When you choose to include feedback then the student can see the explanation for the correct answer. If a student chooses a wrong option then he can see why he is wrong. These features in Google Forms help both students and teachers.

In Google Forms, Settings for quizzes is the place where you will choose the features that allow you to show the correct answer and to provide feedback to explain the answer. Click on the Settings icon then choose Quizzes. Turn on the button for Make this a quiz.

When you make the form a quiz you have the feature that tells the students how many points or marks you are giving for a correct answer. You can change the points according to the question as you find appropriate. The same button allows the student to grade her own work. If you want students to see which of their answers were incorrect check the box for Missed questions. You can let students see which answer was correct by ticking the box for Correct answers.

Some other helpful features in Google Forms allow you to grade manually. This you can use if you are not giving a multiple choice quiz and instead you are asking students to give answers in short sentences or short paragraphs. You can also use manual review if you do not want students telling the correct answers to other students who are waiting to submit their quiz.

Evaluate your teaching

Google Forms has a feature that will give you instant feedback and a summary of how ech student performed. It gives you the statistics to show how the students performed for each question. This lets you see if all the students answered Question 1 correctly or if more than half the students missed that answer. This tells you what areas of the quiz the students found difficult. If a significant number of students were missing the answers to questions on a particular topic then you can use that feedback to evaluate your success in teaching that topic. According to the statistics you can make a decision to re-teach the topic or teach it differently. The information collected by Google Forms helps you assess your own teaching.

Google Forms will also allow you to focus on the performance of individual students. You can see if Student B answered all the spelling questions correctly but missed the answers to most of the questions on subject and verb agreement. That helps you to identify the problem areas of individual students and take action to help such students improve.

If you had to summarise manually these statistics that Google Form provides, you would find it very time-consuming and you may not note or record performances in such detail especially if you have large classes.

When you are teaching classes online you may not have the opportunity to read student’s body language and other cues that would tell you whether or not they are understanding what you are teaching. This feedback and summary in Google Forms is very helpful if you teach courses online.

Easy to distribute and submit.

When you are ready to send out the quiz, click send and the easiest method is to send by email to each student. You can also copy the link that is given when you choose ‘link’ and post it on your website.

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How Covid-19 has changed our vocabulary

Outbreak, epidemic or pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered our vocabulary introducing us to new words and new combinations of words or old words with new significance. Previously the average person has not used the word pandemic with such frequency as they do now. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined a pandemic as “a worldwide spread of a new disease.”  COVID-19 fits that definition. Prior to 2020 the most recent pandemic was the H1N1 influenza or swine flu pandemic. More often we use the terms outbreak or sometimes epidemic to describe unusual occurrences of a disease. The WHO defines an epidemic as “the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behaviour, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy.” This suggests that there can be a measles epidemic but not a measles pandemic, as measles is not a new disease. We are learning to be clear about the use of these related terms to define infectious diseases. The discussion and information around COVID-19 has indeed taught us to differentiate between these terms and to refrain from using them loosely.

Social and Physical Distancing

Some words like social distance have expanded definitions now. According to Merriam-Webster social distance originally meant the “acceptance or rejection of social interaction between individuals and especially those belonging to different social groups, (such as those based on race, ethnicity, class or gender.) Now it says that social distancing means “staying away or keeping a physical distance from other persons who are not in your household in order to avoid contracting a contagious disease.” The rule is that you should keep a physical distance of 2 metres or 6 feet from other persons when you are in public. So social distancing is a form of physical distancing. Sometimes it is voluntary and very often it is mandatory. You stay away from sports events either because they are not allowed to take place or if they do then no spectators are allowed at the venues. You form a queue at the supermarket and you stay some distance from the person in front of you and the person behind you also keeps a physical distance.

Some of the words and expressions that have recently come into the vocabulary of the average person were already in use in the industrial and construction industry and in the medical field. One such term is personal protective equipment now often referred to as PPE. Personal protective equipment is a workplace health and safety requirement. The familiar hard hats, heavy boots and gloves of construction workers are examples of PPE appropriate to that workplace. We see that airport ramp workers wear earmuffs to protect their hearing from loud noises and welders use protective helmets and shields and goggles. During this pandemic we hear the term PPE being used exclusively to refer to the protective gear needed for health workers to prevent the spread of infection. This can include aprons, masks, gowns, face shields, even head and foot covering. The pandemic has brought a term specific to the workplace right into the general conversation. PPE is often discussed in the media and we too raise questions and follow the discussion on the adequacy and availability of PPE for health workers.

Separation during COVID-19

Many of the words we use in relation to this new disease are words of separation such as quarantine, self-isolation, social distancing and physical distancing. Separation is an overwhelming aspect of the pandemic. It is a major measure for the prevention of the spread of the disease. Individuals are required to stay apart in locations and situations where they would normally have been congregating in groups or in crowds. Quarantine is another form of separation if you have come into contact with someone who tested positive for the virus or you have been exposed to the disease in any way or even if you have visited a country that has a high number of cases. You would have to remain apart from others for a period of 14 days. That gives enough time to see whether you develop the disease. Separation becomes more extreme if you contract the disease. Then you are isolated. Isolation is a strong word. While social distancing means that you can be among others but you allow several feet to separate you from the next person. Isolation means that you have to be alone with no physical contact with others except with health personnel. Self-isolation meanwhile is a strange term that is often used to refer to an individual’s voluntary decision to stay away from others because he thinks that he has been exposed to the disease.

Most of these forms of separation resulting from COVID-19 are on an individual basis. However an entire country can separate itself from other countries through a total lockdown when it closes its borders to travel. A lockdown could also be regional when travel into and out of a city is restricted. In January, China placed the city of Wuhan, which had the first cases of the virus, under lockdown. The residents of the city were restricted to their homes and they were not allowed to leave the city. This lasted until early April. Other countries have also introduced regulations that restrict persons to their houses for a period of time through curfews, in order to reduce contact between individuals. All lockdowns are aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Lockdown is a self-explanatory word.

Using storm words to describe COVID-19

The words to describe increases in cases of COVID-19 are borrowed from storm terminology. A sudden significant increase in cases is a surge. That term reminds one of the storm surge that accompanies a hurricane – dangerous and often deadly. We have all been warned to expect a second wave of infections. The first series of infections, which is the current situation, is the first wave and after we have controlled this, another series of infections are expected in a second wave. The connotations are not a picture of a gentle swell but rather that of a tsunami that will appear after the effects of the disease have been controlled and the number of cases substantially reduced. After the ground stops shaking here comes the wave.

COVID-19 changes lives and changes vocabulary

At this time, separation whether individually, regionally or nationally is the one measure that has helped to stop transmission of the COVID-19 infection. When the number of infected cases decreases, governments ease the restrictions. Some businesses are allowed to operate as long as social distancing is practised. More travel even outside of the country is permitted. Unfortunately most efforts to ease restrictions are followed by an increase in new cases of infection. A reliable and effective treatment for the COVID-19 virus infection is yet to be found.

Meanwhile our epidemiological education increases and our vocabulary accepts the new words and phrases or new uses of familiar words resulting from our efforts to deal with COVID-19. The disease has even affected our language.