Using Google Forms to Receive and Grade Online Lab Reports

Background

Lab reports are an essential part of the chemistry lab experience, forcing the students to reflect on the experiment, discuss errors and quality of data, and ultimately prove they understand the chemistry of the experiment. Traditionally, these lab reports are 1-3 pages, are each printed, and turned in by the student and subsequently graded by the instructor and then returned to the student.

With word processing and internet based technology, electronically submitted lab reports have potential to make things easier for students and instructors. Grading anything electronically requiring feedback, however, is difficult. A student puts one sentence in the wrong section and the instructor wants to just circle it and draw an arrow to where it should be. The Instructor might want to show how one sentence can be removed, an image needs more added to it, etc. These comments are easily done by hand with pen and hard copy, but electronically submitted pieces are much harder to work with. It can be done, but it takes much more time.

What is discussed here is a simple and easy to use method that is the same total amount of work for the instructor, and they have the same editing freedom, but the student can submit reports easier and get much more feedback from the instructor.

The Form and Report Submission

Google Forms is one of many Google online products that are free and easy to use. Google Forms allows one to make a online form whereby people submit individual answers. The instructor can ask any question they want. In this example, the students normally submit a 1 page document that has several sections (purpose, summary, procedure, results, commentary) The form that is built has one ‘answer’ for each section. Such that all responses can be publically posted, each student have a randomly assigned designation. In this example, each student has been assigned a chemical symbol.

Figure 1. A sample form as seen by the student (this is active)
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The students write their ‘report’ as one might normally, in the word processing program of their choice. Once it is all complete (proof-read, spell-checked, etc) only then do they open the form and cut/paste individual sections into the form. Once complete, they click ‘submit’ to send the completed form. Google forms allows for the user to go back and change their answers once submitted, but only if they have a google account. Such an account is free and having one should be encouraged by instructors.

If you are not familiar with Google Forms, they are very easy to learn how to use. Here is one instructional video and other exist online.

The Grading

Once the deadline for submission is past (which can be whenever, even 11pm on a Friday night) the instructor then can print one copy of the entire classes’ submissions. When a Google Form is made, the response spreadsheet is automatically generated. Figure 2 shows a portion of a sample spreadsheet.

Figure 2:  Populated response spreadsheet associated with above form (this is active)
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Before grading is done, the spreadsheet needs to be manipulated. Sorting by random student designation (chemical symbol in this case) should be done to make it easier for students to find their graded response. The submission timestamp is automatically inserted by Google, and can be used to confirm the students have turned it in on time. It can be hidden (not deleted) as should the student's name. The width of the remaining cells can also be adjusted to make best use of space (less white) and reduce the number of pieces of paper printed. Figure 3 shows how the same example looks after it has been edited.

Figure 3: Edited response spreadsheet associated with above form, now ready for grading (this is active)
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One printed copy of this edited version with all students answers included is made and is graded as normal, with all instructor comments and other markings done on the one printed copy. With all answers to a specific section in one column, spotting plagiarism is much easier.

The Feedback

Once the document has been completely graded, the entire printed document is then posted in some public place to let all students see all submissions. The students then can see what they did (as only they know their chemical symbol) but they also get to see what others did. As the instructor is grading, they can highlight individual section answers from specific students and to show what a ‘perfect’ submission for that portion is. That way, students can easily compare theirs to what was considered 100% correct.

Conclusions

With this method, the advantages are numerous, notably the timing of submission is highly variable, the students get more robust feedback being able to see submissions from other students. The additional work that needs to be done by the instructor is minimal, and the technology required is easy to use and free.

While the technology has advanced in education, the writing of lab reports remains a broad and valuable assessment of student learning. Here, we have used technology to once again make this long used method much easier and more robust in the modern age.