3 Tips for Quiz Security in Google Forms

The quiz feature in Google Forms is the hot new tool in educational technology since Forms were overhauled earlier this year.  But how do you protect the integrity of your quiz when it is shared to all of your students on the web?  It’s not like handing out a paper quiz and getting them all back.  Here are 3 tips for quiz security in Google Forms listed in order from low to high security.

1.  Assign your quiz at the beginning of class.
WARNING: Students who are absent may access the quiz at home and see the questions.
Whether you are using Google Classroom, a class website, or some other means of sharing the link to your quiz, simply don’t publish it until the beginning of class on quiz day.  Sharing the link before class will allow students to use their devices to review the questions BEFORE class which of course compromises the integrity of your quiz.  If your quiz involves multiple attachments, links, or extensive instructions, create the assignment and save it as a draft.  Most websites with a posting feature allow users to save a post as a draft rather than making it public right away.  Here’s how to do it with Google Classroom.

1. In the Google Classroom “Stream”, hover over the “+” sign in the bottom-right corner and select “Create Assignment”.  Note: By sharing your Google Forms quiz through an assignment, you will see the tally of who is done and not done in the “Stream”.
   
2. Create your assignment by (1) adding a title, (2) adding instructions, and of course, (3) adding a link to your Google Forms quiz — (4) use the Google Drive icon to do this rather than the link you get when you click “SEND” on your Google Form. (5) Click the arrow next to the “ASSIGN” button and select “Save draft”.
   Note: You can choose several classes at once to save the draft to all of your classes — use the arrow next to “For Google Classroom Superusers” to select more classes.  However, when you assign the draft in any of your classes, it will send it to all of your designated classes.
   Your post is now saved as a draft.  Access it by simply clicking on “Saved posts” at the top of the “Stream”.
   Finally, click on your assignment and click “ASSIGN”.

2. Use the “Accepting responses” feature to control access to quiz questions.
WARNING: Students who are absent may access the quiz at home and see the questions.
If you are posting a link to a Google Forms quiz on a platform other than Google Classroom (such as a website), you may want to stop accepting student responses between classes.  Sure, you can simply take off the link from your website, but students in other classes could still copy the link, share it with others and review the questions before they are allowed.  Here’s how to do it.

1. Open the Google Form quiz.  The default view shows the questions on your quiz.  Go to the “RESPONSES” section at the top of the quiz.
   
2. Switch “Accepting responses” at the top-right corner to off.  Notice that you can customize the message that students will see if they try to access the quiz when it’s not accepting responses.
   This is what the students see when “Accepting responses” is off.

   

3. Create a password for your quiz.
This is the most secure way to share a Google Forms quiz, but also more complicated to setup.  Adding a password allows you to share a link to your quiz without worrying that students will access the quiz before they are allowed.  Whether they are home sick or in another class, they won’t be able to access the quiz questions without the password.  Here’s the procedure.

1. Your first few “questions” on any quiz should ask for the students’ name and perhaps their block (or period/bell) to identify the students’ responses with their names and to facilitate the organization of the response spreadsheet.  (1) Click the “+” sign and then (2) click the arrow next to “Multiple Choice” to add a “Short answer” question to your quiz.
   
2. (1) Add question text such as “Quiz Password”,  (2) Make sure the question is required, and (3) Click on the 3 vertical dots in the bottom-right corner of the question and select “Data validation”.
3. Click the arrows next to “Number” and “Greater than” and select (1) “Text” and (2) “Contains”.  Replace “Text” in gray by typing a password such as “Forms2016”.  Please make your password complex enough so that your students cannot guess it.  Finally, add a message such as “Wrong password, try again.” where it says “Custom error text”.  If you don’t do this, students WILL see the password when they start typing in the password text field.
   
   
4. Last step! With your quiz password short answer question selected, add a section to your quiz by clicking on the “=” icon.  This will add a new section to your quiz.
   Think of a new section as a new page.  Students have to click “Next” to get to the next section (flip the page).  Since the password question is required, it must be answered correctly before students can click next and go to the new section which I like to call the “Question Section”. (1) The vertical arrows collapse the answer options of the section so you can see subsequent sections more clearly.  (2) If you accidentally created a section in the wrong place, click the 3 vertical dots to duplicate, delete, or merge the sections back together.  Otherwise, you should have a section for students to enter their names, blocks (optional), and the quiz password as well as a section for your quiz questions.

You are done!  Don’t forget to change the password immediately after each class on quiz day.  

Here is what students will see.  Notice they won’t be able to click “NEXT” to view the question section unless the password is correct.