— Google Forms, GSuite, Technology —

Response Validation with Google Forms

January 6, 2018

While Google Slides is my most used GSuite app, Google Forms is a close second.  I have used Google Forms in a variety of ways over the years, such as:

  • Creating assignments and assessments for students.
  • Creating a system for peer to peer feedback with immediate results.
  • Creating self-assessments for educators.
  • Creating and delivering surveys to students and staff members.
  • And more…!

I could go on and on about all of the ways that I have used Google Forms over the years but that is probably best for another blog post.  In this post, I want to share with you one of my favorite features in Google Forms: Response Validation.  Response validation is a way that you can create rules for users to follow as they fill out your Google Form.  For example, if you want students to be required to enter a particular answer before they can move on to the next page, then you can create a rule that only allows that specific answer.

Interested in learning more?  Watch this video below!

Want to go into greater detail?  Visit this tutorial: Response Validation in Google Forms Details

How Can I Use This in the Classroom?

As always, I want to bring the focus back to pedagogy and how this can be used in the classroom to support student learning.  Below I have listed five ways that you can use response validation in your classroom:

1.) BreakoutEDU Digital Games

More than anything else, I have used response validation to create “locks” for BreakoutEDU Digital games.  In these games, students have to break a series of codes and input them into the form to unlock it.  Click HERE for an example!

2.) Lesson Practice, Homework, and Assessments

In a similar way to the BreakoutEDU, you could also create lesson practice, homework, or assessments where the students have to input the correct answer before moving onto the next page or submitting the form.

3.) Password for Assessments

If you use Google Forms for assessments, it can be really helpful to create a lock on the assessments that the students and/or teachers have to input before entering the assessment.  In my classroom, I have always allowed my students to retake assessments in different versions.  By having a lock on the assessments, I can ensure that the students are only taking the assessments that they should be taking.

4.) Require Specific Character Length for Responses

Have you ever assigned students a short response answer but wanted to give them a minimum character length?  You can do that with Google Forms!  This is a great way to get longer responses for students on short response or paragraph answers.

5.) Specify Number of Correct Answers.

In the assessments I give my students, I regularly have questions that have checkbox answers with multiple correct answers.  One thing that can be misleading for students is whether they need to check 2, 3, 4, etc boxes.  With this feature, you can specify the number of correct answers to add more clarity to the question.

Have you used the response validation in your classroom?  If so, in what ways have you used it to support student learning?  Share your comments below!

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34 thoughts on “Response Validation with Google Forms”

  3. Question… let’s say I want to use a ‘hint’ in a breakout game using Google forms. Is there a way to count incorrect answers and then give a hint?

  4. Hi,

    I am very new to Google Form. My colleagues set questions for students and there came a lot of frustrations. When students typed extra spacing or missing spacing before or after a comma or hyphen. How can I set the answers to make sure students get a positive response?
    I really appreciate any help in this. 🙂 Thank you.

    1. Great question! So, I mostly used Google Forms for very specific answers (ex: x=1, 50, -2, x^2y^2, etc.) I would add multiple options to be correct through Flubaroo but they had to be precise. However, I always gave them multiple opportunities to submit the form for a higher score.

  5. Hi, Meagan – loved your video. Very helpful, so THANK YOU! Can you tell me a little more about how to add mupltiple options through Flubaroo?

    1. Hi Sheila! You’re welcome! You can add multiple options in Flubaroo by writing the answer then adding %or then adding the next answer and so on.

  6. I am having trouble with short answer text. Have you had this work before? I was using a word not a number. It seems to be letting me submit an incorrect answer still.

  7. Hi! I am having trouble getting this to work with regular short answer text. I want a specific word to be the correct answer. I used the validation and it seems to not be working. It lets me move on with the wrong answer.
    Have you tried with a word and not number?

  8. I am brand new to google forms. I am making a multiple choice quiz. I want kids who select an incorrect response on an item to get immediate feedback. So far, the only feedback I have been able to give is once every answer has been submitted.

    1. The only way you could do this is with response validation. Check out the video on how to set this up in the post above.

  9. Hi Meagan, I’ve only just started using Google Quiz forms and I am having an issue with one student who, however they did it, managed to sign in with a Hotmail email. All their multiple choice answers are being recorded but any short answers they have to type in are being marked incorrect even though the answers match the one I entered when creating the question. I got them to use a Gmail email and this still seems to be happening. I did ask them to log out and come back in. Do they need to sign out entirely from the Google platform and then sign back in ti their actual Google account. Very confused here :o(

    1. Hello! Check and see if they are writing it slightly different than how you entered it. It is case sensitive, so I usually put in multiple correct answers.

      1. Yes, had a look and the answer is identical. To one of mine entered. Every other student I’ve compared has my entered answer the only difference is this one student was using hotmail email. But only multiple choice answers were getting marked correct. However, even now she has switched to a Gmail address her answers are still coming up as incorrect. I’m new using this but completely stumped.

        1. That is so strange! It’s hard for me to know without looking at it. Sometimes I can find some great information in the Google forums too!

  10. Is there a way to have Google Forms collect all attempts using response validation. I want to know how many times a person tries to answer the question.

  11. Hi Meagan
    I have no idea if you’ll be able to help me, but you seem a lot more seasoned in using Google Forms.

    I’ve set up a quiz for my kids where they must write a number sentence as answer for a word problem: 11 – 6 = 5. The quiz is however, sensitive to spaces between characters when marking the answers and providing the score.

    So I need to use Regular Expression > Matches > Pattern: ^\s*11\s*\-\s*5\s*\=\s*6\s*$ to ensure that no amount of tabs or spaces between the correct characters will give a wrong answer. This however still doesn’t work. It applies the regular expression when the student fills out the quiz, but it doesn’t apply the regular expression to the marking of the answer. Any way around that?

    Alternatively I would just have to make the pop up say: “Please don’t use any spaces between characters.”

    Thanks in advance.

    1. If you are using response validation, then you can only have one option and it has to be exact. This is where I would put in the “hint” box something like, “Don’t use spaces” in your answer.

      Does this help?

  14. Every other student I’ve compared has my entered answer the only difference is this one student was using hotmail email. But only multiple choice answers were getting marked correct. However, even now she has switched to a Gmail address her answers are still coming up as incorrect. I’m new using this but completely stumped.
    thanks

  15. My students figured out how to right click on the page and find out all the answers to my questions. They shared it with their classmates so I can no longer use the response validation piece in Google Forms for quizzes or assignments. I used to use them for Breakouts and Escape Rooms, but I a no longer can:(

    1. Oh no! Yes, that is absolutely possible if they look at the code. I’ve had students do the same. However, and I am not sure if this is a district setting, they aren’t able to use that feature anymore. I’m not sure why though.

  16. Hi, is there a way to use response validation to make sure students include certain key words in their responses but not require a specific response?

    1. Yes! You just have to make sure you select the option for “text contains” and as long as that word is present, then you should be good to go.

  17. Hello All,
    Is there any option to add options for Bulleted answers or numbered answers in google form.
    Example: I want to get the skill set of a person and i want that answers on numbered or bulleted points. Do we have any feature which allows such type of format or any addons.

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