Tag Archives: G Suite

Create quizzes in Google Forms with Apps Script

Posted by Tynia Yang, Software Engineer, Google Forms

Last year, we launched Quizzes in Google Forms to help teachers and students take assessment to scale. Using Quizzes, teachers are able to automate testing and give feedback to students faster by having Forms check responses against correct answers automatically. Today, we are making that functionality available to developers by extending the Google Apps Script Forms Service. With this feature, you can create and customize quizzes programmatically with Apps Script.

More specifically:

Create quizzes
Assign point values and correct answers for questions
Implement custom grading schemes

Let’s take a look at an example use case and relevant code snippet.

Creating an auto-graded question

Multiple choice, checkbox and dropdown questions can be auto-graded, which means students can see their grades immediately upon submission. This is done by designating which options are the correct answer. Teachers can also set automatic feedback to show correct or incorrect responses, as well as assign point values to the question.

Here is the Apps Script code that lets you create the quiz above:

function createGradedCheckboxQuestionWithAutofeedback() {
  // Make sure the form is a quiz.
  var form = FormApp.getActiveForm();
  form.setIsQuiz(true);

  // Make a 10 point question and set feedback on it
  var item = FormApp.getActiveForm().addCheckboxItem();
  item.setTitle("What flavors are in neapolitan ice cream?");
  item.setPoints(10);
  // chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry are the correct answers
  item.setChoices([
    item.createChoice("chocolate", true),
    item.createChoice("vanilla", true),
    item.createChoice("rum raisin", false),
    item.createChoice("strawberry", true),
    item.createChoice("mint", false)
  ]);
  // If the respondent answers correctly, they'll see this feedback when they view 
  //scores.
  var correctFeedback = FormApp.createFeedback()
      .setText("You're an ice cream expert!")
      .build();
  item.setFeedbackForCorrect(correctFeedback);
  
  // If they respond incorrectly, they'll see this feedback with helpful links to 
  //read more about ice cream.
  var incorrectFeedback = FormApp.createFeedback()
      .setText("Sorry, wrong answer")
      .addLink(
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_ice_cream",
        "Read more")
      .build();
  item.setFeedbackForIncorrect(incorrectFeedback);
}

For more details on what you can build with the Apps Script Forms Service, review the documentation, ask questions on Stack Overflow or in the G+ community, and let us know what else you’d like to see using the new public issue tracker for Apps Script.

Source: G Suite Developers Blog

Google Classroom outside the classroom

Technology makes learning possible anytime, anywhere. Learners aren’t always sitting in a classroom, and educators aren’t always lecturing at a chalkboard. That’s why last month we made Google Classroom available to users without G Suite for Education accounts. Now, using a personal Google account, teachers and learners in many different settings can teach or attend classes, manage assignments, and instantly collaborate.

Starting today, users can do more than join classes—they can create them, too. Over the past few weeks, teachers and students have been piloting this new feature, and they’ve already created some great new classes for adult education, hobbies, and after school programs. Below we’ll share some of these classes with you.

Teaching virtual adult education classes

On March 27th, educator Tony Vincent tweeted an invitation for a free online class teaching graphic design with Google Drawings. He quickly enrolled 75 enthusiastic educators across the U.S., Australia, Greece, and South Africa. Every week during the six-week class, Vincent would post instructional videos to Classroom. Then students would have a week to post their assignments, so they could get feedback from Vincent and other students. “I didn’t want to just publish a video tutorial and never see the end results. So when I heard that Google Classroom was open for personal accounts, I thought it would be a great place to gather a group of educators to learn, create, and share.”

For Vincent, topics has been a key feature. “For a self-paced class like mine,” he says, “I really like the ability to use topics to label announcements, assignments, and questions. This feature will also be incredibly useful after the class concludes as I’ll be able to navigate the archive of posted work, questions, ideas, and inspiration.”

In addition, Vincent likes how he can use Classroom to email students weekly summaries and reminders, and how he can refer students to previous posts, because every announcement, assignment, and question in Google Classroom has its own link. “I’m having a blast teaching in Google Classroom,” he says. “I’m seeing enlightening interactions and generous sharing from the educators who make up the class. I truly look forward to checking in on my class several times a day.”

Running after school programs

Linda Scarth, an elementary school STEM teacher, used Classroom in a Girl Scouts robotics club for 4th, 5th and 6th graders. Dubbed the “Turtle Scouts,” the group meets in person once a week. Scarth was inspired to use Classroom when her group found it hard to share ideas and YouTube videos over email. “We needed a better way to share and access resources and to comment and share ideas based on them. And with Classroom, the girls are able to share videos, build ideas, and work collaboratively.” she said. “It really helps facilitate the work we are doing at our meetings and between them too!”

Managing school groups

Brazilian student Khin Baptista and his classmates at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) created a school club called GameDev Society UFRGS that hosts weekly discussions on topics such as design, art, and programming.

Baptista found Classroom when he was looking for an online tool to manage his growing group. “We have limited space available for our group meetings, but we have many more people interested in our activities. Google Classroom allows us to enroll participants who can easily access all the same resources we use in our meetings and get in touch with us and other group members,” he says.

The group is now using Classroom to inform members about upcoming lectures, share resources, and manage weekly tasks and assignments. They use the comments section of posts to help members with any questions they may have. After using Classroom for just a few weeks, Baptista says, “Its usability is amazing and we like how well integrated the web and mobile versions are. It's already very promising and seems like a perfect fit for us.”

Whether you’re an adult educator like Tony Vincent, a group leader like Khin Baptista, a teacher like Linda Scarth who’s using Classroom for extracurricular activities -- or you’re using Classroom in other creative ways, we’d love to hear your stories. You can submit them through this Google Form. And, as always, if you have further questions, check out our FAQ to learn more about these changes.

Source: The Official Google Blog

Google Classroom outside the classroom

Teaching virtual adult education classes

Running after school programs

Managing school groups

Source: Education

Google Classroom outside the classroom

Teaching virtual adult education classes

Running after school programs

Managing school groups

Source: Google Cloud

Using field masks with update requests to Google APIs

Originally posted on the G Suite Developers Blog
Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, G Suite

We recently demonstrated how to use field masks to limit the amount of data that comes back via response payloads from read (GET) calls to Google APIs. Today, we'll focus on a different use case for field masks: update requests.

In this scenario, field masks serve a different, but similar purpose—they still filter, but function more like bitmasks by controlling which API fields to update. The following video walks through several examples of update field mask usage with both the Google Sheets and Slides APIs. Check it out.

In the sample JSON payload below, note the request to set the cells’ bold attribute to true (per the cell directive below), then notice that the field mask (fields) practically mirrors the request:

{
    "repeatCell": {
        "range": {
            "endRowIndex": 1
        },
        "cell": {
            "userEnteredFormat": {
                "textFormat": {
                    "bold": true
                }
            }
        },
        "fields": "userEnteredFormat/textFormat/bold",
    }
}

Now, you might think, "is that redundant?" Above, we highlighted that it takes two parts: 1) the request provides the data for the desired changes, and 2) the field mask states what should be updated, such as the userEnteredFormat/textFormat/bold attribute for all the cells in the first row. To more clearly illustrate this, let's add something else to the mask like italics so that it has both bold and italic fields:

        "fields": "userEnteredFormat/textFormat(bold,italic)"

However, while both elements are in the field mask, we've only provided the update data for bold. There's no data for italic setting specified in the request body. In this case, italics for all cells will be reset, meaning if the cells were originally italicized, those italics will be removed after this API request completes. And vice versa, if the cells were not italicized to begin with, they'll stay that way. This feature gives developers the ability to undo or reset any prior settings on affected range of cells. Check out the video for more examples and tips for using field masks for update requests.

To learn more about using field masks for partial response in API payloads, check out this video and the first post in this two-part series. For one of the most comprehensive write-ups on both (read and update) use cases, see the guide in the Google Slides API documentation. Happy field-masking!

Source: Google Developers Blog

Using field masks with update requests to Google APIs

Posted by Wesley Chun (@wescpy), Developer Advocate, G Suite

We recently demonstrated how to use field masks to limit the amount of data that comes back via response payloads from read (GET) calls to Google APIs. Today, we’ll focus on a different use case for field masks: update requests.

In this scenario, field masks serve a different, but similar purpose—they still filter, but function more like bitmasks by controlling which API fields to update. The following video walks through several examples of update field mask usage with both the Google Sheets and Slides APIs. Check it out.

In the sample JSON payload below, note the request to set the cells' bold attribute to true (per the cell directive below), then notice that the field mask (fields) practically mirrors the request:

{
    "repeatCell": {
        "range": {
            "endRowIndex": 1
        },
        "cell": {
            "userEnteredFormat": {
                "textFormat": {
                    "bold": true
                }
            }
        },
        "fields": "userEnteredFormat/textFormat/bold",
    }
}

Now, you might think, “is that redundant?” Above, we highlighted that it takes two parts: 1) the request provides the data for the desired changes, and 2) the field mask states what should be updated, such as the userEnteredFormat/textFormat/bold attribute for all the cells in the first row. To more clearly illustrate this, let’s add something else to the mask like italics. Here, the updated field mask now has both bold and italic fields:

"fields": "userEnteredFormat/textFormat(bold,italic)"

However, while both elements are in the field mask, we’ve only provided the update data for bold. There’s no data for italic setting specified in the request body. In this case, for all cells will be reset, meaning if the cells were originally italicized, those italics will be removed after this API request completes. And vice versa, if the cells were not italicized to begin with, they’ll stay that way. This feature gives developers the ability to undo or reset any prior settings on affected range of cells. Check out the video for more examples and tips for using field masks for update requests.

To learn more about using field masks for partial response in API payloads, check out this video and the first post in this two-part series. For one of the most comprehensive write-ups on both (read and update) use cases, see the guide in the Google Slides API documentation. Happy field-masking!

Source: G Suite Developers Blog

How LumApps and G Suite keep employees organized and informed

This year at Google Cloud Next, we recognized some of our partners for outstanding innovation. One of those partners, LumApps, received the “Solution Innovation of the Year” award for its corporate intranet and social platform for businesses. Deeply integrated with G Suite, LumApps houses resources like corporate news, social communities, employee directories and go-to G Suite apps—like Drive, Calendar or Gmail—all in one place. Check it out:

With LumApps, employees use single sign-on to securely access their corporate information and G Suite apps. Plus, it’s easy to search within the Google tools they use everyday because LumApps uses the power of Google Search to surface the right information when it’s needed.

“Our solution runs on Google Cloud Platform and we really appreciate the performance and scale that Google solutions offer,” says Elie Mélois, chief technology officer of LumApps. “Google's expertise in cloud service made it a clear choice for LumApps, which is why we decided to build on their reliable and powerful platform.”

Companies are using LumApps and G Suite to centralize resources and connect teams throughout their organizations. To learn more about how your business can use LumApps and G Suite, sign up for this free webinar on April 27, 2017 at 1pm ET/10am PT.