Pre-Populating a Google Form in 4 easy steps

One of my favorite tools is Google Forms.  They work great on almost any browser and on almost any tablet device.  Using Google Forms with students allows me to give quizzes, collect information, or use as a digital inbox.

Sometimes I need to have specific information put into the form.  For example, if I am using a Google Form as my warm-up and I used the same form each day I may want to ask the students to write the question before they answer it.

Previously I had blogged on how to create pre-filled URL’s for a Google Form under the Legacy Forms.  This method no longer works with the new Forms, so here is a new tutorial.

Click Here for a Sample Warm-Up Form

There are 2 problems with having students type in information.
1) It is tedious to fill out several fields, especially if it is information you have to write a lot.
2) Students will not enter in the information exactly the same way which causes problems for sorting, organizing and using pivot tables.

Google Forms (not the legacy Forms, the new ones), allows for you to create a pre-filled URL so that when students click on the link it automatically fills in information.

Click Here for the sample of a Pre-Filled Google Form.

Steps

1. In the form edit view, go to the responses tab and choose “Get Pre-Filled URL”
2. You are taken to what looks like the live form, but is actually how you will submit the default answers.  For the fields that you want default answers to appear type those default answers into the field.
3. At the bottom click the “submit” button.  You are not submitting the form, but submitting your default answers.
4. You will be given a unique URL that when shared with students will pre-slug in the information to the form.

Tips

• Go to the edit screen of the form daily to create a new Pre-Filled URL in order to use the same form and spreadsheet daily, but have different default information submitted.
• Use http://goo.gl to obtain a short URL and QR code to help students to quickly get to your customized Google Form.
• Create a customized URL for each student that they can bookmark on their computers or tablet devices.  If they are going to fill in the same form repeatedly (for a digital homework inbox perhaps), create a pre-filled URL that has their name, email and student ID so the student only needs to input their assignment link.