Two of the most popular posts of 2010 dealt with creating quizzes in Google Docs. Last March in Google for Teachers I provided directions for administering a quiz online through Google Docs. Last September I shared directions for making those quizzes self-graded. The directions for creating self-graded quizzes are good, but the first time you try it you might find it to be a little frustrating  (it sure was for me the first few times I did it). Recently, I learned from Kristen Swanson about an easier way to grade quizzes administered through Google Docs.

Flubaroo is a free script that you can use grade the quizzes that you administer through Google Docs. Flubaroo provides great step-by-step directions for using the script. I’ll give an quick overview of how it works. First, create your multiple choice quiz using Forms in Google Docs (get directions here). Then take the quiz yourself and have students take the quiz (you can embed it in a webpage or direct students to the URL for your form). Now instead of trying to grade the spreadsheet cells you will insert the Flubaroo script by selecting it from the “insert” menu in your spreadsheet. Once the Flubaroo script is inserted just select it and it will grade the quiz for you.

Applications for Education
While multiple choice quizzes definitely don’t fall into the category of authentic assessment they are still used by teachers for a variety of purposes. If you use multiple choice quizzes for any purpose, giving that quiz through Google Docs and grading it with Flubaroo could save you a lot of time that you can put to better use on other tasks.

For the record, I occasionally (4-5 times a year) give them for the purpose of check-point surveys of my students’ knowledge of things like vocabulary terms.