Earlier this week I answered an email from a reader who was looking for a way to collect “check-in” information from students but didn’t want to use Google Forms. Here are the alternatives to Google Forms that I suggested she try.

JotForm
JotForm is a good tool for creating fillable PDFs and online forms for things like course registration, permission slips, and course evaluations. Last week I wrote a detailed overview of JotForm. I made a video that walks you through the features of JotForm from the perspective of a form creator and a form respondent.

Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms has a lot of the features that Google Forms offers. For those who work in schools that have Microsoft 365 accounts, Microsoft Forms provides a good way to create online surveys and quizzes. My short tutorials on Microsoft Forms can be seen here.

Formative
This might not seem obvious at first glance, but Formative could be a good tool to collect quiz and survey responses from students. In Formative you can create an activity in which students answer multiple choice and short answer questions. Formative also lets you create “show your work” questions in which students are given an online whiteboard to draw and type on. Here’s my demo of how that works.