Statistical & Qualitative Data Analysis Software: About Google Forms

What is Google Forms?

Google Forms is a tool within Google Drive for creating online survey forms. It is not as feature-rich as Qualtrics, but it does support basic data validation, basic skip logic, and a range of question types. Your Kent State Google Drive account adds several useful options to your Google Forms, including the ability to require survey-takers to be logged into their Kent State Google accounts. As of September 2014, it is also possible to customize some aspects of your survey's appearance, especially colors and fonts.

Why use Google Forms?

• Easy to learn.
• Can access your form or your data from any computer connected to the internet.
• Survey responses are automatically recorded in a Google Spreadsheet, and can be downloaded in several common formats (including *.xlsx, *.ods, and *.csv).
• Can require users to be logged into their Kent State accounts in order to view or complete the form - useful for instructors.

Who can use Google Forms?

Any Google user can create Google Forms, but your Kent State University account with Google has some additional features and options that non-university accounts do not have.

As of 2016, Kent State University Communications & Marketing recommends that all web forms should be created using Qualtrics instead of Google Forms. Information about Kent State Qualtrics accounts can be found on the About Qualtrics page.

To log into your Kent State Google Drive account:

1. Go to drive.google.com.
2. Enter your full Kent State email address, but not your password, and click Sign In.
3. You will be taken to the Kent State single-signon page. Here, login with your FlashLine user name and password. Click Sign In.
4. You are now logged in to your Kent State Google Drive.