Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Grid Question Type in Google Forms

Below is an example of the Grid Question type. In that the designer puts in column headings and row categories and then radio buttons are generated. The person completing the survey is asked to select one button per row. This is the way many paper surveys are designed, so I'm glad to see there is now a simple way to do it online.

36 comments:

HAQ said...

Can you please tell me as to how i can left align the row text in this grid question???

Lanny Arvan said...

The only way I can see to do this is to put some character after the shorter lines ----- or .......... to equalize the length of each line. Personally, I don't think the right alignment is so bad.

Keiramc said...

Thanks for the example. Exactly what I was randomly googling for.

Unknown said...

Is there a way to ask a question within a Row Label in a grid? For instance, if I want a rating of 1-5 on various fiction genres, can I label a row "Historical Fiction" and then add a question below it that would read something like, "Which periods and places in history?" with a space to comment?

Lanny Arvan said...

Joanne -

I will answer this as if it were me doing the survey design. I wouldn't use the grid question type at all. I would use a pull down from a list question type for the ranking, with one question of per genre, and then I'd follow the ranking with a paragraph question type for the comments. This is on the theory that there is more way to skin a cat.

The grid question type is really for having lots of Likert style questions in a row without any comments. If you can get what you want to accomplish in some other way, there is no reason to feel compelled to use that particular question type.

Anonymous said...

hi, i want to add range of numbers(dropdown list) instead of radio buttons in the grid. will that be possible.
i have made some data validation in the spreadsheet but they are not reflected in the form.

please reply.

Lanny Arvan said...

The drop down question type is there for individual questions, but not for a grid. For a grid there are only radio buttons.

Unknown said...

Hi Lanny,

Can i do a grid on ggogle forms that select more than one button per row?

Thanks

Junior

Lanny Arvan said...

One alternative only is done with radio buttons. Multiple possible alternatives is done with check boxes. There is a separate Checkbox question type. But the grid question type only allows radio buttons.

Jamsheer said...

Hi lanny,

Is there any way i could introduce checkbox question in Grid type instead of radio buttons ?

Lanny Arvan said...

See my response above to Junior.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I wonder if there's any way to adjust the spaces between rows.
For example, I'd like to make the most left row longer than the sample you gave.

Lanny Arvan said...

If you mean the height of the rows, you can add characters (like a period or a dash)so that if there is enough text overall that row with a lot of text will be higher. It doesn't look like the same trick works for column width, however.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm using grid with 5 columns. It seem like row label and all columns has the same width. How can I make Row label to be bigger as your sample form?

Lanny Arvan said...

I made a test form with two different grid questions in it. The first has very little text in the labels. The second has more text. It demonstrates how the spacing of rows and columns changes based on how much text is included.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your response.
Actually what I want is to have width of Row label to consume half of the screen so it can show more text per line because my question is quite long and squeeze the 5 option columns.
You can see me form here http://goo.gl/forms/ZRS4DPkkGc and check on question no.10.
Is it possible to do that?

Lanny Arvan said...

I don't think you can do that exactly. What you can do, however, is to give the full answers in the instructions to the question with labels a), b), c), etc. and thnt in your grid only use the letter labels for the row. That might make it easier to read.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your suggestion, will try that.

Ramalan Hari Ini said...

Nice.....

Unknown said...

When I review my responses the grid responses are not present.

I need to be able to see the whole form in text not in the spread sheet.

Lanny Arvan said...

Elaine - I'm not sure what you're asking but it has been a while since I've used the tool and Google has made some changes with it. So I made a little demo for you, to see if we can understand what is your issue.

This the form. It has one multiple choice question and one grid, with three questions in it.

This is the worksheet with the responses.

Finally, this is the summary of responses. You should have access to each of these, for your survey.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lanny,

Is it possible for me to adjust the length of row label since my questions are quite long. I want to make my column width shorter to fit my questions in a sentences.

Lanny Arvan said...

My suggestion is to put the questions in the description and letter them: a), b), etc. Then in the grid use the letters, not the full questions.

Anonymous said...

Is there any way of 'de-selecting' a button in the grid if you have clicked it by accident? The only way I can see to remove it, is to click on another column, however, I would like to remove the selection completely.

Lanny Arvan said...

As a respondent, you can clear the form by refreshing the browser. I don't know a way to clear only one entry at a time. If the issue of respondents making mistakes is taken seriously, perhaps the implication for designer is to not make the survey too long, so clearing the form is not that big a deal.

Unknown said...

hello- i am using a grid for a long questionnaire (over 20 items). is there a way to add an extra row of labels through-out the grid so people don't have to scroll up and down to look hat each column stands for?

Lanny Arvan said...

Maybe this would be a good time to point out that I don't work for Google and am just using my experience with learning technology and some common sense to come up with an answer to these questions.

For the previous question with a long questionnaire, why not 2, 3, or 4 grids, each with the same headers. It might end up that by doing that the built in statistics that Google supplies will look different that way, but it is easy enough to export the raw answers into an Excel spreadsheet and manipulate them as you want. That export should be independent of how many grids you use.

Unknown said...

thank you very much! it's a very helpful suggestion :)

Satria Elangg said...

Nice articel..

Anonymous said...

Larry, thanks for being so helpful.

I'm using Google Forms to create quizzes, and it's generally working great. I'm setting up my first Multiple Choice Grid question, and the omission of an Answer Key for this question type is baffling.

If one is using a Form for a survey, they clearly don't need a key. But for those of us automating testing, this omission is hard to understand.

Is there a way to create an Answer Key for a Multiple Choice Grid question?

Thanks,
Ben

Lanny Arvan said...

Ben - Sorry that your comment was awaiting approval for several days. I just missed it when you submitted it and was absorbed with other things.

I believe Google Forms is not meant as a quiz tool. Further, depending on the environment you are operating in, it may be inappropriate for that purpose because individual identity information needs to be protected.

Now I will segue to something may be more than what you want, but it does illustrate what I do. I have exercises in Excel that have an auto grading feature. I assign each student an alias. When they finish the assignment (which they must get completely right) the Excel spits out a key for them to submit. I use Google forms or the students to select their alias, input the key, and enter optional comments. If you want to see how that works, try this.
https://uofi.box.com/s/evg57yjs3ai7c2wqmg3gncmvuhy7mnhp
You have to download the Excel file from there. Note that making this sort of thing, while do-able, is much more involved than making a Google form.

Anonymous said...

Your assertion that Google Forms isn’t intended to be used as a quiz tool is surprising to me because Forms' Setting menu offers a Quizzes "tab" and a Make this a quiz switch.

You’re certainly right that some of the quiz options would not be suitable for all uses. Fortunately, the privacy point isn’t an issue for my use. My colleagues and I create curriculum and quizzes for technical staff training. We have to know each person's results, and Google Forms' quiz tools make this easy.

Lanny Arvan said...

Interesting - I have not seen that before so have no experience with the tool. I'm guessing it is a relatively recent addition to Google Forms. Note that my original post was done back in 2010.

My guess about it, based on some other discussions I've had about Google Apps for Education with colleagues, is that it may be used in K-12, where they can't afford a full Learning Management System alternative.

I would have to play with it some to get a sense of how it works. It does look like, under the General Tab, that they allow for some form of login. As I said, that might be problematic in some contexts, but apparently is not in yours.

welcome to my world said...

How to adjust width of the question in google form?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmMdI8rKOWjd-yo2WwYhXISibznf_o4L7QMxCn28hON1XfcA/formResponse

welcome to my world said...

How to adjust the length of the question, so it won't surpass google form length?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmMdI8rKOWjd-yo2WwYhXISibznf_o4L7QMxCn28hON1XfcA/formResponse

Lanny Arvan said...

It's been a while since I've played with this question type. So I would post your inquiry to Blogger help, where you might get an answer more in accord to what you're looking for. But I would say that good design aims to keep things simple. So you don't want to exceed the capacity of the form. Indeed, you want to stay well within it. Long questions might confuse the respondents. And too many alternatives in the grid probably is conveying a false sense of precision.