Pamela Davis-Kean, Psychology, discusses her use of Google Forms to clarify difficult concepts in her Social Development course (Psych 353), a 150-student course for upper-level psychology majors. In class, Professor Davis-Kean used Google Forms to engage students in the actual work of developmental psychologists. For example, she had students practice coding videos of parent-child interactions, submitting their initial codes anonymously via Google Forms. Using the results from this coding activity, Professor Davis-Kean was able to engage the students in a more nuanced discussion of interrater reliability.  

Through this use of Google Forms, Professor Davis-Kean found she could interact with a larger percentage of her students and better gauge their understanding of difficult concepts in class. Having successfully incorporated Google Forms into Psych 353, Professor Davis-Kean is now exploring other ways this technology can be incorporated into her teaching, even in her smaller courses. She recommends it to others as a technology that assists students' learning rather than distracts from it, that is easy for both faculty and students to use, and that can be easily incorporated into an instructor’s existing lectures.