Google Forms can be created and used to collect data from any group of people. They can be embedded within other websites and viewed by as many others as you wish. The questions you create will be answered, and those answers you receive will be automatically added to a Google spreadsheet within your Google drive account. You will at any time be able to go in and check your results. As with any Google document, the spreadsheet will be completely compatible with Microsoft Excel and other programs, as well as sharable with other colleagues.

To create a Google Form for collecting data, follow these steps:

1. From medportal, click the "google drive" icon at the top
2. In Google Docs, click the "Create new" button
3. Select "Form" from the list.

You are now brought to your new blank form. You will notice a few options right away.

• "Require medportal.ca sign-in to view this form" - Checking this box will ensure that no one outside of medportal will be able to see your form. Useful to keep unwanted people from viewing or filling out your form.
• "Automatically collect respondent's medportal.ca username" - Checking this box will add the user's medportal email address to the appropriate row in your results spreadsheet. The user will be informed at the time of responding that their username is being logged. This is not recommended if you would like anonymous data, but highly recommended for event signups where you may need to respond to the person.

You will also want to type in the title of the form into the field that says "Untitled form" and some descriptive text with any specific instructions beneath.

Form Questions

There are 7 different types of questions you can include in your form. When creating a question, keep in mind that the actual question should go into the "Question Title" field, and any optional text that may help the user complete the question can go into the "Help Text" field. Users will not have to fill in any question unless you click "Make this a required question". When this is checked, the user will not be able to submit the form until all questions marked with this box have been completed. Checking this box is not recommended for any questions that are not absolutely mandatory.

Here is a description of the different types of questions you can use:

• Text - The simplest type of question. This will be shown to the user as a small text box in which they may type one or two simple words.
• Paragraph Text - A large text box will be shown to the user. This should be used for when the question may require more than one or two words to complete, such as comments or descriptions.
• Multiple Choice - This will allow the user to select a single option out of a list that you specify. You will notice a field with "Option 1" in it. This will be your first answer. You may add more, by clicking the greyed out options to add more. If you wish, you may add an "Other" option, allowing the user to input short text in the case that none of your answers may be applicable.
• Checkboxes - Similar to multiple choice, but the user will be able to select more than one option, including none or all of them. Use this question for a "Check all that apply" case.
• Choose from a list - This question will create a drop down box, allowing the user to select their answer from that drop down list. Useful for multiple choice type questions that may have a lot of possible answers, but still a finite list.
• Scale - Useful question to get a rating, such as "On a scale of 1 to 10", etc. You can input what each extreme means as well, such as "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree", or "On a scale of 1 to awesome".
• Grid - Used for a quick succession of similar questions, such as when you are rating different objects by different criteria. For example, you could find out how confusing or clear other sessions were to users. Fill in the columns with criteria like "Very confusing", "Confusing", "Neutral", "Clear" or "Very Clear" and for the rows, place all of the previously held sessions. Good to collect a lot of similar data, rather than creating a single question for each criterium.

After creating each question, to create another, you will want to select "Add item" and then choose the next type of question. If you pick the wrong one by mistake, you can always change the question type by selecting a different type from the "Question Type" drop-down.