Google Workspace For Education
Tips & Tricks

Click Below In Order To Be Taken To Specific Online Resources

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URL Tricks for Google Docs, Drawings, Sheets & Slides

G Suite apps include Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings. These apps can provide shareable links. Shareable links can be used for publishing a document or for collaboratively editing a document.

Documents are only accessible by you (the owner) unless you turn link sharing on. One way to turn on link sharing is by clicking the Share button in an open document. Then you'll see an option to Get shareable link. Clicking that option turns link sharing on and copies the link to your clipboard. The link is set to Anyone with the link can view. You can change this to Anyone with the link can comment or edit.

Once you have the shareable link copied, you can paste it into a document, webpage, link shortener, Twitter, Facebook, etc. By replacing /edit in the URL, you can do some pretty nifty tricks. You can transform a shareable link into a Preview, Copy, Template, or PDF link.

Below are glanceable graphics for each kind of link. Click here to learn more about each URL Trick (for detailed descriptions and tips). 

BONUS TIPS

1. Come across someone else's tricked out link? You can reverse engineer a Preview, Make a Copy, Template, or PDF link to see the document in the regular way by replacing /preview, /copy, /template/preview, /export?format=pdf, or /export/pdf with /edit (Please note that this trick does not work with Published Links). 

2. Force your Google Slide Deck to be viewed in Presentation Mode by replacing /edit with /present.
       - Example:  Original link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1234567890/edit?usp=sharing
                             Update to:    https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1234567890/present
   *** Please note that this is not a real link to a slide deck. This is just an example. ***

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Google Docs

Type With Your Voice: 

You can type and edit by speaking in Google Docs or in Google Slides speaker notes. Tip: This feature is only available in Chrome browsers.

1st:  Open a document in Google Docs with a Chrome browser.

2nd:  Click Tools and then Voice typing. A microphone box appears.

3rd:  When you're ready to speak, click the microphone. ***Speak clearly, at a normal volume and pace (see below for more information on using punctuation).***

4th:  When you're done, click the microphone again. If successful, the words should then appear. 

Click here to learn how to use different voice commands, and correct voice typing mistakes.

Student Handout

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Google Forms

How To Give Instant Feedback (written by Mesha Daniel @TCEA; link to article here)

Now, instant feedback is not giving back a quiz or assignment on Monday that was turned in Friday afternoon. There were probably over 100 events that happened to that student on Saturday, and the same for Sunday. When Monday rolls around, they receive their work back with all of your wonderful comments on it, and those comments mean hardly anything to them because it was so long ago. We need to give instant feedback, and Google Forms can help us. Take a look at an example quiz, and let’s go through the steps for creating your own.

1. Open your Google Drive and create a Google Form.

First of all, you need to have a new Google Form opened up and ready to go. So, how do you start your day? You drive to work. Open up your Google Drive, click “New” in the top left, and scroll down to choose “Google Forms” from the list.

2. Name your form and make it a quiz.

Now, you have a brand new Google Form open, and you’re ready to make something awesome! After you name your form, go up to the “Settings” tab.

You are going to want to make this Google Form a quiz, so turn on the setting, “Make this a quiz.”

3. Add questions to your quiz.

Let’s add the questions to our quiz, and determine what type of feedback we will provide for the answers the students choose. First, click on the “Questions” tab.

Now, we will start with the first question. I recommend that questions 1 and 2 ask for the first name and last name of your students. Notice that Google automatically chooses the short answer question type, but you will need to click on the “Answer key” to make a couple of changes.

Change the point value to zero on both of the name questions. You don’t want these marked incorrect!

Now you’re ready to add your questions. Remember, to add a new question, just click the plus sign in the floating menu on the right.

4. Mark the correct answer and add point values for each question.

After you’ve added all your question and answer choices, you’re ready to choose the correct answer for each question and add point values. To choose the correct answer, click on “Answer key” in the bottom left of the question box.

Add your point value, and choose the correct answer.

5. Add feedback for incorrect and correct answers.

Once you’ve selected the correct answer and added the points value, click the “Add answer feedback” button in the lower left corner. A pop-up window will appear, asking for you to add feedback for incorrect answers, correct answers, or both. You can type whatever you would like in the feedback window.

6. Add resources to your feedback!

But, did you notice? You can also add links and videos to your feedback as well! Maybe you would like students to review a video on your concept since they missed the question, or you want to give kudos when students get questions correct. The choice is yours! Plus, you can add as many links or videos as you like. Feedback is powerful, so use it wisely with your students!

Giving Feedback Through Branching Answers

Another great way you can add feedback is by branching answers. This means that in Google Forms, you can set up sections with feedback for each question and send students to a specific section based on their answers.

Let’s look at the question from earlier. If I click on the three dots in the lower right corner of the question, there is an option to “Go to section based on answer.”

In order to use this feature, you’ll need to add sections to your quiz – a correct answer section and an incorrect section for each question.

To add sections to your form, in the form menu on the right side of the page, click on the icon that looks like an equal sign.

I named the section “Correct Answer,” and right below, I can add my feedback to students. I click the equal sign again, and name that new section “Incorrect Answer.” And I can add links. Amazing!

Now that I have two sections in my Google Form with my feedback added based on the correct or incorrect answer to the question, I can go back to my question and map it. Click on the 3 dots in the lower right corner of the question, and choose “Go to section based on answer.”

Click on the disclosure arrow to the right of “Continue to next section” to choose where the student will go next based on the answer choice.

If the student got the answer correct, you will send them to the “Correct Answer” section. If they got the answer incorrect, you would send them to the “Incorrect Answer” section for feedback.

Google Forms is so much more than just a way to make a survey. Take advantage of all of the wonderful tools that Google Forms has to offer you and your students – like giving immediate feedback to impact learning. 

Make an Escape (Breakout) Room with Google Forms

Click here to learn how to use Google Forms in order to make an escape room. 

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Google Sheets

Conditional Formatting Custom Formulas (written by Miguel Guhlin @TCEA; link to article here): 

• Do you ever wish the color of your spreadsheet rows would change color to match the content? If yes, you may enjoy learning about conditional formatting. Conditional formatting is a wonderful feature in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Let's explore how to use custom formulas that can change the color of cells and rows of data based on the data in a cell.

Meet the Problem

“Oh, I use conditional formatting all the time. But I want to change the colors of the first column when the data in the last column changes. How could I do that?”

It might help to see what this problem looks like. Most spreadsheet users know you can use conditional formatting.

Consider this spreadsheet, which represents a list of workshops and the number of registrants for each course:

Conditional formatting could allow me to change the colors. For example, I could add conditional formatting rules for different conditions. Let’s take a look at examples.

1) Create A Sliding Color Scale

These settings would adjust the colors of the cells where values appear. For example, the minimum number “0” would be red. The midpoint (“15”) would be yellow, and the maxpoint (“30”) would be green. You can see what that looks like below, as well as take a look at the color scale:

2) Apply Single Colors

This is the most often used conditional formatting solution. In this case, you can use a variety of format rules. These format rules say, “Format cells if…” certain conditions are met. Here is the list of most conditions you can apply:

I often use these when getting data from a Google Form, and I want to see how YES or NO responses look.

As you can see in the screenshot above, conditional formatting changes the color of the cell. The colors depend on the value in the cell. In this case, “Yes” is green, and “No” is red.

But what happens when you want the entire row to be green or red based on the YES or NO? That’s where custom formulas come to the rescue.

Introducing Custom Formula

Custom formula makes it easy to apply colors and formatting to an entire row of data. After you highlight the rows you want to apply conditional formatting to, go to Format -> Conditional Formatting. Then, enter a formula into the “Custom Formula” option, as shown below:

You can see that you will need to enter a “value or formula” into the custom formula box

This will allow you to enter a formula for the conditional formatting rule. In this case, I want two rules to be present:

• When the word “Yes” appears in column “C,” the entire row to turns green

• When the word “No” appears in column “C,” the entire row to turns red

But how do you do that? What do you type into the custom formula box?

Here’s what that looks like with one custom formula rule applied:

Notice that the $ in the formula applies formatting that matches the row of data where it appears (A2 to C2, A3 to C3). This is referred to as “absolute references” rather than relative references. If I were to not include the dollar sign, only the first column would change color, as you can see below:

To add the red fill color to each cell in a row, I have to add another rule:

Both of the custom formula rules appear below:

• When the word “Yes” appears in column “C,” the entire row to turns green:  =$C2= “Yes”

• When the word “No” appears in column “C,” the entire row to turns red:  =$C2= “No”

And that looks like this:

Isn’t that cool?

Want to Learn More?

As a Google Sheets user (Miguel Guhlin writing this), I often find myself learning new things about stuff I thought I knew. I’ve been using conditional formatting for years. Yet, I never thought to scroll to the bottom of the formatting rules to see what else was there! Now that you know about custom formulas in conditional formatting, how will you use them?

Learn more about conditional formatting and Google Sheets:

Google

• Google’s Conditional Formatting Support Page

• The Ultimate 2022 Conditional Formatting Google Sheets Guide

• Video: Conditional Formatting Based on Another Cell

Microsoft Excel

• Use Conditional Formatting to Highlight Information

• Highlight Patterns and Trends with Conditional Formatting

• Video: Conditional Formatting

Google Sheets How To Website

Click here to learn how to do the following: 

Powerful Add-Ons & Functions For Google Sheets (written by Miguel Guhlin @TCEA; link to article here): 

Google Sheets Functions

The following functions are ones that I use often. You can find a sample spreadsheet here (get a copy of it) that shows how each of these works.

One simple example that a lot of folks don’t know about that I use every day? Concatenate.

=Concatenate(A2,” “,B2,”<”,C3,”>”)

This allows you to put text together. My biggest use involves concatenating text such as firstname, lastname, and email. I use the result to enroll people in Canvas LMS.

Another one that I didn’t know about but is so powerful: IFERROR. It prevents showing a nonsensical error. Instead, it shows you a message you can customize.

Each of these expands your repertoire of what’s possible in Google Sheets. Take the time to learn them and practice them.

=join(“,”,A1:A5)

=IFERROR(value, [value_if_error]) (See more)

=IMPORTRANGE (sheet_url, range_string)

=QUERY(NAMEDRANGE, “SELECT A WHERE B=‘Google Sites’ “)

=COUNTIF (range, criterion)

=COUNTA (range, criterion)

=DetectLanguage(B2) with =GoogleTanslate(B2,C2,”en”)

Need a few more?

Get the “Make Magic with Spreadsheets” Wakelet

Want to get more examples in video format? You may want to check out this Wakelet Miguel Guhlin curated (housing a few videos & tutorials).

Add-Ons and Extensions for Google Sheets

Using Sheets as a Database

• Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)

• Watch Mike and Megan Video

• Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) Resources: A Wakelet Collection

Make an Escape (Breakout) Room with Google Sheets

Click here to learn how to use Google Sites in order to make an escape room. 

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Google Sites

Google Sites For Beginners:

• Getting Started with Google Sites:  If you haven't used Google Sites before then you're in for a treat. Google Sites are simple to create and allow you to easily drag and drop content from your Google Drive. The Google for Education training center has loads of tips, tricks, lessons and more for helping you get started with Google tools.
  
  

• Google Sites Tutorials for Scholars:  Google's Applied Digital Skills curriculum provides tons of FREE instructional videos that teach students to collaborate using digital skills. You can search their curriculum by audience, digital tool or topic. Click here for a complete list of ready to use Google Sites lessons available for you and your scholars. (This is an easy way for you to learn how to create your very own Google Site). 
  
  

• Google Sites Templates: Google has some pre-designed templates for you to use. Here's how to find them: 1st: Go to sites.google.com/new 2nd: In the upper right hand corner click on "template gallery." Click on the template that you would like to use and start creating your Google Site!
      - This TCEA Article explains all of the different template types.
      - This TCEA Article showcases all of the new Google Sites updates.
      - This TCEA Google Site allows you to see all of the different options you have for
          inserting content into your Google Site (created by Peggy Reimers at TCEA)
  
  

Ways To Use Google Sites In Your Classroom

• One Stop Shop for Scholars: Google Classroom can get pretty messy when trying to share resources with scholars during a whole unit of study. Packaging them in a site allows for easy updates and sharing of ideas. Here is the site that I created for my AJH students back when I taught math. 

  1. • There are a ton of ways to use Google Sites (too many to list), so here are a couple: 

       1. • • Core Content Website with Important Classroom Updates, Homework Reminders, Important Resources, Syllabi, Class Notes, Etc.

            • Digital Science Labs (Example)

            • Student Research Projects (Individual or Group)

            • eBooks (Example)

            • Collaborative Websites (Scholars Work Together In Order To Build One Site)

            • Student Online Journals / Unit Repository

            • Digital Breakouts (Additional Articles: How To Document; Great Examples)

            • Substitute Plans

            • PTO / Club Resources
              
              

Examples of Educational Google Sites

• What You Do When You’re Done - A Science Site

• Cypress Park HS - Library Site

• Steam Bookshelf

• Math Help Website

• Project Based Leadership Academy

• Mr. Piercey’s Website - Dear Abby - For Scholars who are too shy to ask questions in class.

• Huegel Eagles PTO Site

• AJH Math Site (My Old AJH Math Site)

Make an Escape (Breakout) Room with Google Sites

Click here to learn how to use Google Sites in order to make an escape room. 

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Google Slides

Google Slides Add-Ons:

Type With Your Voice: 

You can type by speaking in Google Slides speaker notes. Tip: This feature is only available in Chrome browsers.

1st:  Open a presentation in Google Slides with a Chrome browser.

2nd:  Click Tools and then Voice type speaker notes. The speaker notes open, and a microphone box appears.

3rd:  When you're ready to speak, click the microphone. ***Speak clearly, at a normal volume and pace (see below for more information on using punctuation).*** 

4th:  When you're done, click the microphone again. If successful, the words should then appear. 

Click here to learn how to use different voice commands, and correct voice typing mistakes. 

Make an Escape (Breakout) Room with Google Slides

Click here to learn how to use Google Slides in order to make an escape room. 

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