How to build a survey with Google Forms

To draw up a list of participants, gather opinions or run a short test, one online form is enough in place of a sheet of paper and a round of phone calls. In this guide we walk step by step through building a form in Google Forms: question types and how to choose them, sections and branching based on answers, quiz mode, design, sharing, viewing responses and linking them to Google Sheets. You will also find rules for writing good questions, advice on handling personal data with care, a full worked example, common mistakes, a practice exercise and a checklist.

What Google Forms is and when you need it

Google Forms is a browser-based tool for creating forms and surveys. You can use it free of charge with a Google account: there is nothing to install, and both the form and its responses are stored in Google Drive, a cloud storage service. Respondents can easily fill the form in on their phones too.

When Google Forms comes in handy:

• Surveys. For example, a school parents’ committee wants to know which days suit everyone for a meeting.
• Registration. Signing up participants for a free computer club, a seminar or a sports competition.
• Tests and quizzes. A teacher runs a short 10-question test at the end of a lesson and sees the results straight away.
• Feedback. Asking participants after an event or course what they liked and what could be improved.
• Event sign-ups. Recording who is coming to a community clean-up (hashar), an open day or a volunteers’ meeting, and at what time.

The main advantage is that responses are collected neatly in one place: there is no need to copy dozens of messenger messages into a table by hand.

Please note: menu and button names in this guide follow the English-language interface of Google Forms. Google updates its interface from time to time, so some buttons may have been renamed or moved, but the idea usually stays the same.

Creating a form: first steps

There are two ways to open a new form:

1. Go to forms.google.com in your browser and sign in with your Google account. Choose “Blank form” or one of the ready-made templates.
2. Or open Google Drive and click New → Google Forms. This way the form appears straight away in the right folder on your Drive.

Once the form opens, there are two fields at the very top:

• Title (in place of Untitled form). Short and clear: “Registration for the summer reading club”.
• Description (Form description). In 2–4 sentences, explain what the form is for, who made it, how long it takes to fill in and what the data will be used for. For example: “This form takes 3 minutes. Your answers will only be used to put the groups together.”

The small toolbar on the right has buttons for adding a new question (the + sign), a text block, an image, a video and a new section. At the top there are three tabs: Questions, Responses and Settings.

Changes are saved automatically. Use the eye icon at the top, Preview, to check the form as a respondent will see it. In the newer interface you may need to publish the form with the Publish button before sharing it.

Question types: which to use when

Each question has a list on its right for choosing the type. The right type makes analysis easier.

• Short answer. One line of text: a name, the name of a mahalla, an age. Through Response validation in the question’s three-dot menu you can set a rule for the answer, for example accepting numbers only.
• Paragraph. A long free-text answer: “What would you change about the course?” Do not overuse these questions.
• Multiple choice. Only one option can be chosen: “Which time suits you: morning, afternoon, evening”. You can add an “Other” option at the end.
• Checkboxes. Several options can be ticked: “Which topics interest you?”
• Dropdown. Handy when there are many options, such as a list of districts or school classes. One option is chosen.
• Linear scale. A rating from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10: “How useful was the event for you?” Label both ends of the scale: 1 for “not useful”, 5 for “very useful”.
• Multiple choice grid. The same scale for several rows: for example, rating the rows “Lecture”, “Practical session” and “Organisation” against the columns “Good / Average / Poor”. If several ticks per row are needed, there is a Checkbox grid type.
• Date and Time. A date of birth, the day someone will attend an event, or a convenient hour. Dates are collected in one consistent format.
• File upload. The respondent uploads a photo, document or PDF. A general note: with this type, respondents have to sign in to a Google account, and uploaded files go to the form owner’s Google Drive. So add this type only when it is really needed.

Required questions

Under each question there is a Required switch. When it is on, the form cannot be submitted without answering that question, and an asterisk appears next to it. Make only the truly necessary fields required, such as name and contact method, and leave the rest optional.

Sections and branching based on answers

A long form is awkward on a single page. The Add section button on the toolbar splits the form into sections, which are separate pages. Each section has its own title and description.

The most useful feature of sections is branching based on the answer. It works with Multiple choice and Dropdown questions:

1. Select the question and open the three-dot menu in its bottom right corner.
2. Tick Go to section based on answer.
3. A list now appears next to each option: choose which section to go to if that option is selected.

Example: in the question “Are you registering your child or yourself?”, those who choose “My child” go to a section asking for parent and child details, while those who choose “Myself” go straight to the interests section.

At the end of each section there is also an “After section …” list, which decides which section comes next when the section is finished, or whether to submit the form (Submit form). Once you have set up branching, go through every path in Preview at least once from start to finish.

Quiz mode and the look of the form

Quiz mode

Google Forms can also be used for tests:

1. Open the Settings tab and turn on Make this a quiz.
2. Go back to the Questions tab. An Answer key link appears under each question.
3. Click Answer key, mark the correct answer and enter the points for the question.
4. If you like, add short feedback for correct and incorrect answers: for example, which textbook topic to reread.
5. In Settings, choose when results are shown: immediately after each submission or after you have reviewed them manually.

Automatic marking works best with Multiple choice, Checkboxes and Dropdown questions. You can set a correct answer for Short answer too, but if the respondent spells the word differently (for example, “Tashkent” rather than “Toshkent”), it is counted as wrong. Review such answers by hand.

Design

The palette icon at the top, Customize theme, changes the look of the form: the header image, the main colour, the background colour and the font style. You can prepare an attractive header image in Canva. But very bright colours and hard-to-read text make the form harder to fill in.

Sharing the form and viewing responses

Sending out the form

The Send button in the top right corner offers several options:

• Link (the link icon). The most common method. If you tick Shorten URL, the link becomes shorter and is easy to post in a Telegram group or send by SMS.
• Email. Sending the form directly to email addresses.

Typing a link by hand from a paper notice or poster is inconvenient. In that case you can turn the short link into a QR code and print it on the notice; test it on a few phones first.

The Settings → Responses section has several important options: collecting email addresses, allowing people to edit their response after submitting, and limiting each person to one response (this option requires respondents to sign in to a Google account). When the list is full or the deadline has passed, switch off Accepting responses on the Responses tab.

Viewing responses

On the Responses tab, answers can be viewed in three ways:

• Summary: the overall picture, with charts for choice questions and a list of text answers.
• Question: all the answers to a single question.
• Individual: each person’s complete response separately.

To work with the responses, click Link to Sheets (sometimes “View in Sheets”). A new Google Sheets spreadsheet is created, each response goes into its own row, and new ones are added automatically. In the spreadsheet you can sort, filter and count the responses; the basics are covered in the guide to Excel and Google Sheets, and presenting the results visually in the article on building a dashboard. Be careful when interpreting the results: answers from 15 people do not represent the views of the whole mahalla, as the article on statistics basics explains in more detail.

If several people are preparing the form together, add a colleague as an editor through Add collaborators in the three-dot menu, just as when collaborating in Google Docs.

Writing good questions and handling personal data

Rules for writing questions

• One question, one thing. “Did you like the lesson content and the teacher?” cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”: the content may have been good and the teacher not. Split it into two questions.
• Avoid leading questions. “Did you enjoy our wonderful event?” suggests the answer in advance. Ask neutrally: “How would you rate the event?”
• Short and plain language. A question should be clear on the first reading.
• Answer options should be complete and not overlap. If the age options are “18–25” and “25–35”, a 25-year-old will not know which to pick. Correct: “18–24”, “25–34”, “35 and over”. To cover every case, add an “Other” or “Prefer not to say” option.
• Keep the form short. Ask yourself: “What will I do with this answer?” Remove any question whose answer you will not use.
• A logical order. Easy, general questions first, then more detailed ones, and an optional comment at the end.

Handling personal data with care

Through a form, people entrust you with personal data such as their name and phone number. That is a responsibility.

• Ask only for what you need. Signing up for a reading club does not require passport details or a home address. A name, age group and contact method are enough.
• Explain the purpose. In the description, say what the data is used for, who will see it and how long it will be kept.
• Protect the data. Do not share the responses spreadsheet in “anyone with the link can view” mode; give access only to the people who need it. Protect your Google account with a strong password and 2-Step Verification. After the event, delete any data you no longer need.
• Information about children should be collected through their parents and with their consent.

Example: a sign-up form for a reading club

A hypothetical situation: Dilnoza Yusupova, the librarian at a mahalla library, wants to start a reading club for children and teenagers over the summer holidays. All names and numbers below are illustrative.

1. Creating. Dilnoza creates a “Reading club” folder on Google Drive and makes the form inside it through New → Google Forms.
2. Title and description. Title: “Registration for the summer reading club”. Description: “The club runs free of charge at the mahalla library. The form is filled in by a parent or guardian and takes 3 minutes. The data is used only to form groups and get in touch, and will be deleted when the club ends.”
3. Section 1, “Parent details”. Parent’s name (Short answer, Required), phone number (Short answer, Required), preferred way to be contacted: call or Telegram (Multiple choice).
4. Section 2, “About the child”. Child’s name (Short answer, Required), age group (Dropdown: “7–9”, “10–12”, “13–15”, Required). The date of birth is not asked for, as an age range is enough to form groups.
5. Branching by answer. Go to section based on answer is turned on for the age group question: those who pick “7–9” go to section 3 (“Younger group”: picture books, reading together), the rest go to section 4 (“Older group”: which genres interest them, Checkboxes: adventure, science fiction, historical, popular science). At the end of section 3, section 5 is selected in the “After section 3” list; otherwise the younger children would also land in the next section, section 4.
6. Section 5, “Time and comments”. Convenient days (Checkboxes: Monday, Wednesday, Friday), the child’s interest in reading (Linear scale 1–5), additional comments (Paragraph, optional).
7. Settings. For the design, a picture of books is added in Customize theme. The confirmation message in Settings → Presentation reads: “Thank you. Once the groups are formed, the librarian will get in touch with you.”
8. Testing. Dilnoza fills in the form twice in Preview: once for an 8-year-old and once for a 12-year-old. She then deletes the test responses on the Responses tab.
9. Sharing. Send → link → Shorten URL. The link is posted in the mahalla Telegram group, and a notice with a QR code goes up on the library door.
10. Results. Responses → Link to Sheets. In the spreadsheet, Dilnoza filters by age group and sees how many children are in each group. When the places are filled, Accepting responses is switched off.

Common mistakes, practice and checklist

Common mistakes

• Sending the form out untested. If branching is set up wrongly, people land on irrelevant questions or cannot submit the form. Always check every path in Preview.
• Every question required. If questions that should be optional are also marked Required, people abandon the form.
• The wrong question type. If Short answer is used instead of a date or a choice, you get answers like “12 June”, “12.06” and “mid-June”, which cannot be analysed in a spreadsheet.
• Asking for unnecessary personal data. If you ask for passport details, an address or a workplace you do not need, people lose trust.
• Leaving the responses spreadsheet open to everyone. If a link to a spreadsheet full of phone numbers is posted in a group, strangers may see it too.
• Not closing the form. After the deadline, responses keep coming in and people think they are on the list.

Practice exercise

Build a small form you actually need: choosing a convenient date for a family gathering, a survey on where to have lunch at work, or a 5-question test for a class.

1. Create a form on Google Drive through New → Google Forms and give it a clear title.
2. In the description, state the purpose, the approximate time and what the data will be used for.
3. Use at least five different question types: Short answer, Multiple choice, Checkboxes, Linear scale and Date.
4. Make only the necessary questions Required.
5. Add two sections and set up Go to section based on answer for one question.
6. Choose a colour and a header image through Customize theme.
7. Fill in the form in Preview along every path.
8. Send the short link to 2–3 people you know and ask them to respond.
9. Look at the Summary on the Responses tab, then create a spreadsheet with Link to Sheets.
10. After testing, switch off Accepting responses.

Checklist before sending

• The title is clear, and the description explains the purpose and how the data will be used.
• Each question asks about one thing, and there are no leading questions.
• Answer options are complete and do not overlap, with “Other” where needed.
• Question types fit: a date uses Date, a choice uses Multiple choice or Dropdown.
• Only necessary questions are required, and no unnecessary personal data is requested.
• Sections and branching have been checked in Preview.
• A confirmation message is written, and the responses spreadsheet is open only to those who need it.
• You have planned when to close the form.

Building online forms is a time-saving skill for teachers, librarians, mahalla activists and event organisers. Build one or two forms following these rules, and the next ones will be ready in a few minutes.

If you would like to learn Google services and other office tools systematically with a teacher, take a look at our association’s free computer literacy programme and other training programmes. When you are ready, submit an application and our specialists will get in touch.