Today is the first time I have taught my students spreadsheet and charting skills using not Microsoft Office but, Google Spreadsheets in Drive. I think all my lessons should transfer over seamlessly but time will tell. Anyone have experience making this transition? Please share your wisdom!
I'm really hoping this transition goes well since these lessons are so valuable for their employable future! Next to being able to type better my class alumni who stay in touch say 'excel' skills are the most important thing they learned in my class.
Today I'm giving my first Google Spreadsheet assessment. Students received a Google Document with directions and questions to complete. There is also a set of data that they have to produce a data table with on a new Google Spreadsheet and perform various calculations. They will also produce two charts to display their results.
Unfortunately, I do not think this assessment will save me any grading time versus my previous assessment using MS Excel when students sent me an email with two attached files since I will still have to open up two Google shared files to grade each students work. I think next time I need to explore putting the questions into a Google Form. However, that eliminates other skill assessments from the test like opening shared files, making editable copies, and sharing documents. Let me know if you have any ideas on how to best assess this type of student learning with Google so that it provides a valuable learning experience and is efficient as possible for the instructor providing student feedback.
