Google Forms + Data Studio = A Match Made In Heaven!

Since it's almost Valentine's Day, I thought I'd highlight one of my favorite couples - Google Forms and Google Data Studio! 

Google Form data (saved in a Google Sheet) is a GREAT starting point for educators looking to get started creating a Google Data Studio report. Why? One main reason is that the structure of the data works well as a Data Studio data source, since it has just a single header row, no merged cells, no blank rows, and consistency in field values.

Here are a few tips for developing Google Forms to use with Data Studio:

• Use very short questions. Try using just 1-2 words in the Google Forms question field, then and putting the full details of the question in the description. These questions become your column headers in Sheets and thus your field names in Data Studio, and this makes them much more manageable.
  
• Avoid "Check all that apply" type questions. Try using a multiple choice grid type question (with yes/no answers) instead. This makes the data more compatible with filtering in Data Studio.
  
• Build a sort order into your responses. If the responses to a question have a particular order (like Daily, Weekly, Monthly), try including a sort order in the responses (1-Daily, 2-Weekly, 3-Monthly) so that when you sort in Data Studio they sort correctly. (Yes, you could do this with a calculated field in GDS too, but why make things harder if you don't have to?) Linear scale questions are a good option for this too, especially if you want to report on the average response number.
  
• Build your report first based on sample data. I will often build my report BEFORE sending out the Form, using the Form Responses tab with some rows of sample data (I usually try to add enough sample data that all possible answers are in the data set for each question.). I then remove my sample data once real data starts coming in.
• Take advantage of "live" updating. If you've built your Data Studio report, and the data continues to come in via the Form, the report will continue to update (automatically every 15 minutes). This is great for "leaderboard" type reports when you've built out the report ahead of time (see previous bullet)
  
• Capture email addresses. If your data source contains email addresses, you can use the Filter by Email feature to create customized reports. Or, you can use the email addresses as a unique identifier to pull in additional information on top of what's collected in the Form.

Here are some of my favorite examples of Data Studio projects that use Google Form data:

Surveys & Voting

• Social Media Use Survey

• Christmas Cookie Contest Leaderboard

Resource Collections

• SEL Resource Collection

• Digital Learning Tools Training Materials Collection

• Approved/Unapproved Resource List

Student Work

• Remote Learning Project Log

• Massachusetts Cities and Towns Research Project

• Student Reading Log

Do you have any other great examples? Please feel free to submit them to the K-12 Data Studio Report Collection!

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

Christmas in August?!?

Anyone reading this who works in a school district is probably running around like crazy preparing for the start to a very different school year. You may not have seen all the AMAZING updates to Data Studio which have appeared over the last two weeks, but have no fear, I'm here to fill you in! (Note that there are other new features but they aren't necessarily relevant to the use of Data Studio in K-12 education so I haven't mentioned them here.)

New Filter Controls

Previously, if you added a filter control to a Data Studio report, the default was a drop-down list, which could then be configured to (among other things) a fixed-size list. Now, fixed-size lists are one of six filter control types, with new options including a text input box (which you can configure to use EQUALS, CONTAINS, STARTS WITH, etc.), slider, and checkbox. These various options can be used to make your reports even simpler and easier to use! more info here

Parameters

I had a hard time wrapping my head around this one at first. Basically, it's a way to introduce a variable into your report that the user can change...which allowed me to create this cool algebraic Slope-Intercept explorer (which had been in my head a while but I had not figured out how to make it work with Data Studio.) The way this report works is that the data source is a range of x values, slope (m) and intercept (b) are parameters that the user can change, and then y is the result of a calculated field.

The report is just a scatter plot of x and y, which changes when the parameters are updated by the user. This is an example of a metric/numeric parameter - I am learning about some interesting ways to use dimensions/text as a parameter as well! more info here

Conditional Formatting in Pivot Tables

Previously, conditional formatting wasn't possible in Data Studio pivot tables, only regular tables. Now, pivot table conditional formatting options are single-color, so still limited, but it's certainly a huge improvement! more info here

Simplified CASE Statements for Calculated Fields

CASE statements are like IF/THEN statements in Data Studio that allow you to transform a field's values within a calculated field. In the past, you would write a CASE statement like this:

CASE

  WHEN field=value1 THEN result1

  WHEN field=value2 THEN result2

  WHEN field=value3 THEN result3

END

Now, you would write this:

CASE field

  WHEN value1 THEN result1

  WHEN value2 THEN result2

  WHEN value3 THEN result3

END

Honestly, isn't that big of a difference, and most of the time when I write a CASE statement I have to look up the syntax anyway, but it's definitely simpler to write statements this way. more info here

Filled Maps

There is a new option for "Filled Areas" within the Google Maps visualization. I updated the Massachusetts Cities and Towns report to show how this might work. Tip: if you want to sound super smart, use the word "chloropleth" instead of "filled area map." more info here

Embedded Data Sources

As you may know, until now, Data Studio reports and data sources were shown as separate items when on your Data Studio home page. If you wanted to share both a report and a data source with someone - you needed to share both items with the other person. Now, you have two options:

a) Create your data source first, then create a report and attach it to your data source. In this case, the data source is reusable, which means it's a separate item from the report. It can be used elsewhere but would need to be shared explicitly with someone who needs access. You'll still see the data source listed on your Data Studio home page.

OR

b) Create your report first, then create the data source from within the report. In this case, the data source is embedded, which means you can share the report and the data source all together. You won't see the data source listed separately on your Data Studio home page.

Just a note here that in either case, a person with view-only access to a report still does NOT have access to the data source, regardless of whether it's reusable or embedded! These really only come into play when you are sharing a report and data source for someone else to edit or copy. more info here

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I look forward to seeing how YOU use these new features! (Particularly parameters which have TONS of potential!) As always, if you have new reports to share, please submit them for inclusion in the K-12 Data Studio Report Collection (recently added to Google's Data Studio Gallery) so we can all learn from each other. Best wishes for a smooth and healthy start to the school year!