Solving a problem with lots of emails using Google docs embedded in moodle

I was asked by the Early Childhood Studies team to take a look at their process for tracking when students choose their placements. The process previously involved students filling out a form stating their 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice of placement location, full contact details and other details on paper. The team then transcribed these into a spreadsheet.

As the students were all registered to a single moodle site, I advised the team to use an embedded Google form, and worked with the team to create the form in Google Docs. This form spanned 3 pages using a simple conditional question to determine whether students had the correct CRB paperwork, and automatically transcribed results into a Google spreadsheet, which the team could download as an Excel spreadsheet.

The Google form was then embedded into a moodle webpage inside their source, thus allowing only the students enrolled to enter their details.

In addition, the team mentioned that they may email the form to their students before the course started, in order that students would be able to sign up for their placement even before the course begun. Because the Google form is not within moodle as such, this possibility was also open to them.

A neat and tidy solution using Google docs to reduce paperwork and admin