I’m a fan of Google Docs, but I haven’t found many others who are. While in the Seminary, I often tried to take advantage of the online collaborative software with the numerous group projects that were assigned there. Sometimes it worked out; most of the time it didn’t.
When I first started using Google Docs, the only type of template available was a word processing template. Now you can use spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. Most recently, I took advantage of the Google Docs form option, and I was pretty impressed with the result.
I just started as the youth pastor at the New Haven SDA Church in Overland Park, KS, and in a simple effort to get to know my youth better, I’m administering a youth ministries survey. With this survey, I am able to gather basic information about each youth, including areas of ministry in which each youth wishes to get involved. I handed out paper copies of the survey as a part of the Sabbath School classes for the last two weeks, but I also decided to put the survey online for youth who don’t regularly attend Sabbath School. The forms option on Google Docs turned out to be the perfect way to do this.
It’s actually very user-friendly. The forms can be as complicated as you want them to be. The form I created for this online survey has seven pages. Users answer a few basic questions on the first page; and then, based on their response to the question, “Are you baptized?”, they are automatically directed to subsequent pages. For example, if they answer, “Yes,” they are automatically sent to the last page, which contains the final question of the survey. However, if they answer, “No,” they are automatically sent to a page that asks, “Do you want to be baptized?” If they answer, “Yes,” to that question, they are sent to another page that asks, “Are you currently studying with someone in preparation for baptism?” There are subsequent questions on subsequent pages, but I will not get into all the details here.
I posted the online survey on our youth group’s new Facebook page, Youth Ministries @ New Haven SDA Church, and it works seamlessly. The coolest part about it is that when someone completes the form, the results are sent to an online spreadsheet database that I am able to access to see how youth have responded.
My wife used to work for a bank that hired professional web developers for thousands of dollars to create online forms like the one I created for free, with no training whatsoever, and it only took about a half-hour. Thank you, Google.
Have you ever used Google Docs? What was your experience with it? Have you created online forms using another type of software? How did that work out for you?
[Image by Google]
