Click the Form Fields options, and in the default text, write some content that you may want to appear in the form field when first viewed by the student. Next to the “Strategy” label, insert a text input field as you have already done several times. Create a Text field with default text.Click on the link below to dowload the document to your computer. This is a formatted document that has the layout of the assignment report already created as Microsoft Word tables. Open the template (“space_report_template.doc”).In this silly example, we are creating an assignment report form where students had investigated one of the planets in the solar system and made some decisions on what they would take to travel there. In the following sections, we give you some step-by-step instructions for working with the Form creation tools of Microsoft Word.
Check the Word docs for more on these topics. There are many more options on the Forms palette that allow you to limit the amount of text types, to format numbers and dates, etc. Users should know that they can tab from field to field, print, email, and they can save the modified version of the document on their computer. Keep the original in a safe place (in case you need to make changes) and make a copy of the document to try as a user might see it.
The steps described below are for Windows versions of Word. This feature is available for both Macintosh and Windows versions of Word. Microsoft Word, at least versions back to Word 97, seem to have this functionality. The format is very flexible so it could be distributed to students by e-mail, via file servers, or included in course management systems. If an instructor already has many assignments in Word, it should not take long to convert them to these kinds of structured forms. Very low level of expertise, indeed! LTA Outcomes If one has some experience creating and editing tables in Word, more nicely designed forms may be created, but it can be as simpe as just converting an existing assignment with the questions already typed, adding the form fields for student input, and protecting the document with a password. We provide the steps to use all of the Microsoft Word form creation fields. The LTA would require an instructor to have basic familiarity with composing documents in Microsoft Word, but the amount of Word expertise would depend on the needs of the document he/she intends to create. We also developed a more complex form used as the application for our internal grants program, using feautures to calculate budget sub-totals and totals using the Microsoft Word calculation fields.
We have used this approach extensively in developing electronic forms for our faculty professional growth programs where we get hundreds of requests per year, and it has greatly simplified the data and form processing by committees (by unifying the returned documents), but it is also much easier for applicants to complete.
The other area where this is very useful is in creating electronic forms, so that rather than giving PDF files that people print and complete by hand (requring someone at the other end to convert handwriting back into text), the person completing the form can do so on a computer, send it electronically, and retain a copy of the form (one cannot do this all in PDF forms). In a typical assignment, an instructor may distribute in paper or electronic format, a list of required questions to answer, but when 30 students freely compose their responses, you end up with 30 different kinds of documents to read.
The example provided in this demonstration is a simple version of what might be used as a group report form. This LTA provides a way to create documents, assignments, report forms, etc for your students where it may be important to maintain some consistent format, or where there is a need for a structured response. Students can save a copy of their document and/or e-mail it to an instructor.(PDF forms read in Acrobat Reader do not save content) Students can save the document to their hard drive and go back at any time to finish theirr work.The document can have portions locked from changes by the student.
No special software beyond Word required (but students will need access to Word).Phoenix, advantages of using this approach are: Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction