Jot Form vs Google Forms

I’ve been using Google Forms for several years now for surveys and other quick jobs where I need to collect information from multiple people easily and quickly.  But last year I was in the process of interviewing for several instructional coaching positions in our district and wanted something a little more robust. 

While Google Forms has great customization and the ability to do a lot of different things, one thing it didn’t do was allow for user-contributed material, like uploading a resume or letter of reference.  So I looked around and stumbled across a website called JotForm.us and I have been absolutely blown away by it.  I used it to build an online application last summer for our IC vacancies, including collecting resumes, letters of support, and other user-submitted resources.

Now this year I’m using it for teachers to submit what we call Implementation Verifications for professional learning experiences.  After completing the professional learning, as part of our evaluation process (described in this post), certain teachers submit reflections on how the implementation is going in their classroom and upload artifacts to support the implementation.  Artifacts that have been submitted so far include pictures, videos, student work, lesson plans, and reflections on how lessons have gone.  It’s been a great opportunity for me to see how the work we do in the professional learning department extends into classrooms and impacts student achievement.

Though JotForm has paid accounts, I currently only have a free account.  The biggest issue for me is that I’m limited to 100 MB of storage space, so when people are uploading pictures and videos it fills up very quickly.  But another great feature the site offers is integration with Google Drive, so when I start to reach my 100 MB maximum I just download what is stored in JotForm, make sure the artifacts are stored on my Google Drive, and then delete them. 

It’s an easy step to take so I can save some money.  Right now the site is configured so that as soon as a form is submitted I automatically receive a PDF of what is contained on the form in my email and the attachments (and the PDF copy of the form) are all automatically uploaded to my Google Drive. 

Quite simply, I could not do the level of evaluation for our professional learning without JotForm, at least not to the extent at which I do it.  I could easily see something like this being used in a classroom where students could upload artifacts as part of an assignment, and it could include some specific questions on the form.  If you’re looking for a form builder with more features that Google or Survey Monkey, take a look at JotForm.  You won’t be disappointed.