Google Docs is the web-based editors to create, edit, and share Google documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and forms. These will all continue to work as they always have.

The new Google Drive is a single place to manage all your files, including Google Docs.

Think of Google Drive as your personal stash of files and folders that follows you wherever you go – it lets you keep everything and share anything. With Google Drive, you can access files, folders, and Google Docs from a web browser or any device where you’ve installed your Google Drive. No matter what happens to your devices, your files are safely stored in Google Drive.

You can use Google Drive to store all file types, including documents, presentations, music, photos, and videos. You can open many file types right in your browser, including PDFs, Microsoft Office files, high-definition video, and many image file types, even if you don’t have the corresponding program installed on your computer.

How are teachers and students using Google Docs?

Forget about Pages and Office

Use Google Docs for word processing and creating presentations. Then you don’t have to worry about where it’s saved. You can access your files from any computer and even from your phone or iPad. If you can’t print from your MacBook, just log in to Google Docs on a computer with a printer and it’s there.

Automagically Logged in through Moodle

When you log in to Moodle, click the Docs logo on the right and you’re automatically logged in to your Google Docs/Drive account.

Make Uploaded Files Editable

To convert files for editing in Google Drive, click on the gear in the top right corner of your Drive homepage and select Upload Settings. Then click on, “Convert uploaded files to Google Docs format.” It will save this setting so that any files you upload in the future will be automatically converted.

Share Files on Your Website

Open your document, slideshow or spreadsheet and go to File –> Publish to the Web. Click the Start Publishing button. You’ll get a direct link to the file that you can post on your website or send to someone via email. You’ll also get the embed code to include the file within a page on your website. Just switch to HTML view and paste the code in.

Create Folders and Share Them

Many teachers share files with students through Google Drive. You can create a folder and share that folder with students. Then when you have new files to share, just drag the file into the folder and it will be shared. This means you only have to enter students’ names once to share the folder instead of entering them for every document you want to share.

Collaborate on Drawings and Diagrams

Students can also collaborate on drawings and diagrams. After creating a drawing, share it with your group membersand everyone can see and edit the drawing at the same time. Download Google Chrome for best results with this feature.

Once you’ve created the form, you can embed it in your Moodle course so students can submit it easily.  Students can also create their own forms and post them in a discussion form to have their classmates submit the form.  This gives them an easy way to collect real-world data for math lessons.

Watch how to embed a Google Form in Moodle

Here’s a sample form embedded in this post: