Why sign-in gets in the way at school
Google Forms' File upload question requires a Google Account sign-in (Google Help). That's fine when every learner has a working school account, but it breaks down for younger learners, parents submitting on a shared family phone, tutoring centres and holiday programmes, or students whose school account can't be used outside the school.
A simple hand-in form
Suggested setup
- Questions
- Student name · Class / grade (dropdown) · Assignment (dropdown) · Upload your work (Short answer → upload)
- Allowed file types
.pdf,.docx,.pptx,.jpg,.jpeg,.png– photos of handwritten work are common- Files per question
- Up to 5, for multi-page photos
- Folder name
{Class / grade} – {Assignment} – {Student name}- File name
{Student name} – {Assignment} {n}
Sort your Drive folder by name and every class and assignment groups together. The linked Sheet shows who has handed in, with timestamps from Google Forms, so you can see late submissions at a glance.
Tips for teachers
- Use dropdowns for class and assignment. Free-typed values like “gr 7b” and “Grade 7B” make messy folder names.
- Allow several files. Learners photographing handwritten pages often send one photo per page;
{n}numbers them. - Mind learners' privacy. Ask only for what you need – usually a name and class. Check your school's policy before collecting work from minors with any third-party tool.
- Mark it in Drive. Files are ordinary Drive files you own, so you can open, comment on and share them back as usual.
On the Free plan you get 20 responses a month and files up to 25 MB each. Pro ($4/month billed yearly, or $6 month-to-month) removes the response limit and allows files up to 1 GB each. Files always count against your Google Drive storage – we don't store them. See pricing.