[music playing]

Speaker: OTAN. Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Monica Espinoza: All right, so thank you everybody for either coming back or joining us for this part two of our Google Forms series. I'm very excited to share ways for you to share your Google form, right? So now you've created this beautiful Google form and now it's time to share it with the world. So today, I'm going to be covering that and going to be walking you through some of those things.

So my name is Monica Espinoza. I am an ESL instructor at Torrance Adult School. My email address is on this slide. You may contact me if you have any questions. Or if you'd like to share good recommendations for summer books, please go ahead and contact me.

All right, so for today, today we have a very busy day. Today, you are going to be able to share your Google form through creating hyperlinks, hyperlinks with it with text, and hyperlinks with an image. You are going to create a shortened URL on the bit.ly, Bitly, website.

And oops. And you're also going to be editing my spelling, so creating a QR code, OK? Now, if all of these terms sound very foreign to you, do not worry. I will break down each of these for you so there-- to lower your effective filter.

All right, so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to take a fun quiz. I don't want to scare you. It's just a fun little quiz to introduce you to some of the terms and just a way to show you how to use Google forms.

So Marjorie, were you able-- were you able to send that link for the quiz on through the chat box? OK, got it. So wow, 65 responses. That is awesome.

So let's talk about some of these Google forms, the beginning-- the first questions. So the first questions were just a little bit about what you might remember from last time when we spoke about in depth-- when we spoke about the settings for Google forms. So that is correct, if you chose-- if you chose true for the first one, right?

We talked about how there were some boxes and settings in Google forms that if they were checked, it would require the user to sign in with their Google account. So right now, collecting email addresses is one of those boxes that would require the people to sign in. Got it. Oh, yes.

So if I have this box checked, this restrict to users in Torrance Unified School District, which is my school district, that is of course, a person has to have a TUSD email address. So they, even though if they work in the district, they still can't use a personal email, right? So the user would not be able to access the Google form if they don't have district email.

And just like we had a little run in, a little accident with a link, right before you took this quiz, thank you for remaining-- for being patient. And yes, of course you should not panic. And just let me know, just let whoever know that there is a little error happening. So thank you for your patience, everyone. And your participation.

All right, so to preview the Google form, yes that little eye, that little eye. And yes, I believe that-- I saw it in the chat if there was a mistake in the question regarding the font and background color, and the answer was yes, I accidentally selected the wrong one. So please, please take this as an example.

I looked over this Google form. I told Melinda I was obsessing over the details. And this is just one detail that I-- that I dropped the ball on, so I'm very sorry about that. But yes, it is the palette. The palette will allow you to change the background color and the font.

OK, what else do I have to go over? All right, this little question right here regarding the mathematical symbols. I just threw that in there as an extra. I'll talk about it a little more, but I added this because last week there was a question regarding how to add math symbols to Google forms.

So I can-- I did my homework. I looked it up, found different ways for you to do that. And I can talk about that at the end of our presentation today.

Please remind me, OK? But I will do my best to answer that question, if that person is here or if anyone else is interested. All right, so for sections three and four, I'm going to go back into-- I'm going to go back into my presentation and go ahead and start talking to you about URLs, URL shorteners, and QR codes. All right, Melinda, are we good on questions so far?

Melinda: We had one that I was just about to ask someone to type it in the chat, or the Q&A, but I'll ask it to you now. Does trusted organizations mean personal email accounts?

Monica Espinoza: I doubt it. And you know what, Melinda? I actually do not know who that would be. If other organizations outside of a school district or outside of whatever organization is using Google's suite, if they have some kind of list that they-- I imagine--

Melinda: They actually do. They can, yes.

Monica Espinoza: Right? So I imagine that those would be trusted organizations. And if it-- to me, I'm just a lowly teacher. I think it's the district might feel that it's not necessary for me to know who these trusted organizations are.

And at the moment, I don't-- I don't need to know who these trusted organizations are in order for me to communicate with my students. That is a great question, though. And now I am curious as to who might be a trusted organization for my district. But OK, Melinda. Got it.

All right, so going back to sharing your Google form. So once again, you created this Google form. You've looked at it obsessively like myself. You still found a mistake. So now you want your users to interact with your Google form, right? Whatever it might be, a quiz, a survey, a sign-up sheet, whatever kind of form you create.

So what I would like for you to consider when you're sharing your Google form is how do you-- how might your users access the form? Would it be through computer or smartphone? Tablet and smartphone have similar views for the user. The tablet is just a little bigger than a smartphone, but it's a similar view.

So think about how your user is going to access this form. Because depending on how they are going to use it, maybe sharing your form through a hyperlink or a QR code or a URL shortener might be the best option for you, right? And that is something that is completely up to you.

Also, consider your users' digital literacy skills. In my experience with my students, I really had to work on having them understand what a link was, and click here, and teaching them about that or how to use a QR code. So just consider. Consider the way that you are sharing your Google form, that it is easy for your audience to access.

And one more thing is about your form, how is your form best viewed? In the quiz that you just took, there were some images. There were some images, but it was mostly text.

So if you want your students or your whatever audience you might have to complete a form that has lots of pictures or maybe includes some videos, maybe it might be better for them to access it through a computer rather than a small screen like a smartphone. So consider these things when you are deciding how to share your Google form. I mean, ultimately, it's up to the user to use whatever device. But it's just for you to keep in mind as well.

All right, so how do I share Google forms in my class? One way is that students click on a link. They click on a link either through my website, on my email, an email that I send them, or a document that I send them.

Another way is that students click on an image, which is also either on my website or an email or a document, which I do less frequently on a document. So that would mean that a student would click on a picture, such as the one I have on this slide, and that would take them to another location where the information would be available to them. Third, I create a shortened URL, right? And I share this shortened URL with my students, either on my website, email, a document, or a virtual meeting. And lastly, I create QR codes that I also share website, emails, doc, or a virtual meeting, OK? Are we good on questions, Melinda?

Melinda: We had one come up. Interesting. If you do not collect emails, because not all students have emails, will you still be able to see their responses?

Monica Espinoza: Yes, you can see their responses. However, one of your questions on this, on your form, would have to be name, would have to type in your name. And if you are not collecting email addresses, let's say that you took this quiz right now and you viewied-- you were able to view your score right away, right? Now if I selected-- I'm going to go to the setting option so that I can show you.

So I'm going to exit this screen and I'm going to go to my Google forms, my settings. So right now, currently I am not collecting email addresses for the quiz that you just took. Therefore, you were not required to sign in. On this quiz, I did not require an-- I'm sorry, I didn't add a question for you to answer your name or to enter your email address, right?

Now there is an option when you are creating a quiz, OK, this is only for quizzes, where you can release the score immediately after a user takes it. So like you, what you just did, you were able to view your score and the answers right away. Or this option, which is later, after manual review, again it's going to turn on email collection, Gmail, OK?

So that does limit. That does limit your audience. So you would have to make sure that your students have a Gmail address. And I highly recommend that you encourage your students to create a Google email, because that way they would-- you would be able to work with them probably easier if you're using other Google applications.

So by selecting this later after manual review, if a student-- if a student types in their email, and maybe they type it in incorrectly, then the student will not be able to receive their score. And it forces this option. I'm going to select it. And I want you to compare how it looks, OK?

So if you see right now, section one only has school description. Now I am going to go back and I'm going to select this option. And I want you to see how the screen changes.

Now it creates a field for the user to enter a valid email address. And that-- you're kind of forced to enter your email address. I hope I answered your question. If I did, I will continue. OK.

Melinda: I think you got that question. We do have one coming up about choosing an image. Is it a drop down or a grid question? Did you want to address that later?

Monica Espinoza: Yeah. So OK, so last week-- I encourage you to view, if you have not viewed the slides, well, I don't think the video is available yet, right? That is something that we discussed last week. And let me go ahead and just give you a little quick demo of what that looks like right now. So I am-- and can I ask that person to clarify, to just specify an image as an option or an image as part of your question?

Melinda: And that would be for Olivia. Option.

Monica Espinoza: Option, OK. So let me just go to the one we did last week. So it is (INAUDIBLE) OK.

So you said this was for Olivia, right? All right Olivia, so I am in my-- right here, I'm creating my question. Now when you create a question, right here, when you click on-- if you select multiple choice or checkboxes, you will see this little image icon on the far right. And that is how you would be able to add images as options.

Now, you also have the option to add images for your question. And that would be right here. And that would be right here. So this right here is to add an image as a part of your question. And this little icon right here would be to add an image for your options, OK?

So let's just do a quick example. Puppy. I always go with puppies. Safe option. Adorable.

So I would search. I would search either in your camera or through your photos, your Google Drive, or just through Google. And then you would select-- you would select whichever picture, whichever picture you want. And then you go ahead and you insert it. And so maybe I would type in option a. All right, I hope that answers your question.

Now Olivia, keep in mind that you may not have the option to add pictures for every question type, OK? So just keep that in mind. Like for example, it definitely will not give you the option to add pictures in a question type for a linear scale. So it won't be available for each question type, but it is available in some types of questions. OK, back to hyperlinks, yes?

Melinda: Yes.

Monica Espinoza: All right, got it. So hyperlinks, right? I'm sure you've all interacted with hyperlinks in your-- through email, or even when you're navigating a website. That is how a website operates, right? Through hyperlinks.

Now if you do not know what this word is specifically, it's just a file or a document that is connected, is linked to something in a different location, right? So if I click on the home button, the home-- I'm sorry, the home tab, it's going to take me to the home page, right? That is essentially what a hyperlink is.

Usually they appear in blue, or maybe they're in bold. Depending on the platform that you're using, it might look a little different. As you can see here on Google slides, it looks red.

Now, just something to keep in mind that hyperlinks can be created in documents, emails, websites, you name it, OK? Hyperlinks are not limited to Google applications. And you can create a hyperlink as long as you have a web address, all right? You can create a hyperlink.

Now I want you to show you-- I want to show you some examples right here on this page, on the slide. Now if you see here, I am using the OTAN website. Now, this is just in black. And it appears as my text up above.

Now, here I have this. And it's underlined. And it's in red.

Now, usually that's how I want-- if you see here, when I hover over these words, it-- I still have that little arrow. My cursor is an arrow. However, if I hover over these words, my cursor turns into a little hand with the pointing finger. And that is how you know-- that is one way that you can-- that you know that something is hyperlinked. So if I click on this, hello, it's going to take me to that location, right? To this wonderful, wonderful website with wonderful people.

So coming back to this, OK. So I have hyperlinked the actual web address. And I have actually also-- I have also typed in text, right?

It says OTAN. It says OTAN Resources. And it usually gives the reader a little bit more-- maybe more information about where they are going in case you'd rather not just give the web address.

Now here you have a little picture, right? You have a little picture and it says click here. Now if you notice, once again we have that little hand with the pointing finger. And that means that it is also hyperlinked, OK? So if I were to click here, I have once again hyperlinked it to the OTAN website.

All right. Now, once your view the slides later, a little how to video. I'm going to show you how to create a hyperlink as well, but there is also know how to video. OK Now, if you are on a Mac, there are some keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Macs. You know, I've never created a hyperlink on a tablet or a smartphone, but I'm sure there's a way to do it. I'm not sure if anyone has done that, but I never had the need to learn how to do that.

So these are some keyboard shortcuts for you to know. Now, sometimes maybe you will see this little paper clip looking thing, but it's actually a little chain link. It's a chain link. And you would be able to click on that in order to create a hyperlink.

Now, once again, I showed you how you can tell if something is hyperlinked, if it is linked to something else. So you would do that by hovering over the text or the image, and you notice to see if the cursor changes. So, once again, I'm hovering over the word shortcut at the top, and I see the arrow-- the cursor is an arrow. But if I go here, my cursor is a little hand with a pointing finger.

Now, one other way to know is I'm not sure if you can view this through my screen, but Melinda maybe you can confirm this for me. When I hover over this, what do you see on the bottom left of my screen? Melinda, do you see anything pop up?

Melinda: You are presenting, so all we see is your cursor.

Monica Espinoza: OK, got it. OK. So this is something, maybe you've never noticed it before, maybe you have. But when you hover, when you point at something that is hyperlinked, on the bottom left of your browser window, you will see the address that it is hyperlinked to. So this how to text is actually connected to a YouTube video. So right now on my screen, when I hover over, I see the web address for the YouTube video. So just if you've never noticed before, as you're surfing the web, take a look at it to see what that looks like.

So here you go. I'm going to go ahead and show you how to-- you know what? I'm going to hold off on showing you how to hyperlink so that you can see examples first. Next, I've got URLS shorteners. Now, URL is just another way-- it's a technical term for a web address. It's just a web address.

And what this URL shortener will do the-- one that I choose is Bitly. But there are many other URL shorteners out there that will do the same thing. And when you clicked on the link for the quiz earlier in the chat box, you saw this super, super long address, right? Now, can you imagine sharing that with your students and not hyperlinking it? Or if you're trying to type it into your phone or try to trying to type it into your address bar? That's just pretty insane.

So what a URL shortener like Bitly will do is it will take your original web address, and you can customize it. You can customize that web address. One little problem here is that the person typing in this URL shortener has to type in the exact link you gave them. So I'm going to give one example here of one that I created.

Now, if I give my students this URL, it's going to take them to this page. Let's imagine that I typed it in and I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I forgot to type in the 6. So it's going to take them to an error. It will give them an error message of some sort. Here you go.

So it's going to give your user an error message. One other thing to keep in mind with URL shorteners is that you cannot search for them. You cannot type them into a search box. So sometimes when I give links to my you URLs like this to my students, and they try to search for it like this, and they say, teacher, it's not there. Or teacher, it's not correct. Well, no, it is correct, you just have to type it in your omnibox or your little address bar.

So those are just something to keep in mind with Bitly. I'm not 100% sure if the other URL shorteners work this this way, but that is what I have found through using Bitly. We're in here. Melinda, how are we doing on questions? I know I'm talking a lot.

Melinda: I'm thinking you're OK. We did have a question about how did you create the image to be a hyperlink.

Monica Espinoza: OK, yes. And, as I mentioned, I will give you the how to, and I will give you demos after I get through this presentation. So I'm going to talk to you-- I talked to you about hyperlinks. I've talked to you about shorteners. I'm going to go into QR codes. And then is where I will begin a little demo and giving you an actual how to. Does that work?

Melinda: Yes.

Monica Espinoza: All right, wonderful. So let me show you QR codes. So this right here is an example of a QR code. I'm going to share a video-- a very short video-- with you about how to use it. So if you have your mobile phone handy, I would advise you to take it out so you can practice using this with your phone right now. OK.

[video playback]

[music playing]

- Hi, guys. David here from payitforward.com at beautiful Ballymaloe Cooking School in Ireland, here to show you today how to use QR codes on iPhone. Let's say you're in a beautiful location and you want to learn more about something you see. Now, you can read the text, which is kind of boring, or you could look down here, and you'll see this little square thing with a lot of dots. You've probably seen them in all sorts of places. They used to only really work with Android phones, but now iPhones support them.

Here's how to use it. To use QR codes on iPhone, the first thing you need to do is open the camera app. For QR codes to work correctly, photo needs to be selected. You can't be taking a video, like my iPhone is set to do right now. So I'm going to swipe from right to left on that bottom slider and choose photo.

Now, since I selected photo, a notification comes down from the top of my iPhone. And, in this case, it says, open cookingisfun.ie in Safari. So all I need to do is tap on that, and that will bring me to the website address of the QR code.

Now, in this case, it shows up with a 404 error, which means that website isn't found. But that's the website's fault, not the iPhone's. So that's how you use QR codes.

[end playback]

Monica Espinoza: So that is how to use QR codes on iPhones, but the concept is the same for other devices-- tablets or Androids. So the concept is the same. Now, you do need to be running on a later version. So if you haven't updated your settings in a while and you can't do it with your phone, maybe you should update. You should have all the latest updates.

Now, if you're having trouble with your iPhone, you might be able to tweak some of your camera settings. So I have placed this link right here for you that you can view later to manage your iPhone camera settings. So, right now, what I would like for you to do is I'd like for you to give it a try. Please, give it a try, and it's going to take you to a Google form for you to answer just one question. And it's related to QR codes.

So if anyone is having trouble with it, please let me know. Once again, it might be just your phone and the latest version, but I want to say that the majority of these devices will allow you to just do it with your camera without the use of an application. So just let me know in the chat box have you have been successful. Actually, practice using a QR code.

Oh, wow. Wonderful. Already 45 responses. OK. So, so far 45, 46 people say that it was easy for them and only one person said that it was not easy.

So all it takes is practice. I'm sorry, So I hope that one person who was having a difficult time with this QR code will either practice or ask me a question. If your students, or yourself, or whoever it is that you are sharing a QR code with is not able to do it on their phone just by using their camera, I've provided you with two links where it offers a variety of free applications that you could download on your mobile device. And it will read the QR codes for you.

So we have come to the end of my presentation. And now, I would like to show you some examples. Sorry. But before I go into sharing the examples with you, do I have any questions that I can answer right now, Melinda?

Melinda: How do you make a QR code is the question of the day.

Monica Espinoza: All right. Yes. Exactly. So, once again, I'm going to show you now some examples of what this looks like, and then I will go into the how to. Of course, I'm going to show you how to do this. I would not unleash this on you and then not show you how to do it.

But before we get into that, I want to show you what this might look like for your audience. What do hyperlinks look like in text? What do hyperlinks look like in images, with a URL shortener or with a QR code? So I'm going to show you how I share this with my students, because that is how I use Google forms mostly with my students.

So in the chat box, I think this is the first link that was shared, that I shared by mistake. So I'm going to show you-- I'm going to share the link one more time in the chat box if you just give me a moment. And it's going to take you to a special page that I created for us for this webinar. And the page should look like this.

So what I wanted to do for you here is I wanted to show you how my students or how my audience connects to a Google form. So on the left I have an example type-- so either a hyperlink, a QR code, or a URL shortener. And on the right-hand side of the page, this is how it will look like.

So here, in the first example, I have hyperlinked text. And I have hyperlinked the word HERE, as you can see. So when students click there, it will take them to a Google form about museum field trip options.

Hyperlinking an image, it's right there. I see the image of a cute puppy. Yes, I am obsessed with puppies. And it's going to take them to a Google form about tattoos.

Using the URL shortener-- here it is. Here is the address. Now, if you notice, this one is not hyperlinked, but sometimes I also like to share this shortened URL for students who don't have a access right at the moment when I ask them to. Maybe they'd like to access this document later on at home, and so they could have the this address and access it at a later time on a different device. So I also share the actual URL with them.

And here, this is just how it looks. And it is hyperlinked to the same page, which is a journal. All right, fun stuff.

So now, the QR code. So here, I ask the students to scan the code with their phone. And by scanning this code, it will take them to whatever homework is assigned. And I believe it's also-- oh, this is connected to the quiz that you just took today.

Now, I use a free generator, and I will go into that in a moment, OK? I just want to point out that below, at the bottom of the page, I have posted all of the things that you worked with today-- so the slides for my presentation today, the quiz that you took, and the QR question. So it is right there.

So are you guys ready to do some practice with hyperlinks? I hope you are. So let me go to a YouTube video. I already have a YouTube video here open for us.

Now, the first thing that I am going to do is if you give me one moment-- once again, you can create a hyperlink with any web address, with any link that you have. So right now, I'm going to hyperlink some text to this video. So the first thing that I need to do is I need to get the address for this video. And I can do this two ways. I can either copy it from the top, or I can take it from this little share arrow. I can copy it like that.

So let me do that once again. My option is to copy the address from the address bar. Or I can go to a share arrow, and I can copy the link to my clipboard as well. Now, I'm going to type my text. But once again, I'm sorry, my internet is not cooperating right now. PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO.

So now, what I would do is I would select whatever text I want hyperlinked. So in this case, I just want the word VIDEO. Now, if you notice, there is a link here. So I can either click on that, or I can use my keyboard shortcut. I'm using a Windows computer, so I will do Control and K.

So, once again, I will select and click on Insert link or select and do my little keyboard shortcut, which I love-- I love this keyboard shortcut. And I will Apply. And that's it. Let me know if you need to see it one more time.

So now, I'm going to show you how to do the same thing with an image. The concept is the same.

Melinda: Monica, could you show that one more time, creating a text link?

Monica Espinoza: For sure. Yes, and I will show you with a different text. Let's do it here. Something like PLEASE-- oh, my God-- CLICK HERE. So, once again, I've selected my text. I double-click or I drag and select my text that I want to hyperlink. I have two options, either clicking on the icon for Insert link, or the other quick way is to do the keyboard shortcut.

And I forgot to mention this, but obviously it will also be in your-- if you have a right-click on a Windows computer, the menu that comes up for the right-click, you would select Link. And, fortunately, it gives me that handy reminder. Control-K would be the shortcut. I would then paste my link wherever I want this link to connect to. In this case, it's a video. So here you go, and I would just Apply.

Let me know if you want another example.

Melinda: I think that's got it.

Monica Espinoza: OK, got it. So now I have this darling picture here, this puppy. Now, I would like to do the same thing. I want to link it to the same video. Now, you do have to direct your user-- you do have to probably clue them in to having to click that image. It's a little easier when you have text, because it changes color or it changes to being underlined text. But with an image, nothing is there. Nothing changes. The image looks the same.

So maybe I would say something like Click-- oh, my goodness, I can't spell today-- the image to go to the video. So, once again, the same thing, I would select. And now I've clicked on my picture, and the options are the same. I can either click that Insert link icon at the top, or I could just click my picture, do the shortcut, or find it on my right-click menu. There you go. I will paste it, and there you go. Oh, sorry, not working.

OK, sorry. I don't know why it's not cooperating with me. OK there it is. Oh, my God. I'm doing the same thing I tell my students not to do. Now, if you see, my window is zoomed in. So when you click-- I'm using Google Docs, OK? So when you click on something on Google Docs or just the Google applications, it doesn't take you directly.

You have this little box that opens up, and then you would have to click on that little box in order to go to the page that it is linked to. So the same thing happened with the picture. I just couldn't view it. It was outside my window. I'm sorry.

So here you go. So now my picture is hyperlinked. I Should I demonstrate it one more time? You let me know.

Melinda: I think we're good. We don't have any requests for a repeat.

Monica Espinoza: OK.

Melinda: Oh, I take it back. We got one.

Monica Espinoza: Repeat.

Melinda: We got two.

Monica Espinoza: We got two for a repeat.

Melinda: Just a real quick one. Yes, please.

Monica Espinoza: Yes, most definitely. So give me one moment. All right, so I'm going to show you how to do this with the image one more time, and then I'll show you how to do it with the form. So I've clicked on my picture. I see the little squares pop up, so I know that I'm ready to make modifications to my picture or to my image. So, once again, I click it, and I have the options to either insert a link here or do my keyboard shortcut.

And I should tell you guys that the keyboard shortcut works. This Control-K or Command-K is going to work on office apps. It's going to work if you are on Google applications. So if you're on your email, like Yahoo-- it doesn't have to be Gmail-- this keyboard shortcut should work throughout.

So I select it. I am going to Link. And I'm going to now paste the link. And I Apply. So now, when you click on the image, that URL should pop up.

So let's go back up here. I'm going to delete this link, and I'm going to link it to a Google form. Now, here I am on my Google form. And what I have done to see the link is I have to click Send. So I click send to share with my audience, and now I have different options.

I can send it to them. I could share this Google form through email, and I can send them an email. Now, sometimes you send a Google form to lots and lots of people. So if you want to maybe copy and paste everyone's email address in here, maybe that's easiest. But I find it's just easy to not send via email for myself, because I have a lot of students.

So here you go. Here is a link. By clicking on this chain link, you see the actual URL. Now, Google will shorten it. However, it is still pretty confusing.

So can you just imagine typing that URL onto your phone? I mean, copying and pasting is pretty easy, but there's a smoother way to do it. These two little arrow-looking things, these are to embed onto your website. So today we're not talking about embedding, so I'm not even going to go there.

Links-- so I have my link here. I have my link. I will copy it, and now I'm going to go back to this text. So PLEASE CLICK HERE. Once again, I have the option of clicking Insert link, Control-K, or right-click. There you go.

So now, when my students click on this link, it will take them to their Google form. Should I show that one more time, Melinda?

Melinda: Sure.

Monica Espinoza: Why not, right? So, once again, I am done with my Google form and ready to share it. So I will go to this Send button up on the top right. I will get the link for this form, I will copy it, and I will select the text that I want to hyperlink, which is just the word HERE. I will either click on the Insert link icon, I will do Control-K, or I will right-click and find the option for Link. I will then paste the link into the box, and I will Apply it. And there you go.

Now, just be careful that when you copy it, sometimes I make a little mistake, and maybe I accidentally, in this address that I copy, erase a letter or a character from this address. And I click Apply, and now-- that's why it's important that you test it out. Oh, look, it still did it. OK, well, sometimes if you make a mistake and you erase or you modify the address in some way, shape, or form, it will give an error message. So just make sure you test out your hyperlinks several times before you share-- before you write it out.

We're good on hyperlinks? So moving on to URL shorteners. Now, Bitly-- please stop me, Melinda, if I should go back to hyperlinks, OK?

Melinda: I think we're good.

Monica Espinoza: All right. So Bitly, I have created an account on Bitly. It's free. It is free, and it is wonderful.

I'm sorry, I already have an account, so it automatically takes me to this page. But I want to just search for it for you. So this is what it looks like. Will it take me-- OK. So this is what it looks like once you signed in.

Now, what you have to do is, if you notice on this page, on this window, these are all the shortened URLs that I have created in probably the last two years-- the last two, three years. Now, let's take that same-- sorry, where was it-- link for this Google form. So, once again, I click on Send, I copy the link for this form, and now I am going back.

Now, I'm ready to create. So I will select CREATE, and this little window pops up on the right. I will paste the very, very long URL. And now, if you see, it says CUSTOMIZE BACKHALF. So what I can do is either share this one that is automatically generated by Bitly, the bit.ly/323e4ag. That still seems a little confusing to me, so I'm going to maybe make it a little more-- we'll give them a little more context.

So maybe this is-- imagine it's a quiz on week two, for example. So it gives the students or whoever you're sharing this shortened URL with little more context about this link. If you see, now it is in gray and I can save it.

Oh, and then I get this error message, which says that this customization is not available. And you know why it's not available? It is because somebody else has already created a link like this. So what I have to do is now I have to tweak it. I have to keep tweaking it until I've created a unique one.

So let's say maybe quiz1week2. I'm going to try and save it, again and hopefully I'm lucky. Perfect. So now it says, link has been edited. And you can go ahead and copy it and share it with your audience.

Now, when I copy it, it looks like this-- https. Now, we don't need this, and it's more confusing when you give them https, that you have to type a little more. So I just erase it, and I just give students or other people this address, starting with bit.ly.

And now, imagine I give this to you in an email, and I don't hyperlink it. I will copy and paste this, and it will take me to this quiz. Let me repeat that one more time, and I'm going to use a different form.

So, once again, I will get the link, I will copy it, and I'm ready to create. That's a very long URL, right? So let's see. Here you go-- qrquiz. Let's see if we're lucky. OK, no.

So maybe qrquizjuly. I'm just throwing out ideas here. You can find your own way of making up your URLs. I try to give them a clue about what it is that this URL is for. So this is a quiz on QR codes, so this is qrquiz. Maybe it's testonweek1. So I find that is helpful for them, because it helps with the spelling.

And let me tell you what I have encountered. When maybe you use the letter l, for example, some students might still get confused and think that it's a 1. So when they're typing on their phone or on the computer, maybe they select the number 1 instead of l. So I try to avoid maybe some confusing letters like that. So normally I would not use July-- I wouldn't use July.

I try to make it something that's a little more relevant to them. So let me go back and change this. qrquiz-- let's do 0709. Oh, my goodness, it's invalid. So let's try qrquiz2020.

All right, that works. Perfect. So now I will copy it, and I am going to post this either on my website, like I showed you, or I'm going to send it in an email, or I will send it in the chat box. If we're in a virtual meeting, I will write it on the board. Here you go.

Are we good on URL shorteners? Any questions I can go back to?

Melinda: I think you're OK. You can just eliminate the https from the shortened URL that Bitly gives you?

Monica Espinoza: Yes, you can.

Melinda: But will it work?

Monica Espinoza: Yes, of course. So what I showed you-- I demonstrated it for you. So let me go ahead and do that again. So if we undo it so that you can see both. So here we are. We have the much longer one. So I'm going to copy it, and I'm going to paste it into a new tab so that you can see. So it takes me to where I need to go.

And now, I am going to only copy this. Here you go, no http. Here we go. There you are.

Now, if you notice--

Melinda: Monica, we didn't see that.

Monica Espinoza: Oh, ha, ha, ha. Sorry. My share-- sorry about that. Aye yai yai. OK.

Melinda: There we go. Now we see your blinker. Yeah.

Monica Espinoza: OK. So let me show you that one more time. OK, here's a long address. Now, when you type it in, if you notice, it automatically identifies it. So it is an option there. But we're going to go ahead and click enter. And I am here.

Now, if I decide to only use that beginning at bit.ly, I'll just copy that. And you see that it still pops up. It's still an option. So there you go. It works. It still takes me to the same place.

If you've noticed this trend on browsers nowadays, it's not necessary to type in that https or the www. anymore. Many times, when you type in a web address, you can eliminate those, and it will still work. So I hope that answers that question for you. May I move on?

Melinda: Absolutely. And we've got about 15 minutes.

Monica Espinoza: Oh, my goodness.

Melinda: Time flies.

Monica Espinoza: I know, time flies when you're having fun. So up next we've got our QR code generators. So as I shared with you through the little QR quiz that you took, I shared the website that I like to use. It's free, and it will let you create as many QR codes as you want. So what I do is I type in the address, and it automatically takes me to this page. This is the home page.

So what I will do, when creating a QR code, is you have to select the URL option. Now, if you remember, I already have my link from my Google form. So I will-- oh, no, sorry. I have to get it one more time. There you go. So now, it automatically generates a little picture for you, and that is your QR code.

What you have to do now is you have to save it. So you will just-- sorry-- here you go. You have some options for size. You want to make it bigger or smaller. This is a standard size that I use. I think this is a good size. And all you would do is you would just save it.

Melinda: Monica, do you need an account to use this? Is it free?

Monica Espinoza: It is free. Yes, it is free. And that is a lovely part about it that you do not need an account for this. So you could just come on this website, generate as many QR codes as you want. There's no commitment to signing in or anything like that.

So now, what I would do is I would save it. And it's going to download it to your computer as an image In whatever in whichever format you choose. So I always PNG. That works for me. And I'm going to save it.