Create a question

This article is for teachers.

As a Classroom teacher, you can post short-answer or multiple-choice questions. After you post a question, you can track the number of students who responded. You can also draft questions to post later and post a question to individual students.

Create a question 

In classes created after April 17, 2019, posts to the Classwork page appear at the top.

When you create a question, you can:

• Select one or more classes
• Assign it to one or more students
• Add a grade category
• Change the point value
• Create a multiple-choice question
• Add a due date or time
• Add a topic
• Add attachments

Create a question

1. Go to classroom.google.com and click Sign In.

   Sign in with your Google Account. For example, [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Learn more.

2. Click the classClasswork.
3. At the top, click CreateQuestion.
   
4. Enter the question and any instructions.
5. For short-answer questions, students can edit their answer and reply to each other. You can turn these options on or off.
   • Students can edit answer—To allow students to edit their answer after submitting, click the switch to the on position  .

     Note: Students can only edit their answer before you grade it.

   • Students can reply to each other—To allow students to view and comment on classmates' answers after answering the question, click the switch to the on position .
     To prevent students from seeing each other's answers, click the switch to the off position .

Note: There is no character limit for short-answer questions.

Select one or more classes

Under For, click the Down arrow select the class or classes you want to include.

Note: You can’t post to individual students across multiple classes. Posts to multiple classes are shared with all students in the classes.

Assign to one or more students

By default, a question is posted to all students in the class. You can post a question to individual students. However, you can’t post to individual students if more than one class is included. And, you can’t post to more than 100 individual students at a time.

1. Next to All students, click the Down arrow All students to deselect it.
   
2. Select the students for the question.

   Note: On the Stream page, on the question, you'll see the number of students asked. To view the students’ names, click number students on the question.

Add a grade category

For organization, you can add grade categories to questions. With grade categories, you and your students can see the category a question belongs to, such as Homework or Essays. Teachers also see the categories on the Grades page.

Under Grade category, click the Down arrow select a category from the menu.
For more information on grade categories, go to Add a grade category to posts or Set up grading.

Change the point value

You can change the point value of a question, or make it ungraded. By default, questions are set at 100 points.

1. Under Points, click the value.
   
2. Enter a new point value or select Ungraded.
   Note: When students answer an ungraded question, they click Turn in. If students miss a due date, the work status shows Missing or Turned in late. Work without a due date shows Assigned.

Create a multiple-choice question

1. Next to Short answer, click the Down arrow Multiple choice.
   
2. Click Option 1 and enter the first answer option.
   
3. Click Add option and add as many options as you want.
4. (Optional) To delete an option, next to it, click Remove .

5. By default, when students turn in a question, they see a class summary of answers. To turn off this feature, next to Students can see class summary, click the switch to the off position .

Add a due date or time

By default, a question has no due date. To change this:

1. Under Due, click the Down arrow .
   
2. Next to No due date, click the Down arrow .
   
3. Click a date on the calendar.
4. (Optional) To set a due time, click Timeenter a time and specify AM or PM.
   Note: Work is marked Missing or Turned in late as soon as the date or time due arrives. For example, for work to be on time at 9:00 AM, set the time due to 9:01 AM. For instructions to check work status, go to See work status and student answers.

Add a topic

1. Under Topic, click the Down arrow .
   
2. Choose an option:
   • To create a topic, click Create topic and enter a topic name. 
   • To select a topic in the list, click it.

Learn more about how to organize your class stream.

Add attachments

You can add materials, such as Google Drive files, links, or YouTube videos to your question.

To upload a file, click Attach . Select the file and click Upload.

To attach a Google Drive file:

1. Click Drive .
2. Select the item and click Add.
   Note: If you see a message that you don’t have permission to attach a file, click Copy. Classroom makes a copy to attach to the question and saves it to the class Drive folder.

To attach a YouTube video, click YouTube and choose an option:

• To search for a video to attach:
  1. In the search box, enter keywords and click Search .
  2. Click the videoAdd.
• To attach a video link:
  1. Click URL.
  2. Enter the URL and click Add.

To attach a link, click Link , enter the URL, and click Add Link.

To delete an attachment, next to it, click Remove .

Post, schedule, or save a draft question

Note: If you see a message that you don’t have permission to attach a file, click Copy. Classroom makes a copy to attach to the question and saves it to the class Drive folder.

To post the question immediately, click Ask.

To schedule the question to post later:

1. Follow the steps above to create a question and select classes.
   • To schedule the same question across multiple classes, make sure to select all classes you want to include.
2. Next to Ask, click the Down arrow Schedule.
3. Next to the date, click the Down arrow  and select a publish date and time for each class.
   • When you enter a time, Classroom defaults to PM unless you specify AM.  
4. For multiple classes only:
   • (Optional) Select a due date and topic for each class.
   • (Optional) To replicate your selected time and date for the first class into all subsequent classes, click Copy settings to all. 
5. Click Schedule. The question will automatically post at the scheduled date and time.
   Note: Scheduled questions might be delayed up to 5 minutes after the post time.

To save the question as a draft, next to Ask, click the Down arrow Save draft.  

To see scheduled and draft questions, click Classwork.

Edit a question

Note: If a question is posted to several classes, editing it in one class doesn't change it in any other class.

1. Go to classroom.google.com and click Sign In.

   Sign in with your Google Account. For example, [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Learn more.

2. Click the classClasswork.
3. Next to the question, click More Edit.
   
4. Choose an option:
   • For a posted question: Make your changes and click Save.
   • For a scheduled question: Make your changes and click Schedule.
   • For a draft question: Make your changes. Then, next to Ask, click the Down arrow Save draft.

Add a class comment to a question

1. Go to classroom.google.com and click Sign In.

   Sign in with your Google Account. For example, [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Learn more.

2. At the top, click Classworkthe questionView Question.
3. To add a comment to the class, at the top, click Question.
   
4. Click Add class comment, enter your comment, and click Post.

Reuse a question

To reuse a question, see Reuse a post.

Delete a question

If you delete a question, all grades and comments related to the question are deleted. However, any attachments or files created by you or your students are still available in Google Drive.

Warning! Once deleted, there's no way to undo deleting a question.

1. Go to classroom.google.com and click Sign In.

   Sign in with your Google Account. For example, [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Learn more.

2. Click your classClasswork.
3. Next to the question, click More Delete.
4. To confirm, click Delete again.

Have students see or add comments to a question

When you create a question, you can instruct students to leave class comments. In both multiple-choice and short-answer questions, students can read and respond to class comments. Students can also comment privately to teachers.

To learn how to manage student comments, go to Set student permissions to post and comment.

Related articles

• Add a grade category to posts
• Edit or delete a published post
• Grade and return question answers
• Set student permissions to post and comment
• Use a screen reader with Classroom on your computer