Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Much thanks to Luis Escolar for his contributions to this page! (bitschips@gmail.com)

Please send to me any errata you can find in order to correct. Thanks.

Q: What if I don't find the answer to my question on this page?

A: Checkout the Flubaroo Discussion forum, where you can search existing questions and answers, or ask your own question!

Q: When should I use Flubaroo, and when should I use quizzes in Google Forms?

A: See this help center article for a discussion of this question.

Q: Why is Flubaroo using an incorrect row as the answer row?

Always check that the correct row is being used for grading when setting up Autograde, Grading or doing a Re-Grade.

What causes the answer row to move? Google Forms puts the next submission where it thinks it should go or the Student Submission sheet was sorted.

Follow these steps to avoid a future problem:.

      • Create the Form

      • Enter one row to be used as the answer row.

      • Do not include row two in any sorts.

If you find that the correct row was not used for grading, you will have to manually re-grade, remove the "x" in the emailed column and send the corrected grades.

Q: Can Flubaroo send grades automatically?

A: Yes! You must activate this option using the menu "Add-ons/Flubaroo/Advanced/Enable Autograde". You can read more about new version right here.

Note: As you know, Gmail has a email quota for normal users, that is, you only can send 100 emails per day. If you reach this limit, you wont be able to send more emails during the day. If you reach this limit several times, your Gmail account could be deactivated, so test your email quota before grade.

For check the email quota, you can use the menu option "Add-ons/Flubaroo/Advanced/Check email Quota" in new version.

Q: How is student data protected or shared by Flubaroo?

A: Student data collected via Forms is stored in the Form or destination Google Sheet. Flubaroo processes this data, but does not share or export it, or the results, outside of the sheet. So all student data (including responses to questions, and grades) generated by Flubaroo remains in the teacher's G Suite for Education account. The only caveats are (1) emails sent by Flubaroo and (2) teachers sharing the sheet with others. For (1), those emails include only information for the particular student being emailed.

See our Student Privacy FAQs for more.

Q: Is Flubaroo GDPR Compliant?

A: Yes. Per GDPR, Flubaroo is a Data Controller for individuals using it. All of your Flubaroo related data resides in your Google Drive though. Flubaroo only acts on this data, and doesn't store any of it itself. So as far as GDPR goes for things like data portability, right to be forgotten, and access & restriction, Flubaroo is GDPR compliant because Google Drive is. Flubaroo also asks for all consent/permission upon install, and can be uninstalled by the user at any time, with all grades remaining in the users Google Drive account afterwards. The only data actually collected by Flubaroo outside of Google Drive is either (1) anonymized data (Google Analytics) or (2) data provided voluntarily by teachers to myself for debugging purposes (via email or Google Drive) when investigating an issue. And I'm always happy to immediately delete said emails or documents upon a teacher's request.

See our Student Privacy FAQs for more.

Q: Why can't I see the button to move to the next step? (don't use internet explorer)

A: We recommend using Google Chrome, as other browsers sometimes don't work as well. If you use another browser sometimes you won't see the button to move to next step in Flubaroo windows.

Tip: In this cases you can press the Tab key repeatedly to navigate inside the window.

You can use TAB key to navigate Flubaroo window

Q: What am I being asked to authorize when I install Flubaroo?

A: When you install Flubaroo you will see this authorization window appear:

Flubaroo needs these permissions so it can:

    • Read the contents of the sheet where it is run from.

    • Write to the same sheet (to create the "Grades" sheet).

    • Email grades to your students.

    • Create and share Drive documents if you share grades via Drive, or print grades.

    • Report anonymous usage stats (this is the "Connect to an external service" message).

Flubaroo will never:

    • Access any document in your Google Drive that it isn't explicitly run from (except for the ones it creates itself).

    • Share your information or your students information outside of the:

      • sheet you run it in

      • emails you send to your student or yourself.

Also see the edCode.org combined Terms of Service & Privacy Policy document.

Q: How can I avoid sending grades to some students?

A: Just place an 'x' in the "Emailed Grade?" column. Flubaroo will think it already sent that student an email, and so will skip sending them one when you select "Email Grades" from the menu. This works for sharing via Google Drive too.

Q: What domain/IP does Flubaroo send emails from? I need to whitelist it in my domain.

A: maestro.bounces.google.com

Q: Does Flubaroo handle partial credit questions?

A: Yes, in several ways:

You can grade a question by hand and assign it any score you like.

You can grade checkbox style questions in which partial credit can be given.

You can grade the question using a formula. See flubaroo-power-users .

Q: Why are my questions not showing in Flubaroo?

There are no descriptions of the questions in row one of the spreadsheet. Make sure the Question Title is used on the Google Form and not the Help Text to identify the questions.

Add some titles for the questions and Flubaroo should work. Flubaroo gets all its information from the Spreadsheet and doesn't look at the Form.

You can copy the Help Text to the Question Title on the Form and then select a new destination and the titles will be in the spreadsheet.

Q: Are there other Google integrated alternatives to Flubaroo?

A: The AutoCrat and FormMule tools, also created by a teacher, can be used for grading and are in some ways more powerful than Flubaroo. They do require more setup and advanced knowledge though. See a comparison here.