My school, like most schools, has its staff fill out all kinds of forms, everything from emergency contact information to technology support requests. The forms are then collected and saved in folders or binders and accessed when needed. I have grown tired of this paper chase, often finding myself wishing I had ready access to much of the information on these forms.
This school year we are going to start to do something about it. We will be utilizing online web based forms to capture this information. In this particular example we are using a tool from Jotforms. Jotforms provides a browser-based drag and drop method for creating forms and then provides access so that your clients can provide the information. The responses are saved in a data file with many export options, including Excel, tab delimited and RSS. Email notification is also an option, so that those responsible for actions associated with a request can be quickly alerted via email. The company offers free and premium levels of access.
Next Tip: Web Based Databases
