Welcome to the Misfit Behaviorist Podcast. Join your hosts, Audra Jensen and Caitlin Beltran, here to bring you evidence based strategies with a student centered focus. Listen weekly for practical and functional advice, along with actionable tips tailored for ABA professionals, special education teachers, and anyone dedicated to supporting students with diverse needs.
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Audra Jensen: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Misfit Behaviors Podcast. Today we are going to be talking about.
Caitlin Beltran: We are talking about data collection today, which if you're If you're working in any kind of ABA setting, this is not your first conversation about data, hopefully.
But specifically, we are going to be talking about Google Sheets, which I'm just going to nerd out about how much I love it. And I want to share. For me, the three main reasons why I think it's so ideal for data collection, and I do want to start by saying, you know, when I first started in the field, we were doing everything paper and pencil and then starting to use Excel.
So it was really tough for me to switch from Excel to Google Sheets. Because I loved Excel almost as much as I now love Google Sheets and there's still like a few features that they have that Google Sheets quite doesn't have, but by and large, it's just so much easier using the Google system for so many reasons, and we are, my district is really small, so we do not have like a prepackaged company like data warehouse that we use, and so I know some school districts probably do and might use additional things just as needed, but Audra, what were you using in the schools that you were consulting in?
Audra Jensen: In schools, so initially I've been through paper and pencil, which was for many years, the binders, everybody knows the big fat binders that we all had. and then in clinical setting, we switched to some data collection measures, which, you know, everybody had an iPad and did it that way. Those were great pros and cons to both those systems. In the school setting, I've done a combination of both. I think with most of the time, like with the staff that are moving around and stuff, the clipboard, pencil and paper still works best for raw data, but then I'm super much a fan of inputting that raw data into Google Sheets and creating beautiful, very easy to create graphs.
And so I, I have done mostly kind of a combination hybrid of pencil and paper and Google Sheets also.
Caitlin Beltran: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. I mean, I, we still use just those raw printable data sheets, pen, pencil, whatever, because for the most part, if you're on the go, like if you're moving around the classroom around the school, especially if you're tracking like frequency of a behavior or a skill, unless you have a really, you know, user friendly tablet or whatever device that is specifically for that, and you're not worried about it getting thrown or broken, there's still a lot of merit in the paper and pencil for the initial phase. But then, like you said, I'm transferring everything over digitally as soon as possible.
So I'm actually going to share my screen, just to show you the first reason that I love using Sheets is because unlike using Excel, anytime I update this, like let's just say I made a mistake here and I want to change this. It's going to update automatically first of all, but then whoever I've shared this with is also going to see that change.
So I don't need to go and email another file or you know something like that and you can see whoever I'm sharing this with can view it or I can set it if I have like a para or a teacher who's editing it. So I don't have to worry about if I share this with you Oh, no, you have permission to go in and edit everything.
I know it's pretty self explanatory, but a lot of people don't understand, like, you can share it with editing rights, you can share it with viewing rights, you can share Google Doc with commenting rights. So it doesn't mean that you are giving up control of your data, but it's just so much easier in real time to have one sheet shared with your whole team and not have to worry about emailing back and forth.
Audra Jensen: I've talked to different teachers. I've been working with a lot of teachers and educators who have used the Google Forms and the QR code systems. I've done a little bit of Google Forms for certain things, but I've never been very successful at getting the whole QR code stack.
Caitlin Beltran: Okay. So QR codes were my obsession this year. So that's been like my latest project is if there's any kind of, I use them for mostly like the simple data input. So this would be an example. Like if we're tracking two behaviors frequency. And every, if there's just like a, say we're using clickers and then at the end of the day, they're putting, okay, today, the behaviors were 10 and two at the end of the day or the week.
I put the QR code right on the printable data sheet. So I'll make the QR code, which is I first I make the Google form. Then I link the. Google form to the QR code and I'm going to have to maybe put this on Instagram like a step by step. Then I paste the QR code onto the printable data sheet. So when staff are taking the data, say on Fridays, they take their phone, scan it and literally just enter in the numbers from the week or they could do it every day.
And then again, I have this spreadsheet here and then I am in another building or in another classroom. I don't have to do anything. I just see one that when the data pops up from them entering it through the. The QR code, the form. I would say the second reason that I love using Google Sheets is that once I have a template that I like, and you will see I do like my color coding and just, you know, making it look pretty because I feel like I'm going to look at it all the time.
Why not? And it also just, this is just alternating colors. So if I hit the Select all, and I go to format, alternating colors. You can, you know, easily change whatever color scheme you like. but once I have that, I don't have to do anything else to make this for every learner and classroom that I'm using it for.
So, like, this is my example here. If I go to this arrow and duplicate, and what I'd most likely do is have, a blank shell, and then I'd call this, like, blank behavior data. And then I can copy this to an entirely different sheet if I want for another learner or just make copies and maybe even change the color for each learner in that classroom.
But it just saves so much time. Like I really also kind of enjoy using sheets and not using a prepackaged system because I do like it very specific ways. I like having control over. Yes, ultimate control over here.
Audra Jensen: How do you use the results, the graphs or whatever in either progress reports or reporting to teachers or families? How are you using the data?
Caitlin Beltran: Oh, that's a great question. So I would say. For the most part, and I'm sure this is going to vary district to district, classroom to classroom, we're not often just sharing out the raw data to families because, not that we don't want to be transparent, but it's, it can be a lot, I think, as a family member to just kind of get this and say, oh, you can check it anytime you want and, you know, if you're not working in the classroom every day and doing this every day without explanation and context, it just might not make sense. That being said, there are families that it was a good fit for us to do that with.
Sometimes what we'll do at the very least is when it's progress reporting time, what I, I'm checking this all the time and looking for trends and patterns, but say for progress reporting, I'm going to take the last five or 10 days or something, and then easily, in addition to just looking at the graph, I can go up here and get like an average count and it makes my progress reporting because I'll say over the last two weeks, they were averaging about five behaviors a day or something like that. Other things we do are with families will set up like a more of a narrative communication, like whether it's an email or a Google doc and I'm taking the raw data and I'm kind of again contextualizing it in my communication with parents.
So I'm still saying physically, you know, they had an average of five behaviors a day this week, but these were the triggers. These are the strategies. And I find that to be more efficient, more successful when I'm sharing the data. I would say the final reason that I personally love using Sheets, and I'll just keep saying that, is that it's very hard to lose your data.
Literally, unless you're going up to this file menu and going move to the trash, which I would wager is very hard to accidentally do. and then you're still going to get you know, this message and you're still going to get. Nope. I made a mistake. I'm going to take it out of the trash.
Audra Jensen: You still get access 30 days into it to.
Caitlin Beltran: 30 days later. You can realize, oh, my gosh, I had a nightmare and I sleepwalk to my computer and I move that file to the trash. you can still recover it. And so it's never happened. I'm sure there's a possibility of it happening along the way, but it's pretty difficult to lose your data, which is something that makes me feel better in when I'm taking paper and pencil data and then transferring it over.
I used to keep those papers forever because I was like, what if I lose something or what if everything crashes? I can sign into Google anywhere. So there's virtually such little risk of losing that. And I have grown to love shredding because of how fast I can get rid of that data. So that's just an added bonus is you get to use your shredder more often.
Audra Jensen: So I got a question for you. Do you use this primarily for behavior data or do you also use it for skill acquisition?
Caitlin Beltran: So I did have an example I wanted to share with you. This is how I would use it for skill acquisition data. So again, we are taking data in that paper and pencil just because you're working right with the learner.
You're, you're, you know, making your notes and scribbles. But at the end of the day or end of the week, I'm trying to transfer into here so I can see. all those patterns. Now, this is an example of like one learner's kind of program on one graph. Other ways to do it would be, a program, a graph just for one separate program, or if you're taking probe data, just check boxes.
And sometimes again, I'll put a formula at the end. So I'm calculating, you know, the percentage correct over the week or the month, because not everything lends itself to trial by trial percentage data every single day.
So that made me think of I've used sheets, too. Mine aren't as pretty as yours. I'm going to have to make mine prettier. Now that I've seen yours, but I want to show you.
Caitlin Beltran: It's a little bit addicting.
Audra Jensen: It's great. I just, I very much like your eye for detail.
So I appreciate that. So here's one. But what I wanted to show is that I like doing this as well. And I set up different sets here. And one of the best things that I love doing is being able to print this section right here. And then you get,
Caitlin Beltran: Oh, perfect.
Audra Jensen: You know, your goal, all of the sets and this, and this is what I'm doing, you know, a full program for, you know, ABA kids and stuff where I can, you know, every month I can print out all of the different programs are working on in a very pretty form.
And then some families do appreciate getting this as well. And it just, it's just so pretty. It's so pretty. I am a big fan of it as well.
Caitlin Beltran: It's so visual. And I feel like anything we can do to make it easier and more seamless, just less response effort, it's going to be more likely that we're going to stick with it and keep doing it consistently.
Audra Jensen: Exactly, so where can I find those pretty examples that I can start making mine look better?
Caitlin Beltran: So I'm going to share, a slideshow that I put together on just the basics of Google Sheets, and I'll just show you right now. So I know a lot of times if people want to start using Sheets, and if you jump right in, there's little features that will trip you up.
So I put this together and it's, there's some video examples. It's just kind of what each feature refers to. And I know some people are like visual learners or like to read and then at the end, I'll just link a sample spreadsheet and that way if you haven't used sheets and you want to start messing around with it, you know, go for it and then come back and find us on YouTube or Instagram and let us know what you think, how it worked or what went wrong, what we can help with.
Audra Jensen: Hey, that was fantastic. Like I said, I'm a super, you know, one of my favorite shirts is like Data or it didn't happen. That's because we use data. We like data because it, it takes that emotion piece out of it and doing this sort of digital data collection, making it so visual and so easy for staff to use and for parents to understand.
When you're talking, especially to a parent and trying to help them understand the progress of a student or not, being able to show them, you know, in black and white or in pretty blue, pink and red, that, that progress is being made. It just, it feels really good to have that. So I love that. So very grateful that you are the pro at this, and we'll be coming back to you with more questions, I'm sure.
Caitlin Beltran: I would welcome any conversation or question about Google Sheets if you can't already tell . And I love learning new things too, so sometimes people are like, oh, can you help me with this? And I'm like, yeah, but how'd you do that?
So I'm just always adding tools to my toolbox. But definitely comment on our YouTube channel or find us on Instagram if you do have questions or what you wanna see next. Don't forget to follow us on Apple or Spotify, wherever you're listening. Check us out on YouTube and join the Facebook group, The Misfit Behaviorists, so you can just join the conversation and talk about what you want to hear next.
Audra Jensen: Oh, and tune in next week, and we'll bring you another action filled episode with The Misfit Behaviorists. See y'all later.
Caitlin Beltran: See you next week.
Thanks for listening to the Misfit Behaviorist. And be sure to tune in next week for more tips and tricks. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode.