Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

What you need to know before creating a Nearpod lesson

As you begin creating lessons for students, it is important to understand Nearpod’s features. Interactive slides are broken down into three major categories:

Creation media

Slides, Sways, and Slideshows hold the essential content to guide your learners through the interactive lesson. The most common content media educators use is slides.

Dynamic media

Incorporate 3D objects, Simulations, and VR Field Trips to breathe life into your content, fostering a deeper understanding.

Interactive activities

Engage your students with captivating activities like Time to Climb, Draw It, Open-Ended Questions, and Collaborate Boards, which capture the pivotal moments of learning.

How to create a lesson on Nearpod

Our Lesson Builder features a user-friendly design familiar to those who have experience with tools like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Step 1: Launch the Lesson Builder

Click on “Create” and select “Lesson” to launch the Lesson Builder.

Step 2: Choose your slides

Select “Slides” from the Activity Selector. The Slide Editor offers a variety of pre-designed templates and layout features, enabling you to curate content slides for your lessons. Unleash your creative style in text boxes, leveraging rich-text capabilities and the Nearpod Equation Editor. Layer images, GIFs, and even your own audio directly onto slides. Create your content even faster using the new quick add slide button!

Step 3: Incorporate interactive media and activities

Click “Add New” to continue adding Dynamic Media and Activities, to finish building your interactive lesson.

Include activities from the Nearpod lesson library to customize your lesson using the Activity Bank. With thousands of pre-made Time to Climb quizzes and Matching Pairs, Drag and Drop, and Draw It activities, teachers can easily customize any lesson in Nearpod with standards-aligned activities.

Step 4: Input lesson details to stay organized

Click on “Lesson Details” to give your lesson a title, provide a description for the lesson, and tag the lesson with relevant grade levels and subjects. This metadata enhances searchability, making it easier to find and share your lessons.

Step 5: Launch and observe the magic

Launch your lesson in either Live Participation or Student-Paced modes and see the impact of Nearpod in action!

Tips for creating your own Nearpod lesson

As you design interactive lessons for students, here are some tips to get you started!

Tip #1: Use the lesson library for inspiration

It can be difficult knowing where to start when building lessons for your students. Nearpod’s curriculum team comprises former educators who design lessons around the latest research into active learning strategies, such as the 5 E’s Model and Guided Inquiry. Filter the Nearpod Library by grade level, subject, or state standards to discover new ways to approach your content. You can even copy and paste library resource content directly into your lessons!

Tip #2: Use what you already have

We know you already have amazing resources in other formats. Use the Upload Slides feature to quickly upload your PowerPoints and Google Slides into Nearpod, transforming them from static presentations to lessons for your students. You can even use worksheets for Draw It or Drag and Drop activities. Learn more about how to convert your existing presentations into a Nearpod lesson.

Tip #3: Enhance your Google Slides with the Nearpod Add-On

If you prefer to “Nearpodize” your existing Google Slides while working within the familiar Slides tool set, school or district users can integrate Nearpod activities and dynamic media content directly with the Nearpod add-on! With the Nearpod Slides add-on, your embedded hyperlinks stay active, and Microsoft Immersive Reader will be able to read all the text on your Slides to support all learners.

Learn more about integrating your Nearpod lessons in Google Slides.

Tip #4: Organize ALL of your digital resources in one space

As we incorporate technology into our classrooms, it is easy to lose students to an array of open tabs. Direct students to specific websites, district curricular resources, or collaborative learning experiences with Google or Microsoft tools quickly and easily, using Nearpod’s Web Content feature. Using Web Content, all of those links can be easily integrated directly into your interactive lessons, ensuring you and your students are always on the same page. Learn more about enhancing your lessons with Web Content.

Tip #5: Combine dynamic media and activities

When creating lessons, it is important to remember all of the magic you have available to you in Nearpod. VR Field Trips, PhET Simulations, and 3D objects help the learning come to life. But did you know that you can easily pair that dynamic media content with one of Nearpod’s activities to truly make student thinking visible?

• Combine several VR Field Trips for a compare and contrast interactive classroom activity. Students can explore the various locations and then use a Collaborate Board to discuss or even debate their findings with their peers.
• Add a blank Draw It after a Simulation for students to upload their discoveries. First, they experience the simulation and then take a screenshot of their work. They can upload their image and then annotate right on top of it to explain what they have uncovered. 
• Create a Drag & Drop activity to label the parts of a cell using a screenshot of a 3D object. Students can explore the cell in their browser and then demonstrate their understanding by correctly labeling the various parts they have seen.

Start creating lessons on Nearpod

Whether you are using pre-made lessons from the Nearpod Library, enhancing your own materials, or even working directly in Google Slides, Nearpod makes it easy to create lessons for your students’ learning needs.

Foster a love of learning in every student with Nearpod. Teachers can sign up for free below to access and create interactive lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post How to create interactive lessons for students with Nearpod appeared first on Nearpod Blog.

Our latest product updates for the upcoming back to school season meet the needs of educators and equip them with the necessary tools to deliver effective instruction and facilitate engaging learning experiences!

Teachers and administrators can log in below to start using these updates. If you’re new to Nearpod, sign up for free or schedule a call with an expert.

What’s new with Nearpod: Back to School 2023

Discover Nearpod’s latest product updates for Back to School 2023! This PDF highlights the introduction of live teacher-to-student feedback, a simplified Lesson Builder, Search Enhancements for easier lesson planning, and more. With over 22,000 high-quality lessons, videos, and activities in the extensive standards-aligned library, Nearpod equips educators with the tools to support every student’s unique needs and foster a love for learning. Teachers and administrators can log in or sign up to access these new features. Don’t miss out on these exciting updates—download the PDF now and get ready for a successful back to school season!

Visualize and support student understanding with real-time feedback and insights

We are so excited to introduce Nearpod’s live teacher-to-student feedback feature, just in time for back to school (a TOP requested feature—we mean it when we say your feedback matters and we listen)! With this new feature, teachers can provide LIVE feedback on students’ work, allowing them to intervene in the moment. Teachers can quickly identify common misconceptions or provide additional help when students need it the most, ultimately boosting student engagement and achievement.

What can you expect with live teacher-to-student feedback?

• Direct feedback on individual students’ work in drawable activities, such as Draw It, Drag & Drop, and Math Manipulatives* (math manipulatives are exclusive to the Nearpod Math Program)
• Access to a wealth of real-time insights and adjust your instruction on the spot to better support each student’s unique needs

Create engaging lessons right in Nearpod with a new, simplified Lesson Builder

In addition to live feedback, we’re debuting our NEW Lesson Builder experience. We believe teachers are the architects behind creating engaging and interactive lessons that support student learning; to better support this, we’ve completely overhauled our Lesson Builder, making it easier for teachers to create captivating and personalized lessons. With our intuitive interface, teachers can craft dynamic lessons catering to their students’ needs and learning styles.

Additionally, our extensive standards-aligned content library offers a plethora of easy-to-customize, pre-existing materials. Whether teachers prefer to start from scratch or modify existing content, Nearpod’s Lesson Builder provides the tools to create captivating lessons that captivate and inspire students.

What can you expect with the new Lesson Builder? 

• Create and build lessons with a streamlined, familiar experience 
• Quicker and easier lesson creation functionality—build, edit, and reorder slides and activities

More exciting updates!

Focus on teaching, not just searching for supplemental resources in the Nearpod library with Global Search Enhancements: 

• New search filter to easily find lessons created by specific publishers 
• New lesson counters 
• Related search term suggestions to better refine search results

The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to dive into Nearpod’s extensive standards-aligned library. Our goal is to minimize your planning time so that you can focus on teaching and engaging with your students. With over 22,000 high-quality lessons, videos, and activities, the Nearpod library is packed with ready-to-use resources.

Curious to learn more about our exceptional content and trusted partners? Discover how to find free quality lessons and teaching resources.

Seamless and secure integration with the new implementation of LTI 1.3.

• LTI 1.3 provides an optimized learning journey that combines streamlined processes, advanced security features, and enhanced user authentication

Start using these Nearpod updates now!

We hope you are as excited about these new product updates as we are. After all – your feedback fueled them! Teachers are at the center of everything we do, we’re determined to provide you the tools and resources you need so you can focus on doing more of what you love – delivering impactful instruction and positive student outcomes.

Here’s to a great back to school season — you’ve got this, and we’ve got you!

Teachers and administrators can log in below to start using these updates. If you’re new to Nearpod, sign up for free or schedule a call with an expert.

Nearpod Team

Nearpod’s award-winning platform is used by thousands of schools around the globe, transforming classroom engagement.

nearpod.com/

The post What’s new with Nearpod: Back to school 2023 appeared first on Nearpod Blog.