How can we turn static lessons into exciting and meaningful learning tools for our students? Nearpod is the answer! Along with utilizing digital lessons and resources to keep our students motivated, Nearpod is also a huge time saver. Let’s start creating!

What is Nearpod?

Nearpod is best described as a learning tool that enables educators to create, share, and add interactivity to their lessons for K-12 students. Nearpod’s free website offers a way to add formative assessments, videos, and several other forms of engagement into daily lessons. Nearpod can also be accessed from any internet-connected device, which is a big plus for remote or hybrid learning.

Nearpod can be used for whole group instruction, quick reflections, gamified activities, and more. One of our favorite components of Nearpod is that you can save time with pre-made content from the Nearpod Library, and convert your personal PowerPoint, Google Slides, and PDFs into Nearpod presentations. As you will quickly learn, the media that can be added in Nearpod will be perfect for keeping your students hooked on learning.

Let’s get started

Educators: Access the Nearpod website and choose to log in (with Google or Office 365) or sign up with a new account to begin creating and utilizing content.

Students: Students join a lesson by entering a code – no account needed! Teachers simply share the code with students.

Lesson options

Pre-made: In the Nearpod Lesson Library, you’re able to choose from a variety of lessons that can be customized to meet the needs of your students. Search by standards, grade, and subject. From here you can preview any ready-made lessons and add to your library. You will then be able to make edits and adapt these lessons to meet the needs of your students by going through each slide and adding or removing content.

Convert your lessons: Utilize the lessons that you already have by easily importing PDFs, PPTs, PNGs, and more. From there, you can add in Nearpod features such as Memory Test, Virtual Field Trips, videos, and several other engagement tools.

Create: Create your own lessons from scratch, or choose from activities on Nearpod, adding interactivity to your lessons via questions and prompts. Here is a snapshot of some of the content and activities you can use to build an interactive and engaging lesson.

Live lessons: Teachers will share a lesson with their students and once they enter the code, the lesson will be shared to all of their devices so they can follow along with the teacher and respond to prompts along the way. A huge benefit with this method is that teachers are able to see students’ live responses.

Student-paced: Similar to the live lessons, teachers will share a lesson code. Once the code is shared, students will complete the assignment at their own pace.

Google Slides

Extension: Add Nearpod into your Google Slides with the Nearpod for Classroom Extension. Once it is installed, you can access add-ons after logging into your Nearpod account. On the right-side bar, you’ll see all of the options that are available to add right into your Google Slides. This is a great way to keep your lesson materials organized and engaging at the same time. You can also save right to your Nearpod lesson library.

To learn more about Nearpod, check out our Getting Started with Nearpod course on the OTIS for educators platform.

For more tips, tricks, and tools for teaching in and out of the classroom, check out more articles on the Teq Talk blog.

We also offer virtual professional development, training, and remote learning support for educators with OTIS for educators. Explore the technology, tools, and strategies that can spark student success — no matter where teaching or learning are happening.