Spice Up Your Instruction With Nearpod!

By Emily Brennan, MLIS, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC Library)

Do you want an easy way to jazz up your instruction and make it more interactive? Then check out Nearpod! Nearpod is an online classroom tool for teachers to engage students with interactive lessons. You can create a very basic presentation from within Nearpod but I think it is best to import a PowerPoint then add interactive features throughout your presentation. Once you complete your presentation, students join the presentation by going to Nearpod (app or website) and entering a code. Students see the presentation (controlled by you) on their device and participate in the interactive features. You can share their answers with the class or keep them private.

The free version (Silver Account) allows up to 30 devices to join the session and includes 50MB of storage. If you get 5 friends to sign-up for Nearpod (via your invitation), you can freely upgrade to the Gold Account for 6 months. The Gold Account ($10/month) includes the additional features of assigning homework, receiving detailed reports, integrating multimedia, and 3GB of storage.


Content and features that you can add to a free presentation include:

• Video: Add videos from your computer, Dropbox, Box, YouTube, or Google Drive. You could add a YouTube video of how to export PubMed citations to EndNote.
• Slideshow: Add a collection of images that students can browse through at their own speed. Upload images from Google Images, your computer, Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive.
• Audio: Add audio from your computer, Dropbox, Box, YouTube, or Google Drive. You could add a podcast.
• Open-ended question: Students have a text field in which to type their answer. You could ask, “What questions do you have about PubMed?”
• Poll: Students answer your question with predefined answers, and there is no correct answer. You could ask, “What is your favorite PubMed feature?”
• Quiz: Students answer your question with predefined answers, but there is a correct answer. You could ask, “What is MeSH?”
• Draw it: Students draw on a white board or on an image that you have uploaded. You could say, “Circle the PubMed filters that you would use.”

For the open-ended question, poll, and quiz features, Nearpod puts the responses in a graphical
format that you can then share with the class (or not). Those responses are also saved in your account. Nearpod makes it quick and simple to make a presentation more interactive.

Emily Brennan, MLIS, is a Research and Education Librarian at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Library, and when not working, loves spending time with her two children and chihuahua.