If you want a full look at what Nearpod is and how to best use it check out the post all about Nearpod.

What’s New

Nearpod has long been the preeminent way for teachers to push content and assessments to students and much of it is FREE. Over the last few years though they have introduced a number of new features that you may not be familiar with as well as updating their iOS app. Here’s a quick run-down.

Visualization

• Slide Themes – These themes should have been around long ago, and, though they’re only in beta mode, I expect more to come. There are also more layouts.
• Audio Recorder – You have been able to upload audio to slides for some time, but now you can record yourself directly in Nearpod.
• Student View – This is also a feature that teachers have wanted for a while the ability to switch to a student view and back to a teacher view while projecting the lesson.
•  BBC Videos – There are now 100+ lessons that feature science and history lessons with BBC worldwide videos.
• PhET Simulations – These digital math and science interactives can now be directly embedded in your slides.
• Nearpod VR and Nearpod 3D – These aren’t that new, but you may not have gotten the opportunity to delve into the immersive experiences that they allow.

Assessment

• Editing Responses – Students can edit their responses which is exactly as it should be since mastery and not one-time examinations should be our goal.
• Better Quizzes – You can now make much longer quizzes and answers with up to 15 answer choices and questions that are easier to edit and organize. Students can also see their quiz results in real time if enabled in settings.
• Better Collaboration – You can set student posts to require approval if you expect questionable content. You can also set collaborations in the student-paced mode which is great if you’ve set up differentiated lessons. You can also create an independent collaborate board wholly separate from a Nearpod lesson.
• Draw-It  – Students are given more options for editing photos they bring to the drawing. You can also convert your slides to a Draw-It easily with one click.
• Student Notes – Student notes that are submitted can now be seen linked to the corresponding slide in a document visible to the teacher.

Partnerships

• Remind – In addition to sharing lessons via email and links, you can now also share them via Remind.
• Learning Management Suites – You can link your reports and grade books directly into Canvas in addition to integrations with Schoology, and Google Classroom.
• iCivics – One of my favorite social studies game sites is now partnering with my favorite 1:1 presentation site.
• Flocabulary -The site that is known for educational hip-hop videos now brings that fun to Nearpod with a series of lessons on math, science, and life skills.

Coming Soon

On top of other updates, schools and districts that have purchase accounts can utilize a school/district library of lessons so that administrators and coaches can model with exemplars that can be easily found and used. Expect schools to get more options for viewing data across the organization. I’ve been told built-in timers may be coming down the pike as well.