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USE OF NEARPOD AS INTERACTIVE LEARNING METHOD

Conference Paper · March 2019

DOI: 10.21125/inted.2019.2219

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 USE OF NEARPOD AS INTERACTIVE LEARNING METHOD
M. Sanmugam1, A. Selvarajoo2, B. Ramayah2, K. Lee2
1
University Sains Malaysia (MALAYSIA)
2
The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (MALAYSIA)

Abstract
Student engagement and interaction especially in large class setting is quite challenging. As students
can come with diverse variety of experiences and expectation, it is important to impart the knowledge
in an efficient way. Active and interactive learning provide students a platform to enhance knowledge
and learning experiences. The move from traditional lecture to interactive learning can be facilitated
with emerging technologies. By embedding engaging technology in student learning environment, it
could create a meaningful learning session and an interactive environment. Interactive learning results
in students taking ownership in participating in learning activity and subsequently develop their
knowledge. Nearpod is a web based tool that allow students to engage with lecturer during the lecture
session. Interactive elements are added in Nearpod software and the lecture are broadcasted to the
students’ devices via the internet. This paper describes the application of the Nearpod software and
designing a presentation using Nearpod to support student learning. It is recommended that web
based technology like Nearpod introduced as a teaching and learning method especially in large class
setting to encourage interaction and promote independent learning among students.
Keywords: Educational technology, Interactive teaching, Nearpod.

1 INTRODUCTION
In higher education, interactive classroom are challenging, especially if there is large class lecture or
when the lectures conducted in lecture theatres. As the student numbers increase, both student-
student and student-teacher interactions tend to decrease [1]. The challenge of promoting active
learning in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects can often be stifled
by the physical spaces assigned to learning activities especially when there are large class sizes [2].
There are many approaches were attempted in previous works to improve communication between
students and lecturers so that an effective learning environment is created [3,4]. The traditional
lecture, which is passive learning has content delivered didactically and requires no interaction or
engagement with learners. With emerging technologies the move into interactive learning from
traditional lecture can be facilitated so that the learners’ engagement takes place during lecture. Chi
(2009) suggests that active learning is more engaging than passive learning. She also mentioned that
constructive learning is more likely to generate new understanding than active learning and that
interactive learning is more likely to develop substantive, new understanding compared to constructive
learning alone [5].
To support student-lecturer interaction more effectively, the course material and the mode of delivery
has to be in favour of the students’ preferences. This will require more attractive form of learning
materials and more effective teaching tools than those that are currently used by a majority of
educational institutions [6]. Riley and Myers (2014) proposed that interactive teaching, and associated
methodologies, are encouraged in a learning environment where students’ contributions are
encouraged, expected and extended to others [7]. Interactive teaching includes brief activities that can
be used to break up a traditional lecture helping to engage students the entire lecture time [8].
One of the approach to increase, enhance and have meaningful interactive dialogues in large class
settings is to embed technology enabled interactions [9]. By adopting technology enhanced learning, it
allows the lecturer to adapt learning activities to the specific learner’s style, pace and learning needs
[10]. On the other hand, it also results in a student-orientated learning environment where the students
take ownership for their participation in the learning activity, and subsequently, their knowledge
development [10]. In another study, the students and the lecturer suggested that interactive
technology based learning environment evolved towards a student-orientated, interactive space and
students became responsible for constructing their learning product; created by the students, for the
students and, hence, their learning overall [11].
In 21st century, students are flooded with technology, thus technology focused instruction should
make them more comfortable with the content and therefore improve their academic performance [12].
To harness the technology rich environment that have become norm, approaches to teaching, learning
and student engagement must also change correspondingly [13]. Development of relatively new
assessment method is facilitated by the utilization of wireless technologies and personal mobile
electronic devices in assessment procedure [14]. Since the advent of the iPhone and rise of mobile
technologies, one of the fastest growing markets are educational apps [15]. Through the educational
apps, student learning experience can be enhanced with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) [11]. A more
interactive learning experience can be facilitated with this BOYD culture combined with cloud-based
technologies [2]. One of the cloud–based technology that is used for interactive learning environment
is Nearpod. It is a multiplatform e-learning tool that allows students to engage with each other and the
lecturer in real time, independent of learning space size or type [11]. For student engagement and
motivation during lectures, Nearpod can serve as an excellent tool [6]. Nearpod interactive
presentation software results in purposeful outputs, from different perspectives, which develop student
understanding through sustained and in-depth use of broad interactions between students and
academic [16]. Nearpod software has been found to be very useful by both students and lecturers, in
particular the attention generating features [6].

2 APPLICATION OF NEARPOD SOFTWARE

Nearpod is accessible with internet connection. Students can view their learning materials during their
lecture using the web browser or the free Nearpod app using their own electronic devices like
smartphones, tablets and laptops. Lecturers are able to share their presentation slides with their
students by providing an unique code at the start of the session. Once the student gain access, the
students will be able to see the presentation in the student’s individual screen. The lecturer will have
control over the pace of presentation. Students can only able to view the slide until the lecturer chose
to display and the studnets are retricted from accessing subsequent slides. The lecturer can view the
number of students who are active during the teaching session. This enable the lecturer to monitor the
student engagement and understand the learning progress through the online activities prepared
using the software. Formative assessment activities like quizzes, polls, drawing function, collaborate
and open ended questions can be added to Nearpod presentations. This allow students to interact
with the contents and the lecturer can view the response from each student for a particular activity.
Then the lecturer can choose to discuss further or give formative feedback. Table 1 below show the
comparison of traditional teaching and interactive teaching using Nearpod.

Table 1: A comparison of traditional teaching and Nearpod interactive teaching

Component Traditional Teaching Nearpod Interactive Teaching

Materials and Preparation - Large class of 60 - Large class of 60 students,

students, having having their own electronic
their own learning devices (eg. smartphone,
materials (eg. lecture tablet, laptop)
notes) - The lecturer create a
- The lecturer uses presentation using Nearpod
powerpoint slide and app
visualizer to explain - Quizzes, polls, drawing
topics function, collaborate and
open ended questions are
added to Nearpod
presentations
During Lecture - Students listen to the - Students follow the lecture
lecturer’s explanation that is shown on the device
and take note and cannot move beyond
whenever necessary the page they are on
- Lecturer will not be - Students take part in the
able to know if all activity that is shown in the
 students are page (eg. polls, collaborate,
participating in open ended questions,
solving questions drawing function)
After Lecture - Usually no activity or - A quiz is used to test the
quiz given upon students’ understanding on
completion of lecture the topic being taught.
- Answers are submitted and
quiz is graded immediately.
- Lecturer go through the
quiz questions with
students and gives
immediate feedback.

3 DESIGNING A PRESENTATION
There are two ways of building a presentation. Firstly, an entirely new presentation can be started
from scratch with the function called ‘new presentation’. Creating slides in Nearpod is similar to the
ones created using Powerpoint. Images, audio, video, web content, pdf, etc can be added as a
content in the slides. Secondly, an existing powerpoint presentation slides can be imported into
Nearpod. The software publishes the slide as image, thus no further changes in the text is allowed.
The lecturer can embed video clips on the topic so that the content of the clip can be used for a
discussion. Once the presentation slides are ready, activities which are formative assessment can be
incorporated. Activities that are available in Nearpod software are quizzes, polls, drawing function,
collaborate and open ended questions that can be used as formative assessment.
During a session, lectures can be delivered via Nearpod. After the lecture, quiz or multiple choice
questions can be given to assess students’ understanding on the lecture topic. With nearpod, there is
no after grading done by the lecturer as the grading for each student in the class instantly done by the
software. Even the whole class data is generated instantly. Each quiz question can be discussed in
the class as formative feedback. This allow lecturer to address any issues raised requiring clarification.
Fig 1 shows a screenshot of quiz activity.

Figure 1. Quiz Activity Screenshot

Open ended questions can be posed during session to allow students to think and answer. Open
ended formative assessment strategies allow students to think for themselves and can strengthens
student’s critical thinking skills. From the answers given by the students, lecturer can decide to share
some of the answers and bring in more thought discussions for students. Fig 2 shows an example of
screenshot for open ended activity.
 Figure 2. Open Ended Question Activity Screenshot

Collaborate activity on the other hand make students engage in discussion in real time. Usually
students will not participate openly to answer or discuss any questions. Most of the time the students
do not feel confident or feel shy to be heard out loud. One reason is they are worried if their answer or
opinion seems wrong to others. Using Nearpod software gives them the freedom to give answer or
opinion as they do not have to talk in front of others. This way interaction is established. Students also
have opportunity to view other students’ post as the post will be on the slides wall. This can create
more thinking and discussion among students. All students can participate and can embed images
and links within the discussion. Fig 3 show screenshot of collaborate activity.

Figure 3. Collaborate Activity Screenshot

A drawing activity gives opportunity for student to actively participate by drawing and submitting
sketch. Sometimes understanding of mechanisms, diagram and mathematical can be expressed
through drawing. If it is hard to draw, students have option to find picture from the internet and post it
or they can manually draw answers, snap a picture and upload it. Fig 4 shows the screenshot of draw
it activity.
 Figure 4. Draw It Activity Screenshot

Usage of polls allow students to self-assess their own learning with true or false questions, or to gauge
misconceptions. This will be favourable for the lecturer to see how the response from students for the
poll questions is. Fig 5 is the screenshot of poll activity. The lecturer may choose to share polling
responses or examples of submissions from the drawing tool or open-ended questions, thereby
providing instant feedback on learning [2].

Figure 5. Poll Activity Screenshot

Fig 6 shows the student participation in class. After the session, the lecturer can view a detailed report
of all student interaction during the lecture. The report can be obtained as a PDF document as well.
Student paced session are available for students who wants to view the lecture after the session.
Students will be provided with a separate pin and they can access the material at their own time. A
PDF document of the lecture also can be obtained.
 Figure 6. Summary of student participation

4 DISCUSSIONS

From a lecturer’s perspective, the ability to control the pace of the presentation is an added advantage
using Nearpod application for teaching. A lecturer can view the students’ participation, shown as
number of active participants during the presentation. All students need to log on into their devices
and participate in the activity because non-participation will be noticed by the lecturer. The student’s
name can be also hidden and left as anonymous so that the students do not feel shy or intimidated to
express themselves freely for an activity. Many students fear to answer in front of others, worry the
answer could be wrong and they might feel judged by others. Using app, the students do not have to
worry about this as their name will remain anonymous. From here, the lecturer can gauge a student’s
understanding, pick up the weak part and elaborate further. Students might feel more motivated to
learn this way as they will not be judged for wrong answer. On another study, an analysis of data
revealed that all of the students found content presented through Nearpod application to be beneficial
and motivating in learning [17]. The students explained how they apply the knowledge learnt into their
independent work. Besides increasing engagement, students were excited to try new technologies
that seem to improve student enjoyment and enthusiasm [13].

The main advantage of Nearpod is getting fast results in real-time. This found to be true especially for
quiz activity. Upon completion of quiz for a given timeframe, the answer submitted by the students will
be immediately graded. The lecturer can view every student’s answer and can identify which question
need more explanation so that the students can understand better. An overall performance of the
class can also be obtained. Overall performance reveals how many students got the correct answer
and how many students got incorrect answer together with how many students skipped the quiz
questions. If the traditional quiz method were to be used, it can be time consuming. This is also
supported by another study that mentioned traditional quiz requires distribution, collection, and
grading, which consume more time and decreases efficiency [17]. The results of a student’s grade can
also be shared with others if the lecturer chose to do so using Nearpod app [17]. The immediately
recorded assessment will also help lecturers to ensure understanding and plan for future lessons [18].
Another researcher used the data collected during lessons to give on the spot feedback to close any
learning gaps the student might have before teaching the next concept [19]. This approach seems
best as every student will have clear picture what is being taught and not being left out before
proceeding to next concept.

One main reason Nearpod is preferred is due to the interactivity and with Nearpod it appears to be
having an interactive whiteboard in every student’s hands [8,17]. Students can participate in the
activities with the device they have. Each activity has their own advantage as mentioned in the
previous session. All activities are helpful to check for students’ understanding, but the Draw It
function was the most exciting to explore [18]. This function allows students draw answers or allow
content-specific examples to be part of the presentation so that the lecturer quickly assess the
drawing. One researcher mentioned that the availability of ICT tools has influenced how he planned
his lesson, where before teaching a topic he need to prepare all the questions so that he can integrate
the questions with slides in Nearpod [19]. Nearpod app also has been reported to improve
organization in presentation, however, to ensure technology work properly for teaching, proper
planning and consideration must be done [17].
One of the main challenge using Nearpod is to show mathematical expression. When a calculation
question is being added into the activity, there is no superscript or subscript function available. For
example meter square should be expressed as m 2 but this cannot be done in Nearpod unless the
question is prepared elsewhere and imported as an image. For Draw it activity, it is difficult for the
students to show calculation steps. If smartphones are used, free hand drawing make it difficult to
draw numbers unless a stylus is used. Students with laptop find it easier to draw using a mouse
instead. However, many students prefer to solve the calculation question on a piece of paper and later
snap a picture to upload it. This way it is more user friendly, but sometimes the lecturer might find it
hard to see the image that was uploaded. Similar challenges were reported in another study where
students using iPhone and stylus find it difficult to read in the small device and find it harder to
manipulate using the stylus [17]. For another study which has small detail work, the control was
difficult using Draw it function, thus a stylus was recommended [18]. Sometimes for teaching, the
lecturer might find it is easier to save mathematical derivation and equation as PDF file and embed
into Nearpod presentation.
Another challenge that can be faced when the material is designed to be student paced is the students
would rush through the lessons in an attempt to finish the lesson as quickly as possible, thus
submitting incorrect answers [12]. It was also mentioned the same behaviour was observed when
video is incorporated in lesson where some students would not watch the video and skip to the
questions. From here, it is worth noting that student paced presentation is not favourable as the
students tend to skip topics. In teacher paced presentation, the students does not have an option to
skip topic and has to follow the lecturer’s pace in teaching as advancement to next slide is not
allowed.
In addition, another drawback of Nearpod is the slides do not have some features like dictionary,
highlighting tools, or text-to-speech options like the one that can be found in e-books [17]. The files
that are uploaded as pdf file does not allow any modification. Sometimes browsing through the
document without highlighting the important aspects can be a boring for students. In the same study,
students also addressed challenges reading the content of the pdf due to the size of the print, which is
small and hard to read [17], however by enlarging the screen on the student’s device, this problem can
be overcame.
Most students join Nearpod lesson just by registering using their nickname. With nicknames, gives
advantages to the students to remain anonymous and freely express their opinion and answers. On
the other hand, it will also invite unexpected or unrelated response from the students especially when
collaborate or open ended question activity is being used. Sometimes, immature students tend to post
funny responses that disrupt the flow of the lesson. For collaborate activity the lecturer has an option
to screen the answer and approve what can be posted on the wall. If large class students, this action
can be time consuming for the lecturer as each response need to be filtered out before being posted.
Eventually, this can also lengthen the lecture time. It is recommended that students use their real
name instead of nicknames so that at least students will be serious in their learning. However, the
lecturer must chose to hide the students name on the screen as to give confidence for the students
that their response will not be revealed to their peers.

5 CONCLUSIONS
Interactive teaching can be achieved in large class by using technology embedded learning tools.
Using Nearpod seem to offer an alternative teaching approach compared to traditional lectures to
engage students for better and enhanced learning experience. There were a few challenges
highlighted in this paper, but the benefits of using Nearpod outstand the challenges incurred. It is
recommended Nearpod is used in teaching as the app is user friendly, highly interactive, increase
student engagement and monitor student progress in real time. Lecturers should explore more with
Nearpod so that it can be incorporated in teaching to create a meaningful learning experience.

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