Nearpod Reviews

Pros

It makes boring powerpoints more interactive. You can engage students by asking questions throughout the lesson and see their responses on your screen. There is also a library of pre-existing lessons ready to use.

Cons

The pre-made lessons didn't really fit my needs and creating your own Nearpod presentation from scratch is extremely time consuming. During the lesson it is difficult to go back and forth between the presentation and checking student responses.

Pros

I'm a big fan of Nearpod when giving presentations. Here are the pros I see:
- Allows students to become active participants in their education. Presenting instructional content is engaging with Nearpod, not just a one-way conversation.
- You have the ability to check for understanding with built-in questions.
- They have a ton of free resources that are great.
- Real-time assessment/feedback.
- They've even offered VR field trips that you can take your students on.
- It's easy to learn how to use it, navigate, and build presentations.
- You can also easily upload presentations from other platforms.

Cons

While I feel that the pros outweigh the cons, here are some problems I see:
- It is completely based on your wifi. If you have a weak internet, then Nearpod will be slow and lagging. If you add a lot of students to a presentation, it can also significantly slow down. (Although I realize that this is not necessarily Nearpod's fault - it is worth noting.)
- Even though you can check for understanding in real-time, you cannot do so anonymously. It would be nice if you can anonymously assess students from time-to-time.
- The subscription is steep - some may think it's worth it and the features are great, but it comes with a price that is a bit much.
- The coolness factor will eventually wear off with students.

Pros

Nearpod has a library of pre-made lessons that teachers may use. Some are free, but others have a minimal cost. Nearpod is free to use, but the free version does have limited capabilities. The great thing about Nearpod is they offer you a 6 month trial if you complete a few steps and become a Nearpod Certified Educator. This process is extremely easy and it helps you to get to know the product. One of the best features is that you can use PowerPoints that you already have. You simply upload them, and then insert your activities. It is very intuitive and easy to use.
Another great feature is that they are constantly adding features. This company listens to it's customers and they are always making their product better.

Cons

The only complaint is that it is hard to find what you are looking for in their store. Sometime you have to try multiple searches to get a "hit".

Pros

I love how you can use just about any type of media with a Nearpod presentation. You are able to design directly in Nearpod with the slides or you can upload presentations from Microsoft or Google files.

Cons

I do experiencing some issues with saving from time to time. Nearpod does not seem to function well if you have more than 1 presentation in edit mode. Sometimes I like to work side by side to double check both presentations follow the same format. Unfortunately this means that Nearpod does not always save my work.

Pros

Nearpod has a fun drawing feature that allows students to be creative while answering questions. Nearpod is an interactive studying experience that allows teachers to view the knowledge of the students while allowing fun studying games. Some features are similar to Quizlet such as matching and the quiz feature. It is used in my child's Spanish class to help the students comprehend new vocabulary words.

Cons

I overall like this software, but sometimes it lags a little when people are submitting assignments. I wish there was a fullscreen feature on computers so that people are able to see it better. I feel like Quizlet is more helpful for studying, but Nearpod is very efficient on introducing new material.

Pros

What a great product! I love Nearpod because the students can see, up close my notes and videos, on their own screen! And I can control the slides!

Cons

I would like Nearpod to be more user-friendly for my students to do a group project or even an individual project.

Pros

What I like most about Nearpod is it allows me to control the pace of the lesson, whether the students are physically in front of me, or they are at home

Cons

The only thing I did not like about Nearpod is that it is somewhat tedious to add in all of the activities and added features

Pros

This add-on to google slides is perfect. Scholars can interact with the lessons, watch videos, do virtual labs, draw, you name it! It’s the perfect way to bring what was happening in the classroom into the virtual space.

Cons

I wish you could copy the slides when you make them in google slides. Nearpod slides can’t be copied and pasted the way traditional slides can.

Pros

With Nearpod, you can create a series of slides with so many engaging activities. For example, I created one with a video, the next slide was a fill in the blank notes page, the next slide was a matching activity, and the last slide was a short quiz. This is perfect for my remote students. Everything is in one spot. My favorite feature is The program grades the quiz for you. All you have to do is pull up the report.

Cons

It’s a little time consuming to create.

Pros

Last year I got certified in using Nearpod, and it was a lot of fun learning about this program. It is very entertaining for students. They like it a lot.

Cons

It takes time to prepare lessons in Nearpod, because they are entertaining. It is worth it though.

Pros

I love that I can search for lessons connected o the units we are studying in class. The lessons are fun and engaging for my 4th grade students. We recently used a live lesson about Thanksgiving which included videos and activities. My students can easily join the lesson using the code. It is a quick and easy way to formative assess.

Cons

The free version is a bit limited. Some features are paid only, which is frustrating. I cannot afford to pay for this.

Pros

I can quickly take lesson plans from Word, Powerpoint, etc and incorporte them into a nearpod lesson session. Students access and following along with BYOD or school provided technology etc (Chromebooks). Pod sessions can be modified on the fly to incorporate web resources such as webpages,. videos, etc. Pricing allows for teachers to try out using the software, which works well for teachers of small classroom settings and limited budget. For larger classroom settings or whole grade/school wide lessons, teachers can upgrade NearPod to accommodate larger demands.

Pros

Nearpod is a great iPad app to use for communicating with my students. I am able to create quizzes, share videos, and check for student understanding. Nearpod provides active learning and engagement for all my students in the classroom.

Cons

One con I have with Nearpod is that it can get quite time consuming creating presentations. It would also be nice if there were more free pre-made activities.

Pros

I love that Nearpod is interactive. My students really focus--all of them!

Cons

There are limited formats for the slides. I wish there were more ways to customize them.

Pros

I love how engaging this can make something for students and it is easy for them to use. It is great to use to provided feedback to students as they are working.

Cons

Creating and modifying presentations can be time consuming I wish the free version gave you more options or it was not so expensive to upgrade.

Pros

My students love it! Its interactive and they learn so much! Like PowerPoint on steroids!

Cons

I would b nice to have the option for students to scan the class code instead of typing it in because sometimes they mistype the code

Pros

Nearpod is a tool for interactive slideshows that engage students. This is highly beneficial in a 1 on 1 environment allowing student paced learning. Teacher can interact and assess student in real time.

Cons

Creating content can be time consuming and can get pretty pricey.

Pros

It's so easy to include a wide variety of media into a Nearpod presentation. It's aimed primarily at classroom learning, in-person or virtual, but I've found it can enhance a standard business presentation to increase engagement.

Cons

Actually, there wasn't anything significant that I didn't like about Nearpod. If we ran into problems, it generally was generally due to users not the software.

Pros

As a K-12 Instructional Technologist, our district decided to purchase Nearpod to support our face-to-face and virtual students and teachers at the middle and high school level. Since our teachers might have virtual or quarantined students at home, it's one of the best ways to keep students engaged while they are learning from home. Teachers are able to get real-time data and provide timely feedback

Cons

Nearpod was a bigger purchase for our district and that is why we never had it prior to this school year. We have found it to be a worthwhile purchase and a wonderful resource.

Pros

My students look forward to their daily time 2 climb. They software makes it so easy to get instant feedback and quizzes. The draw it feature lets them fill in PDFs and do drawings. The timer that you can set it also awesome because it paces them during each activity.

Cons

The only real con I have with this is that it’s sooo expensive for the full version.

Pros

Nearpod has made my job (I'm a teacher) so much easier!! I love how Nearpod offers student paced lessons or teacher led lessons. This is a great way to differentiate instruction and allow students to work at their own pace. I have used Nearpod in my classroom and during staff meetings. It's very easy to use and there are several lessons you can use if you don't want to make your own. Students can also use this as a presentation tool!

Cons

I do wish there was a way that I could switch from teacher led to student paced throughout my presentation.

Pros

- They have a pretty extensive library of preexisting activities featuring a variety of topics.
- Compatible with 1 to 1 classrooms through a variety of classroom programs (google classroom, canvas, etc.)
- Great for introducing new topics in the classroom
- Great for whole class instruction

Cons

- I wish it had a way of compiling student results for each question
- Not all information in the presentations is relevant to what the students may need to know. You can edit the activity though to fit your needs.
- Have not found it to be useful for individual student activities

Pros

I love how many different lessons are available for all grade levels and all topics. It allowed me to find specific resources that meet the various needs of the students in my classroom. I love the ease of assigning these lessons OR using them to guide my teaching. The live version to use allows you to be in control of each slide and when it moves from one to the other, I love this function because it keeps my students on track and focused while allowing me to manage their engagement and use.

Cons

One thing I did not specifically like is that some of the lessons really should only be done as a live version but they still had the option to have the students complete it on their own. This caused confusion with specific sections that needed to be discussed aloud or done together. I think it would have been helpful if there was a way of knowing this beforehand.

Pros

Let me start by saying I am such an advocate for Nearpod! Want a student centered lesson? Nearpod! Want room for collaboration and student involvement? Nearpod! Want student paced lessons and immediate scores on quizzes? Nearpod! I also love that there are lessons already made you can buy if you're feeling lazy or don't want to reinvent the wheel.

Cons

What I don't like about this is the price - with the free version you only are able to save a few lessons, and don't have access to most of the interactive aspects. When I had a school account, it was amazing! But unfortunately, I don't think it is worth the high price. The free version is great!