Versatility of formative assessments

All of Nearpod’s assessments include digital affordances, such as feedback and interactivity (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018a), that allows students to increase their engagement with course material. These affordances also allow teachers to collect real-time data from students during formative assessments (Stephens, 2024a) and also use that data to make appropriate decisions that support student learning goals, such as adjusting lessons, activities or content accordingly. The assessments are each versatile and can be modified to occur at different times during a lesson or activity (Nearpod, 2023). In this respect, K-12 teachers can use them to model a diverse selection of active learning strategies to students using Nearpod (Stephens, 2024b) and develop realistic expectations about their students’ learning progress. Since these assessments are all active, it follows then that students would also have a lot of incentive to participate. As such, these assessments give teachers options for supporting student learning preferences. Since the data that teachers receive is in real-time, these formative assessments give teachers a quick way to understand their students’ needs.

Below is a YouTube playlist of 18 videos that describe activities teachers can use for formative assessments in Nearpod, including tips for increasing student engagement and interactivity:

Encouragement of active learning

Active learning refers to learning strategies that include deliberate participation from students with regard to present and critical engagement with their actions and the thought and thought processes behind those actions (Bonwell & Eison, 1991 as cited in Brame, 2016).  Strategies, activities and approaches that promote active learning are identified by their focus on skill development, critical thinking  and learning processes (Brame, 2016). In this respect, active learning requires a relative level of learner autonomy and student ownership over their own learning. Through its engaging formative assessments, lessons and activities, Nearpod promotes active learning. The digital tool encourages students to participate by providing them with choices to demonstrate their learning. For example, students can draw, type, record audio or use multimedia such as images, GIFs and videos. As well, Nearpod has virtual reality capabilities that could further engage students. Nearpod also promotes active learning through its student-paced options, collaborative learning choices and the interactivity of the slides and activities on them, including poll, quiz and drag and drop assessments as well as its virtual reality and video annotation capabilities.

Nearpod’s promotion of active learning provides K-12 teachers with the tools to maintain and increase active learning in their classrooms because those tools offer teachers versatility. Teachers could, for example, transform the formative assessment and activities into group formats without diminishing the quality of the assessment and activities. The Time to Climb assessment could be done in small groups, especially if there aren’t enough devices per person. Similarly, the Draw It and Open-ended Question assessments could be used to spark even smaller group discussions, perhaps in pairs. K-12 teachers could also turn interactive videos into large group discussions due to the video annotation capabilities of Nearpod. In each case, teachers can gather valuable data and provide feedback to their students through those group environments, which encourages continued active learning.

Collaborative aspects

Collaboration supports students in working together to plan, organize and complete tasks that encourage them to reflect on their own thinking, assumptions and responsibilities as part of a group (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018a). Collaboration can function as the catalyst for improved critical thinking (Gokhale, 1995), which would serve students in developing their metacognitive, strategizing and problem-solving skills. Nearpod encourages collaboration through its activities. For instance, the Collaborate Board activity allows students to collaboratively respond to comments, questions or prompts using a variety of different methods, including drawing, typing and recording audio. Similarly, the Open-ended Question activity lets students represent their learning and then share it with their classmates. This action could prompt deeper group discussion about topics and encourage students to be open-minded with perspectives that differ from theirs.

The possibilities of collaboration are great for K-12 teachers who currently lack training on formative assessments (Volante, 2009) and want to change that. Nearpod offers them a way to do so without taking up time they do not have. For instance, with the teacher-led and student-led options, students can take even more control of their own learning individually and in groups. They can pace their learning together and support each other if there are different learning paces among the group. In such scenarios, teachers could quickly observe the ways in which students feel comfortable participating in group environments and make contributions to group work. This information could help teachers adjust their lessons and activities accordingly as well as better understand their students’ learning needs.

Extensive resources

Nearpod Library

In both free and paid options, users have access to vast library of over 22,000 pre-made K-12 lessons, videos and activities. These lessons, videos and activities are created by Nearpod and trusted U.S. publishers such as Common Sense Media^[1]. They are created with significant consideration of quality and core curriculum standards in the US (Bergman, 2024). Teachers can also access other teachers’ content and modify it accordingly through the share button at the top. Lessons cover K-12 common school subjects. The filter button allows users to filter resources by subject, length, state and grade level standards. This library gives teachers ideas about formative assessments and ready-made activities to use that they can tailor to their own classrooms.

Source: Nearpod

Flocabulary

In 2019, Nearpod gained ownership over the popular education technology tool called Flocabulary (Flocabulary, n.d.) ^[2]. Now, Nearpod and Flocabulary are companion platforms that provide resources to users. Flocabulary’s resources are culturally relevant and specific because they use hip hop as the vehicle for teaching students vocabulary, math, science and other subjects. Through its videos and activities, students are able to do academic learning through cultural practices that they may engage with more than typical course content. All Nearpod users have access to Flocabulary’s library of resources. As such, teachers could include culturally relevant course material to create an inclusive learning environment that engages all students.

Below is a short introductory video about what Flocabulary is:

Blog

Nearpod’s blog has an extensive online blog that helpful ideas, examples, pedagogy tips for specific subjects, success stories, implementation advice and more. The blog is organized according to category and includes a helpful search feature to find the precise information needed. It’s important to note that there is a separate tag for formative assessment information that has both current and older content. The blog is accessible whether or not K-12 teachers have accounts, which allows people to read more about what Nearpod has to offer before making any decisions.

Features that support diverse learning needs

Nearpod includes numerous ways that students can engage with instructional content. When designing lessons, teachers can include audio, video, drawing and text typing as acceptable formats that students can choose from to engage with their content. Furthermore, accessibility is built into all lessons. In particular, there are accommodations that help make reading and comprehension more accessible and create make inclusive learning environments for all students.

For instance, Nearpod has a handy integration with Microsoft Immersive Reader, which is a digital tool that provides extra support for reading comprehension and writing for those who need it. It is a tool that is already built into numerous Microsoft products such as OneNote, Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word and more. Microsoft Immersive Reader supports diverse learning needs because it uses several techniques that expand the number of ways a person can engage with content. Some of these techniques include:

• Translation from English to another language
• Increase the size of the font
• Read text on screen aloud
• Decrease or increase the speed of speech text

In Nearpod, Microsoft Immersive Reader can provide all of those options and more to students, which contributes to an inclusive and active learning environment where students’ learning needs are considered and met from the very beginning of a lesson (Nearpod Help Centre, n.d.). Below is a video that describes even more accessibility options that the Nearpod and Microsoft Immersive Reader integration make possible:

References

Bergman, R. (2024, March 6). Nearpod’s focus on quality lesson content. Nearpod. https://nearpod.com/blog/quality-lesson-content/

Brame, C. (2016). Active learning. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.

Common Sense Media. (n.d.). Our mission. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission

Flocabulary. (2023, July 28). What is Flocabulary?. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olLnbJ113fY&ab_channel=Flocabulary

Flocabulary. (n.d.). What is Flocabulary?. https://www.flocabulary.com/what-is-flocabulary/

Gokhale, A. A. (1995). Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. Virginia Tech University Libraries, 7(1). doi.org/10.21061/jte.v7i1.a.2

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018a). Digital technology. In How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures (pp.163-196). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24783

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018b). Implications for learning in school. In How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures (pp.136-162). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24783

Nearpod. (2020, July 20). Microsoft Immersive Reader. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7meSLGI1Ty0&ab_channel=Nearpod

Nearpod. (2023, February 6). Nearpod: Activities for formative assessment.
[YouTube playlist]. [Videos]. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL09U3vv6UoGQAFdSrJSVG-iRV3xnqWoHN&feature=shared

Nearpod Help Centre. (n.d.). Accessibility with Nearpod: How-to. Nearpod. https://nearpod.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360061945231-Accessibility-with-Nearpod-How-To

Stephens, D. (2024a, June 12). How to monitor student progress with real-time formative assessment data. Nearpod. https://nearpod.com/blog/monitoring-student-progress-formative-assessment/

Stephens, D. (2024b, June 12). 5 impactful active learning strategies for the classroom. Nearpod. https://nearpod.com/blog/active-learning/

Volante, L. (2009). Assessment of, for, and as learning within schools: Implications for transforming classroom practice. Action in Teacher Education, 31(4), 66-75. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/scholarly-journals/assessment-as-learning-within-schools/docview/860370339/se-2