The district has purchased the Pro version of Nearpod for all teachers grades 6-12. Nearpod is a great interactive tool that can be used to share and gather information with your students. Nearpod is normally shared in a manner where students must go to the site, then enter a code and their name to join. If you use Canvas, however, the Nearpod lesson can be placed right within your module or used as an assignment for grading.
A Nearpod option is available in the course navigation menu. Select that option to work with your Nearpod account while you are in Canvas. You will have access to your entire account. The first time you access Nearpod this way, you may be prompted to log into your Nearpod account. Be sure to use your Office 365 credentials.
When using Nearpod, you can choose a live (teacher-led) option where you control where students are within the lesson or a student-led option where they work at their own pace. Those options are still available inside of Canvas. The next steps will walk you through embedding a Nearpod lesson as both an external tool option and an assignment for Canvas.
External Tool Option
To use a Nearpod lesson as an activity for instruction or review of a concept, you will want to create using the external tool option within a Canvas module.
- Choose to add to the module you want your Nearpod living in.
- Select External Tool as the option from the drop-down menu.
- Select Nearpod from the list of external tools.
A new window will pop up showing your Nearpod library. Find the lesson you want to use and then choose whether the lesson will be a live lesson, where you control what they see, or a student-paced lesson. Then choose to Add Item on the original window.
Your Nearpod lesson now appears in your module. You will need to publish it to make it accessible by the students. Once a student selects that option from the module, the Nearpod lesson opens automatically right within Nearpod and fills in the student’s name since they are already logged into Canvas. They are ready to join the session.
Assignment Option
Your Nearpod lessons can also be added to Canvas as an assignment. This allows you to use the speed grader option as well as grade pass back to Skyward. The steps below will guide you through the setup of Nearpod as an assignment.
First, set up an assignment just as you normally do in Canvas. Add to a module, choose Assignment from the drop-down menu and name your new assignment. Then, open that assignment to edit it. Every aspect of the assignment set up is just as it would be for any other assignment with the exception of the Submission Type section.
- For Submission Type, select External Tool.
- Select the Find button.
Choose Nearpod from the list of External Tools that are available.
A new window will pop up showing your Nearpod library. Find the lesson you want to use and then choose whether the lesson will be a live lesson, where you control what they see, or a student-paced lesson. Then choose Select on the original window to add the lesson to your assignment.
If you want to utilize the speed grader and grade pass back options in Canvas, be sure when setting up the assignment that you are making the following adjustments to the settings:
- For the Assignment Group option, choose whether the assignment will be a major or minor grade.
- Check the box to Sync to SIS
LCISD Digital Learning 6-8 