Collaborate Board is an interactive discussion board that allows students to post text and images to a shared class board. It's a great way to spark class discussion, brainstorm, or check in on how students are feeling.
In this article, you'll learn how to:
- Teach with the Collaborate Board
- Add a Collaborate Board into your lesson
- Using the option to Approve Student Posts and/or Approve Comments
- District Nearpod administrator options
Teach with the Collaborate Board
1. When students arrive at a Collaborate Board during a lesson, they will be able to post text, images, videos, audio, and/or GIFs (depending on what you allowed when creating your collaborate board) response to your prompt.
They'll see other student responses, and be able to "Like" responses that resonate with them by clicking the heart in the bottom corner of each post. If you have Premium Plus, students can also comment on each other posts.
2. Click on "Student Options" at any time to show/ hide student names, allow students to edit responses, approve student posts before they are posted or approve student comments before they are posted.
3. You can also sort posts from oldest to newest, most likes, or student name A to Z.
4. If you have Premium Plus and have chosen the column options, note that students will need to change the column before the send it.
Student Paced Lessons
If you are using a Collaborate Board in Student-Paced mode, you will need to Enable Collaborate Board for Student-Paced lessons feature on. You can manage this in your lesson settings, learn more here.
To moderate a Collaborate Board in a Student-Paced lesson, use the Student-Paced teacher dashboard. Once you are on the slide with the Collaborate Board, you can moderate by clicking on "student options".
Add a Collaborate Board into your lesson
1. While editing your lesson, select Add Slide
2. Choose Collaborate from the Activities tab
3. Choose the style of Collaborate Board by selecting an option on the right-hand side (click the arrow to see options).
4. Enter the "Collaborate Board Topic" and "Description". These are the prompts that your students will see. You can also add reference media to your Collaborate Board by clicking on the image icon in the left corner.
5. Choose either grid or columns. Columns let you have students respond underneath a category/ topic etc... A grid will post them freely over the board. (Please note this is a Premium Plus only feature).
6. You can also click on student options to see various choices for how students will view the board. (Please note that comments are a Premium Plus only feature.)
7. You can also toggle on and off different media types that you want to allow students to use.
Using the option to Approve Student Posts and/or Approve Comments
When a teacher has enabled the Approve Student Posts and/or Approve Student Comments settings during the board setup or in the session, they’ll now see a new Hide/Show Pending toggle at the top right corner of the board during the session. When pending posts are hidden, a blue overlay will cover the unapproved content. Clicking the toggle will remove the overlay, and the teacher can moderate as they always have. Click to expand the gif below and see what it looks like in action.
District Nearpod administrator options
As a school or district Nearpod account administrator, you can disable student image search via Google Image Search for this feature for schools. If you are a district admin and want to turn it off district-wide please contact your Nearpod Customer Success Manager.
Directions to Disable
- Click on the manage district button on the left-hand navigation from "My Library".
- Click on the manage schools tab on the left-hand side.
- Click on edit next to the school where you want to manage this feature.
- Click the checkbox next to "Disable Student Image Search on Collab, DrawIt.
- Click "save".
* Note: this will disable the image search for both the Collaborate activity and DrawIt activity. Students will still be able to upload their own pictures from their device