The Draw It activity allows students to respond to a prompt on a virtual canvas with drawings, text, images, and video. You can upload a background image, customize your background with the options in the Draw It toolbar, or have students draw on a blank background.
In this article, you'll learn how to:
- Add a Draw It activity into your lessons
- Convert any Slide into a Draw It activity
- Teach with the Draw It activity
- Disable image search for Draw It as an Admin
Add a Draw It activity into your lesson
1. While editing your lesson, select Add Content & Activities
2. Choose Draw It from the Quizzes & Games section under Activities and select +Add to begin creating your Draw It.
3. Begin by typing instructions for the activity (optional). You can then upload a background image or select a blank canvas for students to draw on by selecting the "Add background" button. After adding a background image, you will also see options to adjust the image size, rotate, flip, or delete the image and start over.
4. To add elements to your background image or blank canvas, choose from the custom options in the bottom toolbar:
1. Undo and Redo
2. Select
3. Crayon
4. Highlighter
5. Eraser
6. Add Image
7. Add Text
8. Shapes
9. Under the ellipses (three dots), you will find Video, GIF Image, and Erase all.
** Please note that this toolbar may appear with fewer options if your Draw It activity was created before February 2023. If you prefer the updated toolbar, you can re-save your previously created Draw It slide(s) and lesson(s), and the updated toolbar will appear.
5. In addition, there are options to add reference media to your instructions and/or a timer to your activity (when launched as a Live Participation session). Once you're finished, click "Save" to insert the completed Draw It into your lesson.
Convert any slide into a Draw It activity
1. Select any image slide in your lesson until it is highlighted in orange.
2. Select the Convert to Draw It tab on the top right corner.
3. Choose if you want to keep a copy of the original slide. If you select "Yes," students will see a static version of the slide, followed by a Draw It. If you select "No," students will only see the Draw It version. TIP: There is not an "un-convert" button so keeping your original is a good idea.
Teach with the Draw It activity
When students reach a Draw It in a Nearpod lesson, they will select the pencil, highlighter, text box, images, or eraser from the Draw It Toolbar on the bottom and respond to the question being asked.
For more detailed instructions on how students can use the Draw It toolbar, read this article.
As the teacher, you can view progress in real-time for the entire class (this feature works when students and teachers are using Nearpod in a web browser, otherwise, you will only see results when students submit):
- A yellow banner will appear as students are in progress.
- A green banner will appear as students submit the assignment as complete.
- Student work can be previewed and shared out to all student devices by selecting the icon of a student's submitted work.
Disabling image search for Draw It as an Admin
As a School or District Admin, you can disable the ability for students to search and add images via Google Image Search under your Manage Nearpod dashboard through the Manage School(s) option. If you are a District Admin and prefer to disable this feature district-wide, please contact your Nearpod Customer Success Manager.
Directions to Disable
- Select the Manage Nearpod tab in the left-hand navigation under My Lessons.
- Select the Manage School(s) tab, also on the left-hand side.
- Select Edit next to the school where you would like to manage this feature.
- Select the toggle to the right of "Enable students to use Google image search" until it is OFF.
- Select Save.
* Note: this will disable the Google image search for both the Collaborate and Draw It activities. Students will still be able to upload pictures that exist on their own devices.