One of the biggest questions I get asked by Abridge Academy curriculum members is “Wow, these slides are AWESOME – but I need [insert niche topic here]. How do I make my own?”. Well, today we’ll be sharing our secrets!
What do we mean by “interactive”?
When you make slides on tools like PowerPoint or Google slides, they are typically “passive” slides. You can add some cute animations, but students can only watch your screenshare and annotate – they cannot click, drag-and-drop or otherwise engage directly with the slides.
If you are teaching online, you want your students to more actively engage in the lesson – this is where you need “interactive” slides. With interactive slides, students can click to open pop-ups, drag-and-drop words or pictures for matching activities, type missing words in boxes, select answers in a drop-down quiz, etc. The slides also “respond” to the students’ actions, for example giving a quiz score or popping up with a trophy reward.
What software do I need to make interactive slides?
For the Abridge Academy curriculum, we chose Genial.ly to build our slides in. It is a revolutionary new online slides tool with SO many great features to make your lessons more engaging. We also use the S’Cape and Sandbox extension tools to add additional interactivity to the slides.
Genial.ly has a free plan to get you started, with paid plans available to access additional features and templates. If you are a classroom teacher, you can get special discounts with their education plans too 🙂
Ok, this is awesome but a LOT of work – where can I get pre-made interactive online lesson slides?
Check out the Abridge Academy curriculum! We have hundreds of interactive, engaging and professional slides for your online ESL or science classes!