How to update your PowerPoints for teaching into interactive lessons: the ultimate guide

What is an interactive lesson?

An interactive lesson goes beyond the traditional slide presentation format, allowing students or participants to engage directly with the content, their teacher, and each other. Instead of passively absorbing information, learners are encouraged to interact with it. This can include answering quiz questions or open questions, clicking on digital buttons that reveal new information gradually, and contributing to collaborative activities like brainstorm sessions.

The lesson leverages technology to create a more hands-on, student-centred learning experience, which leads to better knowledge retention and deeper understanding. LessonUp ensures that its interactive features are backed by educational research, effectively supporting teaching and learning.

Benefits of teaching interactive lessons

Interactive lessons offer a variety of benefits over traditional teaching methods:

• Increased engagement: Interactivity keeps learners engaged. By involving them in the lesson, you capture their attention and maintain their interest throughout.
• Real-time feedback: Interactive features like quiz questions provide instant feedback, allowing learners to self-assess and teachers to spot misconceptions straight away.
• Adaptive teaching: With interactive lessons, you can tailor content to accommodate different learning needs, creating a more inclusive environment.
• Critical thinking: Interactive activities prompt students to think more critically and to actively engage with the material, rather than simply memorising information.

Edit and customise images

Click on an image, and find all imagery formatting options in the extensive menu on the right-hand side of your screen. These options include:

• Corner radius: Adjust the roundness of the image corners.
• Effects: Modify the image’s transparency.
• Teach settings: Allow the image to move or stay fixed while teaching.
• Ordering: Change the layer order by moving images forward or backward.

A few highlights include:

• Guides: Use on-screen gridlines to accurately position your components.
• Positioning:  Easily select and drag multiple components simultaneously.
• Edit text: Modify or delete text on any slide, regardless of its layout.
• Quick action menu: Quickly adjust the font, colour, or styling of text using the quick action pop-up menu that appears when you select a component.
• Edit overview: Edit your slides in a workspace designed to minimise distractions.

How do you add hotspots?

• Step 1: Add a hotspot
  Click the "Hotspot" button above your slide to instantly add one. Decide if you want to type information in your hotpot, or if you'd prefer an image or GIF.
• Step 2: Customise the hotspot
  Once added, simply click the hotspot to open a quick action menu where you can change the colours of the border or background, text and icons.
• Step 3: Add text or media

Text: You can give the hotspot a title, and you can also add a description that becomes visible when you click the hotspot.

Media: Choose an image or GIF to display when the hotspot is clicked. Upload it directly or select an image from your uploads. Once uploaded, you'll see a confirmation. After that, you can add it to your hotspot. You may resize the image, but be careful not to cover the hotspot, or you won't be able to close it.

Encourage learners’ natural curiosity

Hotspots are an excellent tool for engaging students and making lessons more interactive. When students click on them, they uncover hidden information, turning learning into an exciting, exploratory experience. This method promotes active involvement, sparking curiosity as students look forward to discovering what’s behind each hotspot. By presenting information in digestible pieces, hotspots help avoid overload, making the learning process more enjoyable.

Present information gradually

Using hotspots to reveal information gradually helps manage cognitive load. By presenting key points one at a time, teachers can prevent students from feeling overwhelmed by too much information. This approach allows learners to process each piece fully before moving on, improving comprehension. It also creates a clear, structured learning path, enabling students to build knowledge step by step and gain a deeper understanding of the subject or topic.

Offer personalised revision guides

Hotspots can be used to create personalised revision guides tailored to each student's needs. By clicking on hotspots, students can access additional resources, explanations, or practice questions focussed on areas they need to work on. This ensures that every student receives the right support and allows them to revisit concepts as needed. It encourages a more inclusive learning environment and lets students review key concepts at their own pace.

How do you add a word cloud?

• Step 1: Add a word cloud
  Click + Add Slide and choose ‘Word Cloud’. It will be added to your lesson.
• Step 2: Enter a question or topic
  Type your question or topic in the text box. This is what students will see.
• Step 3: Customise your slide
  You can personalise the slide by adding text, images, or other components.

What do students see?
Students will see the question and can submit answers in the answer field. Multiple answers are allowed, and they appear below each other.

What do you see while teaching?
As students answer, you’ll see their responses appear as small ‘eyes’ on the screen. You can reveal answers one by one, or click ‘Show all answers’ to display them all at once.

Activate prior knowledge

Many teachers use word clouds to tap into students' prior knowledge. By organising and providing feedback on what students already know, new material becomes easier to understand and retain. This approach aligns with the Cognitive Load Theory, which suggests that failing to revise prior knowledge can block the ability to absorb new information. Starting a lesson with a word cloud helps create space for fresh learning while building on existing knowledge.

Reinforce student understanding

Imagine your students have recently learned a lot about topics like natural disasters and plate tectonics in geography. By placing a powerful image at the centre of a digital word cloud, you can encourage students to analyse the events before and after the moment captured in the image. Even if students aren't familiar with the specific details of the context, their existing knowledge of the broader topic will enable them to make informed guesses and connect the dots.

Encourage reflective practice

Create a learning matrix using a word cloud to help students organise their revision and reflect on their understanding. It encourages them to critically assess what they know, what they need to improve, what they might have misunderstood, and what they may be missing. This reflective practice works well for independent study at home and can easily be added to a student portfolio. You can share the learning matrix in different ways: as a self-completion activity, an informative slide for reference, or an interactive element within your lessons.

Organise learning in categories 

Categorising information offers students multiple cognitive benefits and supports their learning process. It helps them organise, understand, and recall knowledge more effectively. This approach encourages critical thinking, reduces cognitive overload, and boosts overall learning efficiency. LessonUp’s word cloud makes it easy to group information into different categories. This method is a valuable revision tool for exam preparation or a useful addition to a student’s portfolio.

Create links between different topics

Making connections between different topics is an effective way to reinforce knowledge, encouraging synthesis, problem-solving, and long-term retention. It turns learning from disconnected facts into a coherent web of understanding. This approach is often called 'interdisciplinary learning' or 'connecting learning experiences.' A word cloud can help with this by acting as a Venn diagram, in which students provide examples and find logical connections between them.

How do you add a quiz question?

• Step 1: Add a quiz question
  Click on + Add Slide and choose 'Quiz Question'.
• Step 2: Add the question and answers. Enter your question in the main text box and add answer options in the designated boxes. If you provide two options, only those two will be visible to the students. To mark the correct answer, simply check the slider next to ‘Correct.’
• Step 3: Customise your slide
  You can personalise your quiz question by changing the background colour or adding text, images, or other components. If you add a second text box, you can identify the one displayed as the question on the students' screen thanks to the ‘Question’ label. This ensures you always know what your students can see.

Make learning relevant for your students

To make learning more engaging and relevant, regularly offer students a news quiz that connects their studies to current events. A news quiz promotes critical thinking and helps students relate classroom topics to the real world. Every subject has a connection to current events. Starting a lesson with a news quiz grabs students' attention, motivates them to stay informed, and provides instant feedback on their understanding. Before long, they'll  be looking forward to it!

Assess student understanding

How often have you found yourself asking, "Should we review this again?" Unlike traditional assessments with long written responses, quizzes offer a quick and engaging alternative. Their concise format makes them an excellent tool for formative assessment. It's not just about students' scores—it's about the insights their answers provide you. Did they grasp the material, understand the language, and make connections to other concepts? That’s what truly matters.

Recall key knowledge

Quizzes are a great way to start a lesson by refreshing students' memories of previous content. These recall quizzes act as low-pressure tools, helping students retrieve key information they've learned before. Kicking off each lesson with a set of quiz questions offers a quick review of important points from the last session. Taking the time to create thoughtfully designed recall-knowledge quizzes can provide you with valuable insights into student understanding.

How do you add an open question?

• Step 1: Add an open question
  Click on + Add Slide and choose 'Open Question'.
• Step 2: Set up the question and answer area

1. Add your question: Type your question into the text box provided.
2. Answer display area: The white box with grey placeholders represents the space where students’ answers will appear on the board.
3. Customise the answer area: To change the background colour or adjust the transparency of the answer area, click on it and modify the settings.

What do the students see?

Students see the answer box at the bottom of their screen. After submitting their answer, they can still edit it by clicking ‘Edit answer’ at the bottom of the screen.

Give every student a voice

Digital open questions give every student a chance to contribute, including those who are usually more hesitant. By inviting open-ended responses rather than a single correct answer, you create a safe space for all students to share their thoughts. This approach encourages quieter students to participate without the pressure of speaking out loud, helping them feel valued and included in the discussion. It supports a more inclusive environment where every voice is heard.

Encourage reflection and self-reflection

A learning objective is only meaningful if its effectiveness is assessed at the end of the lesson. Sometimes, student understanding may not match your expectations. Exit ticket plenaries are a great way to check comprehension, identify misconceptions, and encourage reflection. A few thoughtful, open-ended questions can also help you establish whether your students enjoyed the lesson and why, giving you valuable insight into their feelings and learning experiences.

Stimulate exam practice

Regularly practising exam questions, both in class and at home, helps improve students' performance. They can respond to open questions on paper or digitally using platforms like LessonUp, which keeps responses organised and accessible. You can model exam questions, explain your reasoning behind the answers, and engage students in class discussions. Provide a framework for tackling exam practice, but allow students the freedom to word and define their answers. This way you stimulate independent thinking while offering structure.

Support student e-portfolios

E-portfolios allow students to organise, document, and reflect on their learning journey, helping them make meaning from their experiences. They serve as a tool to clarify educational goals, deepen learning through reflection, and showcase accomplishments to teachers, guardians, or potential employers. It can help nurture a sense of pride. A portfolio can be as broad as you prefer—focussing on academics or also including personal growth and wellbeing.

Promote immersive learning

Promote immersive learning by guiding your students into a new reality where they can fully engage. Use creative writing prompts, framed as open questions, along with stimulating imagery to spark their imagination. As students shift their focus to this alternate world, answering questions becomes a natural process. Typing allows them to write quickly, in sync with their thoughts. Encourage students to write as quickly as they wish, saving grammar checks for later.

How does 'teach' mode work?

• Step 1: Click on ‘Teach lesson’. Click ‘Teach’ when you are in the lesson editor, or right-click on any lesson in your LessonUp account, and then click ‘Teach’.
• Step 2: Ensure students participate. Clicking on ‘Students’ allows you to see which students have joined your lesson. They can join using the lesson’s code, which is always displayed at the top left of the screen, or in the pop-up that appears when you click on ‘Students.’ This pop-up also features a large QR code that students can scan to join the lesson.

Closing the lesson code: You can click on ‘Students’, and check or uncheck the ‘Allow new participants’ option. When this box is unchecked, new students will not be able to join your lesson, but students who have already joined will remain in the lesson.

With devices

When using devices in the classroom, LessonUp allows for a highly interactive experience, engaging students through their smartphones, tablets, or laptops. With devices, students can participate in answering quizzes, open questions, word could and interact with content directly on their screens. You can guide the lesson from the interactive whiteboard, while students engage with the lesson material, your question and assignments in real-time. This method is ideal for promoting active learning and encouraging student involvement. 

Without devices

LessonUp can also be used effectively without devices, allowing for full control over the lesson. Interactivity remains possible by presenting quiz questions, word clouds, or open questions from the digital whiteboard, allowing you to manage the pace and flow of the lesson completely. This approach still ensures that students can answer questions and participate.