The Five Interactive Question Types

Overview

This article focuses on how to create each of the five Interactive Slide types. We also show you how the responses look when you display them on the Projector View.

Create an Interactive Slide

First, use the editing tools in Google Slides or PowerPoint Online to put a question, prompt, equation, list, image, etc. on the slide. Next, use Pear Deck to configure how students will respond on the Student View. When you present your Session, the slide and/or interactive response will show on the Projector and Student Views.

• Response layout guide
• Draggable™
• Drawing
• Text
• Number
• Multiple Choice
• Website. You can embed a website for students to explore on their screens. It's interactive, but it doesn't allow students to insert a response like the types listed above. Click here to learn about Website Slides.

Response layout guide

In this article, we show you how all of the interactive response types display on the Projector View with different layouts. To change the layout type, choose an option in the top left corner of the screen:

Draggable™ Response

Students respond by dragging icons over a slide. For example, they can drag map pins to the places listed on the slide.

1. Add your question, instructions, and/or image(s) directly onto your slide. Students will be able to see the whole slide and drag objects over anything you put on it.
2. Open the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on or the Pear Deck for PowerPoint Online Add-in. In the sidebar, scroll down to the Ask Students a Question section. Click on the Draggable™ option.
3. In the pop up menu, use the drop-down arrows to select the icons you want to use. Click on the color boxes to change the colors and drag the slider to adjust the size. When you're finished, click Update slide.

During your presentation Session

When you present the slide and collect responses, the default display is the Overlaid Layout, which displays each student's Draggable(s) on the same background slide. You can also display each student's answer individually with the List or Grid Views by changing the layout option in the top left corner of the screen. Responses are always anonymous on the Projector View. Use the grey buttons in the top left corner of your Projector or Dashboard View to change the response layout.

• The Overlaid Layout shows all responses at once:
• The Grid Layout shows thumbnails of the responses
• With the Teacher Dashboard, you can see each answer with the student's name. You can also select which type of icon you want to show on the projector. In this example, only the red pins have been selected:

Drawing Response

Students respond by drawing on a canvas or background image. For example, they can graph a line.

1. Add your question, instructions, and/or image(s) directly onto your slide. Students will be able to see the whole slide and drag objects over it.
2. Open the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on or the Pear Deck for PowerPoint Online Add-in. In the sidebar, scroll down to the Ask Students a Question section. Click on the Draw option.

During your presentation Session

You can display each student's answer individually with the List or Grid Views, or use the Overlaid Layout to display all of the answers on the same background slide. Responses are always anonymous on the Projector View. Use the grey buttons in the top left corner of your Projector or Dashboard View to change the response layout.

• The List Layout, as seen in the private Dashboard View, where you can see also students' names
• The Overlaid Layout
• The Grid View

Free Response: Text

Students respond by typing text. For example, you could ask which character from To Kill a Mockingbird this quote belongs to.

1. Add your question, instructions, and/or image(s) directly onto your slide. Students will be able to see the whole slide and drag objects over it.
2. Open the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on or the Pear Deck for PowerPoint Online Add-in. In the sidebar, scroll down to the Ask Students a Question section. Click on the Text option. That's it!

During your presentation Session

Students can type into a text field on the Student View. The anonymous aggregate view that you share on the Projector will show student answers in the form of a feed. You can display them in a list and scroll through it, or you can show answers in a grid.

• List Layout
• Grid Layout

Free Response: Number

Students respond by typing a number. For example, students can solve an equation and leave a number response.

1. Put your question, example, or equation directly on the slide.
2. Open the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on or the Pear Deck for PowerPoint Online Add-in. In the sidebar, scroll down to the Ask Students a Question section. Click on the Number option. Voila!

During your presentation Session

Students can type a number into their Student View. You can display their answers in two ways on the Projector View. One is the Grid Layout which shows all of the individual numbers students entered. The second (and default) display is a Box and Whisker Plot. The grey dotted line goes shows the median answer, and a grey box surrounds half of the answers. This lets you see the range of answers and where the majority of answers fall. The thin black lines demarcate high and low answers. If there are extreme outliers, you can use the magnifier tool to zoom in, leaving out the outliers so you can analyze the rest.

• Grid Layout
• Overlaid Layout (Box and Whisker Plot)

Multiple Choice

Students respond by selecting one of your predefined answers. Depending on the question, it can be a great idea to supply multiple defensible answers to make the question more challenging and spark discussion. For example, students can fill in the blank with the correct use of the word comer.

1. Put your content directly on the slide.
2. Open the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on or the Pear Deck for PowerPoint Online Add-in. In the sidebar, scroll down to the Ask Students a Question section. Click on the Choice button.

During your presentation Session

The anonymous aggregate view that you can share on the projector display your students' responses as a tally. You can also display each answer choice individually with the Grid View.

• Overlaid Layout (tally)
• Grid View

There you have it, the five Interactive Questions you can ask your students! For further guidance or questions, please email help@peardeck.com.