Effects of using nearpod in a high school biology classroom

The purpose of this study was to investigate how effective mobile presentation applications are for increasing student engagement and achievement in a high school biology course. In the spring of 2017, the Nearpod application was incorporated and used to present lectures in a section of 11th grade biology class that was one-to-one with iPads. Embedded in each Nearpod presentation were multiple choice and free response questions that periodically checked for student understanding. Students answered these questions directly on their devices before proceeding to the next part of the lecture. Scores on chapter tests were compared to the previous year's class, which did not have iPad technology. It was found that the use of Nearpod did not have any significant impact on student test scores or levels of engagement in class.