Genial.ly is a free tool that can make pretty much anything (slides, quiz reviews, posters, etc.) interactive. If you are interested in checking it out, their blog has some great advice and examples of how to use it in a classroom.

Check out an example with this interactive presentation on OAKS quizzes (see how much you know!).

If you are a hands-on learner, I highly advise jumping in and creating something.

To start:

  1. Click on Create Free Account and follow the instructions (you can use your CofC google account to create one).  Be sure to choose EDUCATION as an option.
  2. Once you’re in, you’ll be in a space that looks a lot like Google Drive. This is called your dashboard or panel.
  3. To Take a Tour, click your icon (my CofC Gmail Account icon showed right up) and click the Take a Tour option to see quick videos and to navigate the dashboard (these are not tedious and super helpful).

To Create:

  1. Click Create Genially (top left) and this will take you to multiple templates.
  2. For the attached example, I clicked Learning Experience and Quiz How Much Do You Know.
  3. From there, I just filled in the slides. I love that you can preview and interact with your designs as you go (I caught a few typos that way).

To Share:

  1. For free accounts, you must share your Genial.ly publicly
  2. There are many options to share once you make it publicly available. Links can be easily shared via email or within OAKS.
  3. ***Premium accounts allow you to have background music on your slides. That could be a lot of fun to set up.

Overall Review:

  1. This was fun to make, and the interactive payoff was awesome.
  2. The only problem I have is that my quiz does not tally up the results. Within the quiz, I see options for statistics, but when I click on it, it takes me to the premium plan page.
  3. I love the interactive format and think this could be great for review. I also think students could create Genial.ly reviews for the class. These links could be posted in the Discussion Area of OAKS, and is a sneaky way to make students study by creation AND to have them create your review materials. 😉