Pear Deck

Owned by David Plaskett
Last updated: Aug 04, 2021
4 min read
https://help.peardeck.com/getting-started-with-pear-deck-slides

Create your Pear Deck account

  1. Go to http://peardeck.com . 

  2. Click on Teacher Login.  

  3. When prompted, log in with a Microsoft Office 365 or Google account and respond to a few questions.

  4. Install the Pear Deck for Online PowerPoint Add-in or the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on.

Build your slides

You can make Pear Deck presentations in either Google Slides or PowerPoint Online using the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on or the Pear Deck for PowerPoint Online Add-in. Here's how:

  1. Open a new Slides presentation or copy a fully interactive, pre-made presentation from the Orchard for your own use.

  2. Insert Pre-made Slide Templates and/or Custom Interactive Questions into your presentation.

Present your lesson and have students join

  1. First, require email login if you want to see students' names in your Sessions, or turn off email login to have participants join completely anonymously. Do this from the sidebar menu (pictured below) and your Settings page.

  2. Open your presentation in Google Slides or PowerPoint Online.

  3. Open the Pear Deck Add-on (in Google Slides) or Add-in (in PowerPoint Online) to reveal the Pear Deck sidebar.

  4. Click Start Lesson to present a Session. Here's how it appears in the Pear Deck for Google Slides Add-on and PowerPoint Online Add-in sidebar:

  5. In the modal window, choose Student or Instructor Paced Mode.

  6. Get the five-letter Join Code OR copy the Session link (click Give students a link) and share it with students. Students either go to joinpd.com and enter the code, or simply click on the link to join. Here's how the Join Instructions when you start an Instructor-Paced lesson:

  7. Close the Join Instructions and hover over the bottom of the slide to open the Navigation Bar. Use the controls to run the lesson on your Projector View.

    1. In an Instructor Paced Session, students' screens stay synced with yours.

    2. In a Student Paced Session, students get simple navigation controls on the Student Views that allow them to move through all of the slides asynchronously. You don't even have to be there and you can even turn off your device.

    3. Get insight into individual students' progress by opening the private Teacher Dashboard, a Premium feature. The Dashboard View syncs up to the Projector View and allows you to see students' names and their responses in real time, so you can quickly see who’s stuck or confused. You can also hide responses or highlight examples on the Projector View of Instructor Paced Session, and leave feedback to individual students. Learn more about the Dashboard.

      By comparison, answers are anonymous by default on the Projector View!

Extend the lesson

Sometimes you don’t make it through the whole lesson during class. Other times, students are absent and need to work through the lesson on their own, or you may simply want them to go back for review. When you need to extend your lesson, here are two great options:

  1. Turn on Student-Paced Mode


    Student-Paced Mode lets students navigate through the slides at their own pace and respond to all of the Interactive Slides. Later, their answers can be viewed by reopening the Projector and Dashboard Views, so you can talk about their answers the next day in class. Open either of these Views again from your Pear Deck Home Sessions page.

  2. Publish Takeawaysâ„¢

     (a Premium feature, available when you log in with Google)
    When the Session is over, you can give each student personalized notes. This is best when you want students to review all the content from the lesson and reflect on their own answers. Since a Takeaway™ is a Google Doc, you can easily share it with parents or tutors when a student needs help at home.

Review responses

When the Session is over, there are a couple of ways to review and provide feedback to your students.

  1. Export students' answers

     to a Google Sheet (available when you log in with Google)
    This is great if you made a quiz and/or need to score Multiple Choice or Text responses. You can even use the Google Sheets Add-on Flubaroo to automatically grade the quiz and send grade reports to students. 

  2. Review answers and leave Feedback in the Teacher Dashboard (a Premium feature)
    This helps when you want to flip through the lesson slide-by-slide and see what each student said and what material might need to be revisited the next day. Click on the Feedback button next to a name to send comments directly to individual students.

We have completed the overview of Pear Deck Slides! For more in-depth training, consider signing up for a free webinar and please mail help@peardeck.com with any questions!