Genial.ly: Interactive Digital Presentations

Students learn best when they are able to engage with material using multiple senses and interaction. As we continue to grow courses into different modalities it is often hard to keep students engaged as active learners in online or hybrid lectures.

In my classes, I noticed that videos alone can result in students multitasking or passively listening as they watch. When looking for ways of keeping learning interactive, especially for hands-on learners, I began exploring Genial.ly, a presentation software that allows students to move, manipulate, and interact with online or hybrid lectures.
What I love most about Genial.ly is its versatility. It is easy to use and build while allowing the dynamics and flexibility as if I were building a full website using code. The features are diverse and allow for the creation of digital labs, assignments with built in examples, or lessons with “check your knowledge” quizzes to help students who are asynchronous hybrid or online get instant feedback.
- Cassidy Adlof, Biology Faculty

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What Exactly Is Genial.ly?
Genial.ly is an interactive image creator that allows for creating diagrams, presentations, infographics, and gamified content. These images can be downloaded as micro-websites for offline use or embedded directly into Canvas or other learning tools such as Nearpod. Most features and tools are free, with purchasable options to gain access to additional templates. The free options are usable by educators and students, allowing them to be incorporated into assignments.

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What Can Genial.ly Be Used For?

Built-in Activities or Gamified Skill Checks: Genial.ly has many options to incorporate surveys, questions, or gamified content to allow students to receive feedback in low-stress and low-stakes ways. This can improve student information retention as it allows for practice without the fear of judgment. These built-in activities have recently been updated with the option of recording responses for instructors to view. The activities also have the option of providing students with instant feedback, showing correct answers, or further explanation depending on the answer selected.

​Interactive Infographics: Infographics allow markers to be placed over images in order to label important details without cluttering the screen. When clicked on students can view text or videos built into the marker.


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Embedded Videos, Google Slides, or Other Multimedia: A variety of multimedia and other presentation software can be directly embedded into genial.lys, allowing for improved access to work examples, additional lecture points, or links to reading assignments. The ‘Insert’ feature works with both embed code, URL links, and uploaded files.

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Benefits & Impacts

• High participation and interaction to encourage active learning.
• Tool uses just HTML behind the scenes, so accessible by anyone with standard internet access.
• Allows for easy conversion into PDFs to create transcripts for e-readers or the direct addition of audio that students can play.
• Integrates directly into Canvas, Nearpod, or other learning support software.

Other Benefits

• All tutorials and self-paced training are free for all users in the Genial.ly Academy. 
• Provides students with skills in a tool that can be used in a variety of fields.
• Unlimited presentations and other creations with a free account. 
• Ability to have collaborators, just like with Google Suite products.
• Listens to feedback from educators and does frequent updates to help support teachers.

New in Genially | May 23 | Video