Mix Up Your PowerPoints with a Free Tool

Do you create PowerPoints to deliver your classroom lessons? If so, did you know you can make them even more interactive with Office Mix?

About Office Mix

Office Mix is a free add-in for PowerPoint. It is an easy way to take your PowerPoint presentations or lessons and bring them to life as interactive, online lessons. From recording audio or video of yourself giving a lecture to directly writing in the presentation as you would at your whiteboard to quizzing and sharing, it helps you create interactivity simply.

Getting Started

To install Office Mix:

1. Go to https://mix.office.com/.
2. Click on the red Get Office Mix tab located in the upper right hand corner.
3. Log in in with your Microsoft or your Office 365 account. If you do not have an account, you can easily create a free account.
4. Install Office Mix.

Please note, before you install Office Mix, make sure you are running a recent version of Office 2013, 2016 or O365.

After you install Office Mix, explore its new tab:

1. Open PowerPoint.
2. Explore the tools on the new Mix tab.

 

Things You Can Do Now You Couldn't Do Before

As you explore Office Mix, you’ll notice some of the things that you can now do:

• Insert web pages, videos, polls, and other interactive content into your presentation.
• Record your voice and draw on your slides while you present.
• Record your screen while explaining how to do something.
• Share your Mix online; it plays back on any device.
• Track how people use your Mix.

In addition, Office Mix is a great way to flip your classroom. Check out this video by Microsoft in Education on how you can create an interactive lesson that students can review at home. This will allow you to reserve limited class time for group discussions or for focusing on the more difficult material.

A Challenge

If you have never used Office Mix before, I challenge you to give it a try. If you want to see some examples first, there are quite a few on the Gallery.