Dear Renaissance Support Team,

Thank you for your recent reply regarding the recent updates to the Nearpod platform. While we appreciate the improvements aimed at enhancing consistency across platforms, we would like to provide further clarification regarding our environment and share some important concerns that continue to affect daily instruction.

At The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber), we serve over 10,000 students, with more than 536 teachers using Nearpod daily as their primary instructional tool. All teachers work remotely on Dell laptops, and Google Chrome is the recommended browser. Nearpod is accessed through our instance of Clever, not via mobile apps or tablets.

Given this setup, the following recent changes have had a noticeable negative impact on our teachers' ability to deliver instruction efficiently:

1. Portrait View / Lesson Navigation Changes

The switch from a landscape to portrait layout in the lesson view has significantly reduced usability for our staff. Teachers now see fewer lessons at once and must click “Load more” repeatedly. This creates unnecessary friction in their daily workflows and delays their ability to access and launch lessons quickly.

2. Visual and Layout Design

The new visual design—with thinner, sharper elements and a stark white background—has been described by our staff as less user-friendly and more difficult to navigate. The previous layout, including navigation tabs that were persistently available on the left sidebar, was far more intuitive and conducive to efficient lesson planning and delivery.

3. Audio Recording Tool

The removal or disabling of the audio recording feature has been particularly disruptive. This tool was vital for teachers developing On Demand content and providing voice instruction to students. Its absence has directly impacted instructional quality and the efficiency of content creation.

We respectfully request further clarification on the following points:

• Are there any available settings or views that can restore previous navigation functionality (e.g., persistent sidebar, landscape view, quicker access to lessons)?

• Is there a plan or timeline to restore the audio recording feature—or an alternative tool teachers can use natively within Nearpod?

• Are any of the recent updates mobile-specific, or are these changes now standard across all platforms, including Chrome on Windows devices?

• Is Renaissance aware of any current or upcoming accessibility or usability improvements for teachers working in desktop web environments?

We understand and support the goal of maintaining a consistent user experience across platforms, but we kindly ask that more attention be given to how these changes affect high-volume web-based users like our teachers. Their instructional efficiency, planning time, and ability to connect with students have been directly impacted by these updates.

Thank you again for your support. We remain strong advocates for Nearpod and its role in our virtual classrooms, and we hope to see continued enhancements that prioritize teacher experience alongside platform innovation.