My students and I love playing Jeopardy. We traditionally play it using PowerPoint, but recently have had to use Google Slides instead. This lead to a lot of frustration because, unlike PowerPoint, once a link is clicked (or activated) in Google Slides, it doesn't change color. My students would choose their category and point value, I'd click the link, they'd answer the question, we'd return to the game board, and very quickly forget which questions had been chosen. The happy ending to this story is that I have come up with a workaround for this problem and plan to share it with you today.

Ever since the start of the pandemic (and even before), teachers have been creating interactive activities in Google Slides. I myself have quite a few drag and drops, sequencing, vocabulary activities, cover up games, and other digital board games. Many teachers and students searched for a way to make these interactive activities full screen, or at least get rid of the slide sorter and make the editing area larger. I didn't pay too much attention to these discussions at first because it wasn't something my students and I cared about all that much. Then we started having to use Google Slides to play Jeopardy, and the problem of hyperlinks not changing colors became very annoying very fast.

My first thought was to use a cover of some kind, something simple that could be dropped over the number once it had been chosen. The problem was you can't create or move anything on a slide when it is in present mode. Playing the game in edit mode didn't work well because the gameboard wasn't large enough and students could see the other slides in the slide sorter. I kept thinking, if only there was a way to make a full screen slide interactive. It was actually while I was listening to the Shake Up Learning podcast by Kasey Bell that I finally put two and two together. Kasey gave a quick tip about a chrome extension, Fullscreen Interactive Google Slides. This extension allows you to hide the slide sorter and make the editing area of Slides larger. Kasey also suggested hiding the menu bar to enlarge the area further. By combining this extension and an infinity pile of covers my problem was solved!

This is one of those things that's easier to show than explain, so take a look at this video and I'll do my best to explain it in writing after:

Let me explain this by starting from the beginning.

Convert PowerPoint to Google Slides

The first thing I had to do was upload my PowerPoint to Google Drive.

  1. Open Google Drive.
  2. Click New
  3. Click File Upload
  4. Navigate to your saved file, select it, click open.

Once the file is added to Google Drive, convert it to a Slides file.

  1. Right click on the file.
  2. Choose Open With….Google Slides.
  3. After the file opens, click File
  4. Choose Save as Google Slides

Make Adjustments to File

If your Jeopardy game is the like the ones I've made for my students, the questions and answers are on the same slide. The player (or game master) will click on the desired category and point value. This will display the question and another click will display the answer. This method of setting up the slides will not work when playing in full screen interactive mode because all slide elements are displayed at all times. Here is how I quickly (takes me about 5 minutes for a one round game) adjust my game files:

  1. Click on the first question slide.
  2. Scroll to the last question slide in the round.
  3. Hold down the shift key and click on the last question slide in round one. This will select all of the slides in that round.
  4. Copy the slides (ctrl + c)
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the slide deck.
  6. Click below the last slide.
  7. Paste the copied slides (ctrl + v). Pay attention to the number of the first pasted slide, you'll need this later.
  8. Scroll back to the first slide in round one.
  9. Delete the answer from the slide.
  10. Draw a shape of some kind (I like the beveled rectangle).
  11. Add the word "Answer" to the shape and format it to your liking.
  12. Copy the answer button.
  13. Click on the next slide (the second question in the round).
  14. Delete the answer and paste the button you just created and copied.
  15. Continue deleting answers and pasting the button until you've done every slide in the round.
  16. If necessary, repeat the steps for round two (Double Jeopardy).
  17. Return to the first question of round one and click on the answer button.
  18. Click on the insert link button from the tool bar (looks like two links in a chain).
  19. Click Slides in this presentation.
  20. Choose the first answer slide (you should have noted the number of it in step 7).
  21. Click apply.
  22. Click on the next slide (the second question in the round) and link it to the next answer slide by following steps 18-21 again but adding 1 to the slide number you select.
  23. Continue until all answer buttons have been linked to the correct answer slide (your last answer slide should be the last slide in your presentation).

Create Cover Pile

  1. Scroll to the game board slide.
  2. Choose a rectangle tool and draw a rectangle over the first 100. Drawing on the game board helps you to ensure the size is correct.
  3. Format the rectangle however you choose.
  4. Drag the rectangle to the side and drop it in the gray work area.
  5. Copy the rectangle (ctrl+c).
  6. Paste the rectangle (ctrl+v) as many times as you have questions (or just do 30-40 of them).
  7. Select all of the rectangles.
  8. Click Arrange – Align – Center.
  9. Click Arrange – Align – Middle.
  10. Drag your pile of rectangles to the side so they are close to the board but not covering any spaces.

Add the Chrome Extension

  1. Go to the chrome store and find the Fullscreen Interactive Google Slides extension.
  2. Add it to chrome.
  3. Go back to your Jeopardy game.
  4. Click on the extension icon at the top of the screen (looks like a puzzle piece).
  5. Click on the Fullscreen Interactive Google Slides extension.
  6. Click the up arrow to hide the menu bar.

*If you need more help with how to do this, check out Kasey Bell's helpful tutorial.

Play the Game

  1. Before students arrive, have the game set to interactive full screen mode (open it and activate the extension) and sitting on the game board slide.
  2. Once students choose a category and point value, click on it, and click the link that appears below it.
  3. You can then click on "Answer" and the link that appears below it to reveal the answer.
  4. Click the arrow (or game board button, whatever you're game uses to return to the game board) and the link that appears below it to return to the game board.
  5. Drag and drop a rectangular cover over the used space.
  6. The next team is then able to make their selection from the remaining choices.

Does this solve all of the problems we have experienced playing Jeopardy in Google Slides? No, but it does solve the biggest one: keeping track of which questions have already been chosen. I hope you'll find it useful as well. Happy teaching, everyone!