The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the use of Nearpod in an undergraduate animal anatomy and physiology course and its effect on student performance and non-course related device usage. Nearpod allows instructors to upload lecture presentations and make them interactive by inserting different types of content, videos, simulations, activities, and questions to actively engage students. To answer the research questions, the study was conducted using two rotating lecture presentation modalities, Traditional (PowerPoint) and Interactive (Nearpod), during the fall 2019 semester. The data revealed no significant differences on overall device usage between the two lecture types; however, after examining specific activities, it was discovered that the time spent on text messaging and other activities were significantly higher during the traditional lectures utilizing PowerPoint over those lectures using Nearpod. Furthermore, the use of Nearpod during lectures was shown to increase student academic performance in the form of improved quiz grades, where scores improved by 7.3% when Nearpod was utilized during lecture compared to those lectures incorporating PowerPoint presentations. Additionally, we discovered for every minute of non-educational device usage, student quiz grades were reduced by 0.4%, regardless of the lecture presentation modality. Our findings suggest that incorporating Nearpod into course lectures may help increase student academic performance without increasing non-educational device usage.