Collaborative Digital Whiteboards

As Google Jamboard and Microsoft Whiteboard are UM-supported tools, instructors and students can login with their UMID. For non-UM supported tools such as Padlet and Miro, instructors need to create an account, or use their UM Office365 account to sign up and login with the tool. Depending on if you want to record student participation, students can login to the tool with their account, or contribute anonymously.

To use for a live, or asynchronous learning activity, instructors would need to login to the digital whiteboard application, create a ‘board,’ add a template, guiding questions or prompts, and generate a web link to share with students in class, or on a course website like Blackboard. Students can login to the tool, or contribute anonymously.

All students would then submit drawings, sticky-notes, text, images, links, or comments to the board in real-time. For larger classes, multiple boards may be required, to ensure the canvas does not become cluttered, or overwhelming. Adding multiple files at the same time can overload the page, and cause the page to slow down. Similar to instructors, students can also create digital whiteboards for group-based projects or brainstorming exercises to share with the wider class, or for instructor review.

Creation of collaborative spaces: For each course or research project, a Miro ‘project’ was created, and students were invited to contribute to the project area throughout the semester. Within each project, Professor Lamere created a board and structured each learning activity, assignment, or event into a template that students could easily add their content to. Each board (with a template) included student names and was organized in a horizontal layout where students could add their files like presentations, drawings, or even CAD 3D models hosted in Sketchfab. Boards were created to facilitate group projects, individual projects, and reviews. While students could create their own ‘board’, the template helped students focus on sharing their progress, and reduced potential challenges when navigating a new tool.

Peer, instructor, and external review: For key learning events such as midterm and final reviews, external reviewers (e.g. practitioners, professors, experts), were invited to a specific board and able to add comments or post-it notes to the work of each student, while the review was facilitated live through Zoom. To facilitate these more high-stakes events, multiple boards were created, to allow students to add more resources, live or asynchronously and prevent the board from slowing down. For reviews, individual critiques, or group projects, each board could be shared for students to provide feedback on each other's work. In particular, students are required to comment on the midterm and final reviews in Miro, which is usually led and dominated by external critics in a face-to-face environment.

Visual course material: Professor Lamere also uses Miro to share specific course materials to amplify the visually engaging nature of the resources students read. Multiple file types and course materials were shared in Miro, including readings, precedents, secondary research, and previous student examples of pre-thesis work. If PDFs were added, the option to turn pages by page in the browser was also offered. Without access to the physical presence of fabricated models, 3D models of physical objects were also hosted on Sketchfab and shared with students.

Research: For a U-Link research project on Next Generation Coastal Structures, Professor Lamere leverages Miro to collaborate with a graduate student researcher to share research/precedents, post drafts, and mark up drawings. This board is also used to share progress with other university partners working on this project.

Introductory activities: Students were invited to introduce themselves in the first week of class using Padlet. One particular activity included using Padlet’s map template, where students would insert images or text next to the location where they lived, and geographically indicate where they are.

Pre-class activities: Instructors uploaded activities, readings, and resources for students to engage in prior to their class sessions. This included linked PDF articles, embedded video clips, and included helpful instructions for each assignment. During class, students reviewed what was posted in Padlet to reflect and further discuss.

Real-world applications: Once a week, students posted on Padlet any outside sources  (e.g. social media posts, articles, personal observations) that related to topics in the course. Students would like, rate or comment on other student’s posts, and use these topics to lead discussions in class.

Sign-up sheet: Students were invited to sign up for different service-learning programs via Padlet. Instructors posted the name of the organization along with links to their websites for students to review before signing up. Students would also post questions that were later answered by the partnering organizations that came to speak in class.

Post-class activities: After discussing topics in class, instructors would assign activities or questions for students to complete after class within Padlet. These were used as “follow-up” assessments to apply the material learned in class.

Share assignment with peers: For media-based assignments like infographics, topics for the infographics were pasted on Padlet for students to review and choose. Students posted completed infographics within Padlet under their chosen topic. Instructors would review all infographics and then created a scavenger hunt of questions for all students to answer by reviewing each other’s infographics.

Extra credit: For extra credit, students post links to songs or music videos within Padlet along with a description of how it related to the content in class.

Frequently asked questions: The Padlet timeline template was used to organize questions about the course such as office hours, major deadlines, the passcode to Zoom meetings.

Embed boards within Blackboard: Padlet was embedded within Blackboard and students are able to post and interact on digital boards without leaving their course site. To do this, the instructors embedded an HTML code provided by Padlet into the Blackboard text editor box when creating an assignment.

Department collaboration: Padlet is currently used to outline resources within the Psychology department, including information on graduate student recruitment, faculty recruitment and departmental review activities. In particular, a Padlet was created on different technology tools to use in the classroom and what their benefits and challenges are. This was shared among faculty in the Psychology department and also across different departments within UM.

Stanford University

Instructors Christopher Cormier and Catalina Martinez used digital whiteboards to incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in their education course at Stanford University. Prior to the 2020 global pandemic, both were already using Padlet to have students post any general questions about the course so that all responses could be viewed and class time could be focused on activities. Once things transitioned to online, Cormier and Martinez needed additional tools in order to fill in the gaps of providing formative assessments, quick check-ins, and hands-on activities. They used Google Jamboard to have students reflect on course learning and provide key takeaways using drawings, sticky notes, and inserting course artifacts.They compiled all student Jamboards to create an overall vision for their future educator classrooms. Martinez noted that the positive aspect of Jamboard was that student’s posts would live on “digitally” versus a physical poster session.

University of Bristol

Dr. Hazra Aya worked with the University of Bristol’s Digital Education office to create pre-recorded lectures for her undergraduate applied anatomy courses in dentistry. Dr. Aya used Microsoft Whiteboard to create mini-videos students would watch prior to attending her lecture.  Microsoft Whiteboard allowed Dr. Aya to demonstrate dental anatomy and associated processes all the while annotating or labeling her drawings. She then used the video-editing software Camtasia to record her drawings, provide audio narration, add other annotations, and insert self-check quiz questions.

University of Sydney

View faculty examples from Chemistry, Physics, Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology, Health Sciences, French and Francophone Studies.

University of Oklahoma

Dr. Laura Gibbs, from the University of Oklahoma uses Padlet to connect with her students in her online modern languages and comparative literature courses. On one digital board, students reflected on their personal growth and perceptions of receiving peer feedback. Recently, Gibbs has used Padlet as an extra credit opportunity for students to post their check-ins throughout the semester. Students are encouraged to post inspiring graphics or links to music videos that they think, “will help them cope with this impossible semester!” With both boards, students can include their name, or post anonymously if they wish to express their opinions freely. Laura has also used Padlet in the past to curate resources for her own research interests.

University of Groningen

Dr. Dana Mustata, Assistant Professor, Television Studies and Journalism, from the University of Groningen, used Miro to organize synchronous and asynchronous student work. In the “live” classroom, she and students collaborated on assignments together by having students move around different spaces within Miro either in groups or individually. Once out of class, students continued to work on their assignments and tagged Mustata if they had questions or needed to update on project progress. Mustata was able to better follow and monitor student’s progress while assessing their participation in Miro.

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is also using Miro as part of their undergraduate admissions interview process. 

With a physical whiteboard, there is limited space for students or instructors to draw, which can potentially exclude other students from collaborating. As these tools are external to conferencing applications like Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, and the learning management system (e.g. Blackboard Learn), students, instructors and staff can create a canvas and share without permissioning restrictions, or needing to be an instructor or facilitator. This allows university stakeholders to use these tools for participatory learning experiences in courses, research, or events.

Each of these tools offer a variety of markup features that collaborators can use for a variety of classroom purposes, therefore reducing the need of physical materials or office supplies (e.g. post-it notes). For anonymous polling and brainstorming purposes, students are also not required to create an account to contribute to a digital whiteboard (Miro requires instructors to have an educational account for this feature).

To reduce set-up time during class sessions, digital whiteboards offer various layouts to help structure collaborative interactive. Miro and Padlet offer multiple templates, ranging from concept maps and meeting reflections, to timelines, or chat-like stream boards. Within the PC, Surface Hub, and iOS apps, Microsoft Whiteboard offers design-thinking templates (empathy maps, personas) and other project planning tools. Google Jamboard currently has no templates, but allows users to add read-only backgrounds, like using online whiteboard backgrounds designed by Canva.

None of the digital whiteboards integrate with Blackboard’s Grade Center, nor do they offer their own grading system (exception Padlet). If an instructor was attempting to grade participation, they would have to do so manually. It’s then recommended to use digital whiteboards for more formative feedback or participation work. Other limited functions of these whiteboards include:No option to record  whiteboard collaboration live without using an external tool such as Zoom. No option to see a “timeline of changes” to track participation or past edits made (exception of Miro and Padlet).  

Drawing on a desktop computer or laptop can be difficult for students and faculty. Although these tools are compatible with styluses on tablets or touch screen Chromebooks, not all students or faculty have access to these kinds of devices. For more detailed sketches or handwritten assignments, students may need to upload files instead or use a tablet app such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Fresco (available for free to UM faculty, students and staff).

As digital whiteboards often focus on sharing visual information, some have limited accessibility features or statements (e.g. Padlet, Miro, Jamboard), and therefore may affect students who require high contrast options, or assistive technologies, such as screen-readers and keyboards to engage with content. Microsoft Whiteboard promotes various options, such the ‘immersive reader’, to assist with reading comprehension, or adding alternative text to describe an image or drawing, helpful for users with visual impairments, however this available only in the Windows or iOS apps.

Digital whiteboards can be used for quick icebreakers, mid-semester check-ins, or first-day introductions so faculty can get to know and engage their students, especially if teaching remotely. These tools provide spaces for all student voices to be recognized and have presence in the classroom.

Low-stakes assessments are important for faculty to know the progress of their students and whether they are connecting course content to real-word applications. Have students use digital whiteboards to participate in brainstorming sessions, small group break-out activities, or concept/mind-mapping  so they can easily present ideas and visually unpack more abstract topics. Incorporating these activities either during or after class will then better prepare students for more high-stakes assessments such as upcoming exams or final projects/papers.

Have students use digital whiteboards to lead topic discussions in class, plan projects or share progress and research while working in dynamic teams, or create interactive presentations and poster boards to share. These are opportunities for students to produce work that to them is meaningful and engaging.

Curriculum mapping is a time intensive process. These tools can be used by faculty to collaborate on the design of a course, curate lesson materials, or brainstorm teaching strategies with other faculty members.

Currently, Miro and Padlet are the only digital whiteboards that automatically attribute participation during and after a real-time learning activity, therefore could be used for graded assessments, as described in our UM use cases. Google Jamboard and Microsoft Whiteboard currently only offer real-time recording of interaction on a whiteboard, or require students to manually add their name, therefore these tools are primarily used for non-graded activities. As Google and Microsoft offer versioning and recording of participants in their other products, it is expected for this to evolve over time.

All tools currently require a stable internet connection for instructors to create a digital whiteboard, which can include students with limited or inconsistent internet access. Future product development sees the ability for instructors and students to create, and view whiteboards offline, then allow syncing to online versions once connected to an internet connection. Google is currently working towards offline use in Jamboard.

Apart from Padlet, and Miro all users have the same editing rights on a whiteboard, which can cause some issues such as deletion of the material, clearing an entire canvas or moving objects accidently.  While you can limit editing, more granular options, like locking particular content items is an emerging feature (e.g. Microsoft Whiteboard).

Padlet is the only tool that offers some integration within Blackboard Learn, for account and grading purposes, but requires configuration, and a paid, ‘Backpack’ license.