Boardwork is an essential part of any course that requires free-hand writing, for example math or languages with non-Latin scripts. Seeing the instructors write or draw an example as they explain can promote more cognitive engagement for students and lead to deeper learning, especially if demonstration is paired with hands-on exercises for the students (Mayer, 2017). If boardwork is a core part of your class, here are two options to help you achieve the same effect online.
Digital Whiteboard
The first option is to use an electronic whiteboard. This requires
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you to have a capacitive stylus of some kind and a touch-surface to write on, such as a tablet. With those two things, you can make fullest use of the Zoom whiteboard feature or simply use a blank slide or Google Doc, while sharing your screen.
Use the Zoom whiteboard. Using the whiteboard feature in Zoom supplies you with a white background to draw on and a selection of whiteboard tools, including erase. The whiteboard can also be used for collaborative problem-solving and brainstorming activities in breakout rooms. Your students can annotate and contribute to a whiteboard while they engage in a discussion, provided they also have some form of stylus and touch-surface. You can enable this feature during a Zoom meeting by selecting the Share screen button and then the Whiteboard option. This tool works best with a tablet and stylus, as explained below.
Use a tablet & a stylus with Zoom. You can use Surface Pro tablets or iPad and Apple Pencil with Zoom, and write directly on the tablet screen while the whiteboard tool is active. You can also use this approach to annotate slides that you are sharing, if you use the annotation tool instead. Contact the LSA Loan center (LSATechnologyServices@umich.edu) if you need any of these devices to teach.
Document Camera Whiteboard
The second option involves using your phone as a document camera and a piece of paper as your whiteboard. This option does not require a stylus or touch-surface.
Use a phone as a document camera. You can use a smartphone or tablet to create an ad hoc document camera at home, and use blank paper to write freehand demonstrations, diagrams, equations, and non-Latin scripts. This can either be recorded as a video for upload to Canvas, or can be shown live using the same screen-sharing mentioned above.
On Campus Options
The instructors who will use on-campus spaces can also take advantage of these two options. The digital whiteboard in this case will use the Wacom monitor & pen, attached to all podiums, to write on PowerPoint slides or a Zoom whiteboard. The document camera on all podiums is available for free-hand writing on blank paper or a small personal whiteboard. You can get an idea of what each of these options offers in these two videos from the College of Engineering.
Please note that writing on a physical blackboard or whiteboard will not be legible to remote students. If you are in a classroom and have remote students, please plan to use the Wacom monitor or the document camera. You can view guides on how to use the classroom equipment and sign up for a training session here.
If you’d like to discuss which approach is the best option for your online courses, please reach out to the LSA Learning and Teaching Consultants at LSATSLearningTeachingConsultants@umich.edu.
Resources
LSA -Technology Options for Collaborative Problem-Solving and Hand-Written Text
Research
Mayer, R. E. (2017). Using multimedia for e‐learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 33(5), 403-423.
