What is a digital whiteboard?
A digital whiteboard is a tool that allows instructors and students to engage in traditional whiteboard practices — such as brainstorming, drawing connections between ideas, organizing workflows, concept mapping, and more — with the addition of digital tools and options. This allows for whiteboard activities to be deployed synchronously or asynchronously for online classes, in-person, or hybrid classes. This can take the form of drawing on the board, writing on the board, sticky note-like features, and similar things that one can do on a physical whiteboard.
Digital whiteboards offer additional features such as digital templates, the ability to add links, images, audio and videos to a whiteboard, and the ability for a whiteboard to be saved and distributed to the class for later reference/review/use in a variety of formats. This can take the form of a persistent whiteboard viewable through the specific whiteboard tool, or as an exported file such as a PDFs. However, it is important to remember that each whiteboard tool often has its own unique nuances, features, and limitations, and not all options are available on all platforms.
Google Jamboard
Prior to its Fall 2024 retirement, many on campus used Google Jamboard as a digital whiteboard. If you previously used Jamboard and want to be able to access Jams in the future, review Google’s documentation on how to export your jams.
What are my digital whiteboard options?
Boston College does not currently have a campus license to a specialized digital whiteboard platform. However, both Microsoft and Zoom have whiteboard features built into their platforms that are:
- Available at no additional cost
- Intuitive for users (and similar to Jamboard)
- Supported by CTE staff
The primary benefit of Zoom Whiteboard is the ability to simultaneously collaborate with a large number of users, while Microsoft recommends 10. However, Microsoft Whiteboard does have more accessibility features.
Digital Whiteboard Accessibility
Microsoft is the more accessible of the two platforms (e.g. it provides the option to add alternative text to uploaded images), though even Microsoft’s whiteboard can pose some barriers for users who are accessing the software with adaptive technology like screen readers.
In order to lower accessibility barriers, if you are thinking about using a digital whiteboard in your courses you can:
- Offer the digital whiteboard as one tool students could choose to use among several (e.g. students can choose to submit a Google Doc, a Powerpoint Slide, or a Whiteboard).
- Let students know if you will be using the digital whiteboard in advance, provide information on the accessibility features of the tool, and ask all students to practice accessibility when populating the Whiteboard.
For more guidance on accessible course design, see our resource on Universal Design for Learning. For more information on designing accessible digital documents, see Accessible Documents and Universal Design.