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Key takeaways:
- Templates, backgrounds, and sticky notes can help you organize your online lessons in ways that make them easier to follow.
- Layers, laser pointers, and uploads are essential for explaining concepts, guiding attention, and encouraging participation.
- Interactive apps can turn your whiteboard from a blank canvas into a workspace where students learn by doing.
One of the best things about becoming an online tutor is discovering what technology can do for your teaching. Virtual classrooms, collaborative whiteboards, and interactive learning tools open up possibilities that would be difficult to recreate with a traditional whiteboard and a webcam.
That said, there’s a sizable difference between using an infinite whiteboard and really making the most of one. Of course, you can write out equations, annotate content, or sketch quick diagrams; these are useful tools, but also predictable. With just a little bit of creativity, your digital whiteboard can become a space for collaborative work and visual explanations that help even the trickiest concepts click.
Here are seven online whiteboard tricks that every tutor should know, and how you can start putting them to work in your lessons today.
1. Templates
Ever spent the first five minutes of a lesson drawing out a table, setting up a diagram, or recreating an exercise you used just last week? Whiteboard templates serve to save you that kind of trouble.
Templates are pre-designed layouts you can use as a starting point for your lessons. Depending on your whiteboard, these might include lined pages, grids, mind maps, graphic organizers, subject-specific worksheets, or even a full-fledged lesson.
Instead of setting up an entire lesson from scratch every time, you can prepare a few layouts that suit your teaching style and reuse them as and when needed. A language tutor, for instance, might keep a template for a vocabulary lesson, while a math tutor could prepare a template specifically for coordinate grids or geometry diagrams in advance.
Templates also help students become familiar with your lesson format. When the layout stays consistent, they can spend more time thinking about the material and less time figuring out where everything goes.
2. Laser pointer
Oftentimes, the hardest part of explaining something online is getting your student to look at the right thing. A laser pointer helps you highlight specific areas of a whiteboard temporarily. This allows you to direct a student’s attention without leaving permanent marks on the whiteboard content.
A laser pointer proves especially useful when you need to explain a complicated diagram, walk through a solution with multiple steps, or compare different parts of a text. Use it to guide your student through the process one step at a time. Point to the relevant equation, highlight the next stage of a diagram, or draw attention to a detail they may have overlooked.
The true advantage is that you can guide attention without the need to clutter the board with extra highlighting, circles, arrows, and annotations.
3. Layers
Layers are simple: they let you place different objects on top of one another on your whiteboard. Imagine a diagram with several different components, a worked example that has annotations on top, or even a simple question with its answer hidden underneath.
By arranging items in layers, you can control what students see and when they see it. This is particularly handy for creating activities where students need to think through a problem before seeing the solution.
For example, you could hide labels under shapes on a diagram and reveal each one as your student identifies that part. In a math lesson, you might prepare a problem with the worked solution underneath, then uncover it after your student has had a go.
Layers can also help you build up complex diagrams gradually. You can construct them live, one component at a time, instead of overwhelming students with everything at once.
4. Sticky notes
Sticky notes are the ideal way to add short notes or pieces of text to your whiteboard without disrupting the rest of your layout.
You can use them to record questions, define unfamiliar vocabulary, leave reminders, or collect your student’s ideas during a discussion. Their compact (and usually colorful) format also makes them great for organizing information visually.
For example, a history tutor could use sticky notes to collect causes and consequences of an event. An English tutor might ask a student to identify themes in a novel, with each theme written on a separate note. A science tutor could use them to sort examples into different categories.
Sticky notes are particularly useful for collaborative activities, as students can use them to contribute their own ideas to a shared workspace on the fly.
5. Backgrounds
A whiteboard background might seem like a purely cosmetic choice. It might not even be something you think about in your lessons. Still, the right layout can make a fundamental difference to how you teach.
Many digital whiteboards offer different backgrounds, such as lined pages, graph paper, grids, or plain colored surfaces. These can help you tailor your workspace to the subject and the activity.
Graph paper, for instance, is useful for plotting functions, exploring geometry, or working with coordinates. Lined backgrounds can help students practice handwriting or organize written responses. Different colors can also help separate sections of a lesson or distinguish between different types of information.
The trick is to choose backgrounds with a purpose. Just a little bit of visual organization can make information easier for a student to follow, but too many competing colors or patterns can become distracting or difficult to work with.
6. Uploads
Your whiteboard doesn’t always have to start with a blank page. By uploading your class materials onto your board, you can work directly with existing, reliable resources inside the lesson. This saves you time switching back and forth between your teaching materials and the whiteboard, while also eliminating the need to rewrite or screen-share instructions.
Depending on the platform, you might upload a worksheet, an image, a diagram, a reading passage, or a screenshot of a problem. You can then annotate the material, highlight key details, or work through related questions with your student.
This is especially useful when a student needs help with a specific assignment or homework question. You can bring the relevant material right into the shared workspace and work through it together, so you can keep your explanations and the original content in the same place.
The greatest advantage of uploads is that they can be used to make lessons feel more connected to what students are actually doing in class, whether that’s preparing for a test or working through a tricky homework question.
7. Apps
Why stop at drawing and writing when modern whiteboards empower you to do more?
Some virtual classrooms include built-in apps and tools that allow you to bring all different kinds of activities directly into your lesson. These might include interactive exercises, shared documents, coding environments, or other subject-specific tools that encourage students to participate rather than simply watch.
The advantage of putting apps onto your whiteboard is that you can choose engaging activities that are tailored perfectly to the concept you’re teaching. A language tutor might use an interactive exercise to practice vocabulary, while a math tutor could use a visual tool to explore a concept that is difficult to explain through equations alone.
Virtual classroom software like Pencil Spaces brings a range of built-in apps and teaching tools right into the workspace. With it, tutors can move seamlessly between explanations, collaboration, and practical activities within the same learning environment.
Make more of your online whiteboard
Modern whiteboards allow online tutors to do much more than simply write things down. With the right tools and techniques, you can use them to structure your online lessons, explain tricky concepts, and give your students extra opportunities to actively participate in their learning.
You don’t need to use every trick in every session, either. Start with the ones that suit your subject and teaching style, and pay attention to how your students respond. Sometimes, a simple change, like preparing a template or revealing a worked solution one step at a time, can make a lesson feel more rewarding. And the virtual classroom you use should make experimenting with these online tutoring tools easier.
Pencil Spaces brings collaborative whiteboards, interactive apps, and other teaching tools together in one place, giving you more ways to make your online lessons work for you and your students. Try Pencil Spaces for free, or book a free demo to see how it can support your online teaching.
