Customer story · Online IB school

How Aoba-Japan International School teaches the IB Diploma fully online

Aoba-Japan International School runs Aoba Global Campus, its 100% online IB Diploma Programme, on Pencil Spaces. Students in Grades 11 and 12 learn in live classes and daily breakout rooms, and their work stays in each class’s Space between lessons. Aoba is one of a small number of schools piloting the online Diploma with the IB.

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Theory of Knowledge · Grade 11Live

Breakout rooms

Teacher visiting

Team 1

Claims and counterclaims

AKRMJS

Team 2

Sorting the evidence

LTHNOB

Team 3

Station 2: a case study

MISDYW

Team 4

Drafting a shared answer

EPKFTR

Illustration: one class in four breakout rooms, each team on its own board.

School: Aoba-Japan International School
japaninternationalschool.com ↗
Founded: Tokyo, Japan, 1976
Program: IB Diploma Programme, Grades 11–12, 100% online
School day: Live classes, team work and independent study, 10:00–17:00 Japan time
On Pencil Spaces: Since August 2025, the campus’s first school year

At a glance

The IB Diploma, taught live and fully online.

Aoba Global Campus welcomed its first cohort in August 2025. All of its live teaching happens in Pencil Spaces.

100%

online, for the full two-year IB Diploma Programme

2023

the year the IB selected Aoba for Japan’s first online Diploma pilot

Daily

team work in breakout rooms, which teachers lean on every day

Taught by experienced IB teachers who had never taught the IB online, because almost no one had.

Sources: Aoba Global Campus and the International Baccalaureate, listed at the end of this page.

The short version

Aoba’s first online year, in brief.

The challenge

Teach the IB online, for the first time

The IB Diploma runs on discussion, team work and inquiry. Aoba’s teachers knew the curriculum well, but the online Diploma is so new that none of them had taught it online before.

What Aoba built

A live campus in Pencil Spaces

Every class has its own Space. Teachers teach the whole class, send teams to breakout rooms with their own boards and bring everyone back, several times a lesson. Course content stays in Aoba’s LMS.

What happened

A platform teachers could rely on

In its first year, Pencil Spaces became the home of all live teaching at Aoba Global Campus. Breakout rooms are now part of daily teaching, and work carries over from one lesson to the next.

The school

Home to Japan’s first online IB Diploma pilot.

Aoba-Japan International School was founded in Tokyo in 1976. It’s an IB World School offering the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. In 2023, the International Baccalaureate selected Aoba for the first online Diploma Programme pilot in Japan.

The IB began piloting the online Diploma Programme in March 2022 with a small number of partner schools. Students apply through those schools, follow the full Diploma curriculum and take IB exams in person at local exam centers.

Aoba Global Campus is Aoba’s online school: a two-year, 100% online program for Grades 11 and 12. Students live within three to four hours of Japan time and learn between 10:00 and 17:00 JST, through live classes, team activities and independent study. Graduates earn an Aoba High School Diploma, accredited by CIS and NEASC, alongside the IB Diploma.

The hard part

Aoba hired experienced IB teachers for the campus. They knew the curriculum and how to teach it in a classroom. None of them had taught it online, because the online Diploma was too new for anyone to have years of practice.

The Diploma also asks a lot of a live class. It’s meant to be constructivist: students build knowledge with each other through discussion and team work. Online, that means moving a class in and out of small groups many times a lesson without losing anyone or their work, and making that easy for teachers who were still learning to teach online.

Inside a class

A live class that keeps moving.

Aoba’s classes rarely sit still. Students move into teams, back to the whole class and into teams again, sometimes with independent work in between. A typical lesson follows this loop, often more than once.

1
Together
The teacher opens with the whole class: a question, a source or a problem on the shared board.
2
In teams
Students split into breakout rooms. Each team works on its own board while the teacher visits, listens and nudges.
3
Stations
Some teachers set up several boards in one Space and rotate teams through them, like stations around a classroom.
4
Back together
Teams come back to share what they found. Often the class heads back into teams before the lesson ends.

What makes it work

Breakout rooms with their own boards

Each team gets its own room and board. Teachers drop into any room to listen and help, then bring the class back together.

Rooms within rooms

Teachers add several boards to one Space, so a class can run stations, team boards and a shared board at once.

Work that stays put

Each class’s Space keeps everything between lessons. A team that worked on Tuesday finds its board where it left it on Thursday.

The web on the board

With the Web Viewer, a class can open a website on the board and work through it together, next to video and the rest of the lesson.

Running the campus

The school side, in the same place.

An online school runs on schedules, attendance and records as much as on teaching. Aoba’s team uses Pencil Spaces for that work too.

Classes on every calendar

Classes are scheduled in Pencil Spaces and appear in students’ Google Calendars automatically.

Attendance recorded

Pencil Spaces records who joined each class and when.

The campus in view

Admins see analytics across classes and teachers, so school leaders can see how the campus is running.

Recordings when they help

Teachers can turn on recording for a class whenever it helps.

Nothing to install

Students and teachers join classes from a web browser, wherever they live.

Alongside the LMS

Course content and assignments stay in Aoba’s learning management system. Pencil Spaces is where students and teachers meet live.

“Pencil Spaces was a bit of a rock for people. It just works. It does what it’s supposed to do.”

Chasen StahlGroup Director of Innovation, Aoba-Japan International School

Lessons for online schools

What other schools can take from Aoba.

01Plan the class around teams

Inquiry-based programs live in small-group work. Decide where teams form, what each board is for and when the class comes back together before the first lesson.

02Give every class a home

A Space that lasts between lessons means students start where they stopped, and teachers don’t rebuild their materials every time.

03Pick tools teachers can learn fast

Most of your teachers will be new to teaching online. A platform that works the first time lets training focus on teaching, not on the software.

04Give content and live teaching their own places

Aoba keeps course content in its LMS and uses Pencil Spaces for live teaching. Students always know where to find each.

05Connect your systems early

Schedules, calendars and attendance are what make an online school feel organized. Plan how they reach your school’s systems from the start.

Questions

About Aoba and Pencil Spaces.

Can the IB Diploma Programme be taught fully online?

Yes, within the IB’s online Diploma Programme pilot, which began in March 2022 with a small number of partner schools. Aoba-Japan International School runs its pilot program, Aoba Global Campus, fully online. Students take their IB exams in person at local exam centers.

How does Aoba use Pencil Spaces?

All live teaching at Aoba Global Campus happens in Pencil Spaces. Teachers teach the whole class, move students into breakout rooms with their own boards, rotate teams through stations and bring everyone back together. Course content stays in Aoba’s learning management system.

Why do breakout rooms matter for the IB?

The Diploma Programme is built on inquiry and collaboration, so students spend a lot of time building knowledge together in small groups. Breakout rooms with their own boards let an online class do that several times in one lesson.

What happens to students’ work between lessons?

It stays in the class’s Space. Boards persist, so a team that worked on Tuesday finds everything where it left it on Thursday.

Does Pencil Spaces work with school calendars and attendance?

Yes. Classes scheduled in Pencil Spaces appear in students’ Google Calendars, and attendance is recorded for every class. Schools can also connect their own systems through the Pencil Spaces API and webhooks.

Is Pencil Spaces affiliated with the IB?

No. Pencil Spaces is an independent company and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate. Aoba-Japan International School, an IB World School, chose Pencil Spaces for its online campus.

For IB and online schools

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