One of the features of Zoom is to use a shared Whiteboard during a session. The Zoom whiteboard is one of the screen-sharing tools, so it has the built-in whiteboard tool as an option to select from Share Screen. While there are also third-party whiteboards that can be used, the Zoom whiteboard will give you the basic tools to mark up during a session. This article has two sections: Section I will show how to use a Zoom Whiteboard, and Section II will show how to allow participants in a break-out session to use a Whiteboard.
Section I - Using a Zoom Whiteboard
Step 1
Click Share Screen. The Whiteboard can be shared during a Zoom session in order for content to be viewed and/or created by participants. The most common use is to have a board to draw on during a session and to allow participants to then annotate and also share during a meeting. To start a whiteboard session, select Share Screen from the bottom menu and then highlight and Share the Whiteboard option as shown below.
Step 2
Once in the active whiteboard, there is a new toolbar of options available to use and to choose to let your participants use as annotations. Note that the whiteboard can be downloaded as either an image (png) or document (pdf) file. The annotation tools are a “movable” menu and can be adjusted on your screen to allow for access while viewing. The annotation tools include a drawing marker, for freestyle drawing, stamps, a spotlight tool, an eraser, plus undo and redo. The clear option has choices to clear my drawings or all drawings or viewers drawings for the host. Details about annotation tools from Zoom are here.
To share a block of text you can use the copy and paste commands that you can activate from your keyboard. For example, if you had a list that you wanted students to annotate the item in the list they found most interesting, rather than type the list you could copy it from another document, then using the Text tool paste it into a text box that you activate by using the text tool on the whiteboard. The copy and paste options will work for text, but will not work for images at this time.
Section II - Using Zoom Whiteboard for Peer Work
Step 1
Whiteboards can be shared by students in breakout rooms. A group can share one screen (provided the Share Screen option has been enabled in the image above).
Step 2
Once enabled, go to the Share Screen option on the bottom menu of the meeting. Once there, click on the green caret to see the option for Advanced Sharing Options as shown below
