How to Use a Digital Whiteboard for Remote Teaching

Written by Greg Ives

Creator of Jotboard

A practical guide for educators on how to use an online whiteboard like Jotboard for remote and hybrid teaching, with tips for engagement.

Why Digital Whiteboards Work for Remote Teaching

Remote and hybrid teaching comes with a unique challenge: keeping students engaged when they are not in the same room. A digital whiteboard solves this by giving everyone a shared visual space to write, draw and interact in real time. Unlike screen sharing a static slide deck, a whiteboard lets students participate actively rather than passively watching.

Tools like Jotboard are especially well suited for education because of their simple, slide-based interface. There is no infinite canvas to get lost in, no complex menus to learn and no distractions. Students can jump in and start contributing immediately, which is exactly what you want in a classroom setting. Learn more about how teachers use Jotboard on our teachers and classrooms pages.

Setting Up Jotboard for Your Class

Getting started takes just a few minutes:

1. Create an account — Sign up at Jotboard using your Google account for the fastest setup.
2. Create a new board — Give it a name that matches your lesson, such as “Year 5 Science - Water Cycle”.
3. Prepare your slides — Add slides for each section of your lesson. You can set backgrounds, add images or pre-write questions for students to answer.
4. Share the link — Send the board link to your students. They can join instantly without needing to install anything.
5. Collaborate in real time — As you teach, students can add sticky notes, draw on the board and respond to prompts live.

If you have existing lesson materials in PDF format, you can import them directly into Jotboard and annotate on top of them during class.

Tips for Student Engagement

Use Sticky Notes for Participation

Ask students to place a sticky note on the board with their answer to a question. This is a great way to get every student involved, including quieter ones who might not raise their hand in a video call. You can use different colors to represent different groups or categories.

Let Younger Students Draw

For K-12 students, drawing is often more natural than typing. Let younger kids use the pen tool to sketch their ideas, label diagrams or solve math problems directly on the board. The simplicity of Jotboard means they will not get distracted by unnecessary tools.

Create Group Work Slides

Assign each group their own slide within the same board. This way, groups can work independently without interfering with each other, and you can quickly flip between slides to check on progress. Real-time collaboration means you see updates as they happen.

Use Backgrounds to Structure Activities

Set a background image with a template, such as a Venn diagram, a timeline or a KWL chart. Students fill in the template using sticky notes and text boxes, giving structure to open-ended activities.

Real-Time Collaboration for Group Projects

One of the biggest advantages of a digital whiteboard is that multiple students can work on the same board at the same time. This makes group projects far more interactive than passing documents back and forth. Students can brainstorm together, organize their ideas visually and present their work by walking through their slides.

For more ideas on using Jotboard in educational settings, visit our K-12 education and classroom use case pages.

Get Started Today

Jotboard’s free plan gives you unlimited boards and up to 5 collaborators, which is perfect for most classroom activities. There is nothing to install, no complicated setup and no learning curve for your students.

Sign up for free and try Jotboard in your next remote lesson.