Conducting board work and demonstrations digitally

Conveying live written text, drawings, and demonstrations to remote participants can be challenging. However, with the proper equipment, these tasks can be accomplished in concert with a web conferencing tool like Zoom.

It is not recommended to conduct “board work” by pointing a web cam at a board since the color contrast between the board and chalk/markers often make is difficult to read.

All of these instructions rely on Zoom screen sharing, which is covered in more detail on Sharing a screen in Zoom.

Using an iPad and Notability

All College-managed iPads come preloaded with Notability, a powerful annotation app, but can be purchased for personal devices. It allows you to write and draw free-hand, and does so accurately when using an Apple Pencil or other high-quality stylus. It also allows you to insert PDFs, images, change paper backgrounds, and save all work to Google Drive as PDFs.

Notability provides helpful documentation for using its app.

  1. Click the Share Screen button in the toolbar located at the bottom of Zoom.
  2. Select the method you wish to use to share the iPad and click the Share button.
  3. Click the Stop Share button to stop sharing.

Using an iPad with the Zoom whiteboard

Zoom has a built-in whiteboard feature when sharing a screen. This can be helpful for quick one-off writings or drawings.

  1. Click the Share Screen button in the toolbar located at the bottom of Zoom.
  2. Select Whiteboard and click the Share button..
  3. Click the Stop Share button to stop sharing.

Using the classroom document camera with Zoom

To convey text or drawings:

  1. Click the Share Screen button in the toolbar located at the bottom of Zoom.
  2. Click the Advanced tab at the top of the share screen.
  3. Select Content from 2nd Camera and click the Share button.
  4. Using sheets of paper and a high-contrasting pen or marker, you can write your notes or drawings directly on the sheets of paper placed under the document camera. If you use a marker, be sure it doesn’t bleed through the paper onto the base of the document camera. If there is marker bleed, use two sheets of paper or heavier stock paper.
  5. Click the Stop Share button to stop sharing.

To demonstrate objects or other items:

  1. Click the Share Screen button in the toolbar located at the bottom of Zoom.
  2. Click the Advanced tab at the top of the share screen.
  3. Select Content from 2nd Camera and click the Share button.
  4. Place the object(s) you wish to demonstrate under the document camera.
  5. Click the Stop Share button to stop sharing.
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