The College provides access to several collaborative whiteboard tools, which aid faculty and students in discussions and brainstorming activities. Common features include:

  • Whiteboard area for writing, drawing, and moving items around 
  • Pens in various widths and colors
  • Text boxes (“sticky notes”) and graphic features such as arrows
  • Collaborative activities

In general, these tools work best with pens on tablet devices (e.g. the latest iPads), are more difficult to use with fingers on touch screens or trackpads, and are much harder to use with a regular mouse.

Jump to: Explain Everything  ♦  Google Jamboard  ♦  Mural ♦  Zoom 

Explain Everything

Explain Everything Logo

How Amherst Faculty are using it:

  • create video-based microlectures, student projects, interactive features (currently being explored)

Features:

  • Infinite whiteboard
  • Project Templates
  • Cloud-based
  • Synchronous & asynchronous activities
  • Animation creation
  • Screencast video creation
  • Audio and video recorded by your computer
  • Insertion of images, PDFs as images, videos, audio files, Powerpoints, and live Web pages
  • “Laser” pointer
  • Pagination

Faculty Examples

Information Page

HOW TO GET STARTED: Contact askIT@amherst.edu to request an account 

Google Jamboard

Jamboard Logo

How Amherst Faculty are using it:

  • brainstorming, iterative drafting, collaboration, synchronous and asynchronous text-based discussion

Features:

  • Whiteboard environment
  • Cloud-based
  • Synchronous and asynchronous activities
  • Google Docs integration
  • Insertion of images
  • “Laser” pointer
  • Pagination

HOW TO GET STARTED: Visit jamboard.google.com 

Mural

Mural Logo

How Amherst Faculty are using it:

  • synchronous group work, collaboration, note sharing

Features:

  • Infinite whiteboard
  • Cloud-based
  • Synchronous and asynchronous activities
  • Insertion of images, along with text files as images, and PDFs as images.
  • Project templates
  • Sticky connectors
  • Framed areas for presentations
  • Content library
  • Polling
  • Chat

HOW TO GET STARTED: Contact askIT@amherst.edu to request an account 

Zoom

Zoom Logo

How Amherst Faculty are using it:

  • hosting online classes and office hours, increasing student engagement during remote learning, collaborative synchronous reading discussion/annotation

Features:

  • Integrated video meetings
  • Breakout rooms feature to enable small group discussions with their own whiteboards
  • Recording lectures and other course content
  • Synchronous activities
  • Polling
  • Chat
  • Moodle integration
  • “Laser” pointer

Faculty Example

FAQ Page

HOW TO GET STARTED: Visit https://amherstcollege.zoom.us/ to access your account, and read this page on using annotation in Zoom.

Last Updated: Spring 2021 by Academic Technology Services