How to Teach Online With a Whiteboard: A Practical Guide

To teach online with a whiteboard, prepare the board before class (background, materials and one tab per part of the lesson), build each idea step by step while you talk, annotate the real worksheet, hand the pen to students every few minutes, and record the lesson. You need a computer, a headset, a stable connection and ideally a stylus.

A physical whiteboard does something a slide deck cannot: it lets students watch an idea being built step by step. When classes moved online, many teachers lost that and fell back on talking over slides. A digital whiteboard brings it back, and adds things a classroom board never had, such as extra pages in board tabs, annotated worksheets and a recording of the whole lesson.

This guide walks through how to set up, structure and run a live online class around a whiteboard, based on how teachers use Educastic every day.

What do you need to teach online with a whiteboard?

You need a computer, a stable connection, a way to write, a headset and a whiteboard with video built in. That is less than most teachers expect:

• A computer and a stable internet connection. A wired connection or a spot close to your router helps more than a faster plan.
• A way to write. A mouse works for diagrams and typed notes. For handwriting and maths, a drawing tablet or a touchscreen laptop with a stylus makes a big difference. Our guide to choosing a drawing tablet for online teaching covers the options.
• A headset with a microphone. Students forgive a grainy webcam, but not echoing audio.
• An online whiteboard that includes video. If your board and your video call are separate apps, you will spend the lesson switching windows. On the Educastic online whiteboard, webcam video, chat and screen sharing sit next to the board in the same browser tab, and students join from an invite link with nothing to install.

Step 1: How should you prepare the board before class?

Open your board ten minutes early and set it up the way you would set up a classroom.

1. Pick a background. Dotted or ruled backgrounds keep handwriting and graphs straight. Use a blank background for diagrams and mind maps.
2. Load your materials. Upload the worksheet, PDF or images you plan to use so they are ready on the board, instead of hunting for files while students wait. Educastic can also import files from Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive.
3. Create a tab for each part of the lesson. For example: warm-up, new concept, practice, and wrap-up. Switching tabs feels like turning to a clean board.

Step 2: How do you structure an online whiteboard lesson?

Split a 45-minute lesson into five short parts, each with its own job on the board. This simple structure works for most subjects:

The key habit: write as you speak. Students follow handwriting far better than a finished slide, because they see the order in which the idea comes together.

Step 3: Annotate real materials, not just blank pages

Teach from the exact worksheet or textbook page students have, uploaded to the board. Circle the key word in a question, underline the step people get wrong, and write the corrected version in a second colour. This turns a passive PDF into a guided explanation. Word and other documents convert to PDF on upload, so you can use the files you already have. For a full walkthrough, see how to annotate a PDF in an online class.

Step 4: How do you get students writing on the board?

Give one student drawing access, let them solve the problem in front of everyone, then take the access back. The fastest way to lose an online class is to make it a lecture, so give students something to do every few minutes:

• Let a student write. On the Educastic whiteboard, the teacher can give a student access to the annotation tools at any time, then take it back when they are done.
• Ask for quick answers in chat. Low-pressure for shy students, and you can read every answer at once.
• Publish a quick test before revealing an answer. In Educastic, students answer against a countdown and you see a summary of their answers, so everyone commits to a choice.

Step 5: Should you record the class?

Yes, start a recording at the beginning of every lesson. Students who were absent can catch up, and everyone can rewatch the part they found hard. Educastic keeps recordings in the My Recordings tab of My Library, where you can replay or download them, or play one back inside a later class. Over time you build a library of explanations you can reuse.

What mistakes should you avoid when teaching on a whiteboard?

The most common mistakes are writing too small, crowding the page and talking for too long without handing over the pen:

1. Writing too small. Zoom in, or write larger than feels natural. Some students may be on a tablet or a small laptop screen.
2. Filling the whole board. Use a new tab instead of squeezing more onto a crowded page.
3. Teaching in silence. Narrate what you are drawing, even when it feels obvious.
4. Skipping the tech check. Test your microphone and pen before students arrive.
5. Talking for 20 minutes straight. Hand the pen to a student at least every ten minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Do students need to install anything to join a whiteboard class? No. Educastic runs in the browser, so students join from the class link on a laptop, tablet or touch screen.

Can I use an online whiteboard for free? Yes. Educastic includes all of its teaching features in the free version, including the whiteboard, video, chat, screen sharing and recording.

What is the best device for teaching on an online whiteboard? A laptop or desktop with a drawing tablet or stylus is ideal for handwriting and maths. A mouse is fine for diagrams and typed notes.

How many students can I teach at once? Educastic has been tested with up to 49 attendees in one session, which covers a full class.

Start your first whiteboard class

You can run everything in this guide on Educastic for free. Open the online whiteboard, schedule a class, and share the invite link with your students.

Start teaching free