Shapes, Text and Sticky Notes on an Online Whiteboard: A Guide

On an online whiteboard, shapes, text boxes and sticky notes turn a messy freehand board into something students can read. In Educastic you draw a shape by dragging, style it from the header bar (outline, fill, width, solid, dashed or dotted), type in a text box, and place yellow sticky notes that everyone in the class sees.

Handwriting is perfect for working through a problem. For a diagram you will refer back to, a timeline or a class brainstorm, neat objects are easier to follow on a small screen. This guide covers each tool, how to style it and how to use it in a real lesson.

What are the shape, text and sticky note tools?

The shape, text and sticky note tools are the whiteboard tools that create objects you can move, restyle and delete later, instead of ink strokes. In Educastic they sit in three groups on the left toolbar:

• Shapes Tools: Triangle, Rectangle, Circle, Pentagon, Hexagon and Octagon.
• Arrow Tools: Arrow, Double Arrow and Line.
• Text Tools: Textbox, Sticky Note and Cloud (a speech bubble).

Teachers choose which tools appear in a session, so if a group is missing, check the session's tool selection.

How do you draw shapes and lines in Educastic?

Draw a shape or line in Educastic by picking it from its group and dragging on the board.

1. Click Shapes Tools (or Arrow Tools) on the left toolbar and pick a shape or line.
2. Set the style in the bar that appears in the header (see the next section).
3. Press on the board and drag. The shape grows from where you pressed; release to place it.
4. Draw the next one. Every shape you draw uses the same style until you change it.

Shapes share one remembered style and lines and arrows share another, so a square and a circle drawn together match, while your pen keeps its own colour.

How do you change outline, fill and dashed lines?

You change a shape's look in the tool settings bar in the header, which shows while a shape or line tool is selected. Hover any control for a one-sentence explanation.

Dashed and dotted lines are useful for anything that is not "real": construction lines in geometry, a predicted trend on a graph, or the boundary of an estimate.

To restyle a shape you already drew, choose Select, click it, and the same controls appear for that object, plus Label, which writes text inside a shape or along a line. You can also double-click a shape or line to label it. The left toolbar's Fill Color tool does a similar job in one click: choose a colour, then click an object to fill it.

How do you add text boxes, speech bubbles and sticky notes?

Add typed text in Educastic with the three tools under Text Tools.

• Textbox: click where the text should go and start typing. When a text box is selected, a small bar offers Bold, Italic, Underline, Align Left, Align Center, Align Right and Text color.
• Cloud: a speech bubble with an outline and a tail, handy for "what is the character thinking?" questions.
• Sticky Note: click to place a yellow note that says "Double click here to type". Double-click it (or use Edit in the selection bar) to open the Sticky Note window, type up to 160 characters, choose a note colour and save.

Keep sticky notes short. A note is for one idea, one word or one question, not a paragraph.

How do you select, move and erase objects?

Use Select to click an object, then drag it to move it or pull its corners to resize. With an object selected, the header bar also offers Freeze (lock it in place), Copy, Duplicate and Delete, and Group when several are selected.

The Eraser either erases only the part it touches or, with Remove Object on Erase turned on in Educast Setting (the gear icon on the right side of the board), removes whole objects you sweep over. It never erases the page of an uploaded document or the Math Paper background. To wipe everything, use Clear Canvas at the bottom of the toolbar instead.

How do you build a labelled diagram live?

Build a labelled diagram by drawing the parts as shapes, joining them with arrows and labelling as you explain. For a food chain, draw four circles, connect them with arrows and label each one as students name the organism. For a geometry proof, draw the triangle with a solid outline and the construction line dashed.

If you switch on Math Paper and the Snap to grid switch in the header, the ends of shapes and lines jump to the nearest grid point, which makes accurate diagrams and graphs much quicker.

How do you run a sticky note brainstorm online?

Run a sticky note brainstorm by giving students drawing access and asking each one to add notes to the same board. Write the question in a text box at the top, give students two minutes to add one idea per note, then drag the notes into groups while the class discusses. The result is a sorted mind map built by the whole class.

For more ideas like this, see 12 interactive whiteboard activities for your online class.

Tips and limits

• Who can use the tools: the teacher, and any student the teacher gives drawing access. Everyone in the session sees new objects.
• Pens are separate: pen and brush styles are set on their own; see pen and brush settings on the online whiteboard.
• Sticky notes have a limit: up to 160 characters each.
• Undo is one click away: Undo in the header (ctrl + Z) reverses the last change.

Frequently asked questions

Can I draw dashed or dotted lines on Educastic's whiteboard? Yes. With any shape, line or arrow tool selected, set Style to Dashed or Dotted in the header bar.

Can students add sticky notes? Yes, when the teacher gives them drawing access. Their notes appear for everyone in the session.

How do I fill a shape with colour? Choose a colour in Fill before you draw, or select an existing shape and change its Fill. "No fill" makes it hollow again.

Can I write text inside a shape? Yes. Double-click a shape or line, or select it and click Label, then type.

Make your next diagram neat

Open the Educastic online whiteboard, draw one labelled diagram for your next lesson and run a two-minute sticky note brainstorm with your class.

Try the whiteboard free