Have you tried to use a web-based whiteboard in your classroom? They are perfect for teachers who want to collaborate with students or use them for making presentations for students.
These tools help students learn how to draw, point, write on the board, make various shapes and arrange figures in an orderly manner.
Canvas chrome app (canvas.apps.chrome)
Want to jot some simple doodles on a screen? This simple app gives you several pen options, different colors and an eraser. It’s great for a touchscreen device and is servicable for non-touchscreens. Its lack of features may be its best benefit: it’s easy to use. Plus, it automatically saves your creations for re-using or downloading as an image.
Learn more: Google Canvas – Digital whiteboard for online lessons made easy
Limnu (best whiteboard collaboration tool overall)
Limnu is an online whiteboard software that came out in 2015. In 2018 it was acquired by ZipSocket, which is an online meeting app. This gives Limnu users more remote work features.
Limnu gives you a canvas with no edges or boundaries. Your boards can be as big as your team needs. For team collaboration you can create groups, share boards via Slack integration and outside 3rd parties. You can also assign administrative roles to team members. There is a bulk editing tool, and good searching and sorting features. Limnu has a super fast refresh button. You can use Limnu online as well as on iOS devices.
Limnu has a free version with 14-day access to boards. There’s a premium plan for individuals at $5 per month. And a premium team plan at $8 per user per month.
Limnu is best for:
- Small teams
- Startups
- SMBs
- Real-time collaboration
- Brainstorms
- Project planning
- Video chat
- Mobile apps
Website: limnu.com
Miro (good whiteboard collaboration tool for presentations)
Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard platform founded in 2011. It used to be a much smaller online whiteboard app called WebWhiteBoard. Today NBA star Stephen Curry is on the company’s investors and advisor list.
Miro is a whiteboard app that gives you an infinite canvas. There are loads of widgets you can choose from like arrows, shapes, post-it notes, freehand drawing and smart drawing. Miro is a top tool for brainstorm sessions among remote teams. You can collaborate in real time in digital workspaces. You can also leave notes for team members to be read asynchronously. There is also screen sharing and video conferencing. Finally, Miro frames can be exported to PDF and used for presentations.
There’s a free version of Miro which gets you 3 interactive whiteboards. Two premium versions for teams are $8 and $16 per user per month billed annually. Enterprises with more than 50 people should contact the vendor for a price.
Miro is best for:
- Startups
- SMBs
- Large businesses
- Enterprise
- Presentations
- Video chat
- Brainstorms
- Team collaboration
Website: Miro
AWW App (best whiteboard remote teaching tool)
AWW App is an American online whiteboard platform that came out in 2016. It has separate modules for business, education and API.
AWW App is totally online. It is a very easy platform to use. Anyone can get started with the basic version in seconds. The premium version has a lot of extra features. It’s better for team collaboration, letting admins manage participants. You can share copies of boards with a link, in an email or with iFrame. For project management, managers can also create assignments for team members. You can upload and download boards as PDFs. For teaching purposes, AWW App integrates with Google Classroom.
AWW has different pricing tiers for different solutions. The business solution starts at $10 per month or $96 per year. The education solution has a plan for teachers at $9 per month.
AWW App is best for:
- Teachers
- Students
- Study groups
- Small teams
- Interactive whiteboard
Website: AWW
Conceptboard (good interactive whiteboard for agile teams)
Conceptboard is visual collaboration software. The app was launched in 2010 by two computer scientists from Stuttgart, Germany.
Conceptboard is a highly professional whiteboard experience. It’s great for agile teams doing brainstorming, design collaboration, project management and remote meetings. It’s got an infinite canvas. You get tons of visuals like sticky notes and mind map icons, as well as templates. When team members edit a board you get notifications in real time. There are live conferences with live moderation features. Conceptboard also tracks data like the number of boards you create, projects and tasks.
Conceptboard offers a free plan which lets you add up to 100 objects per board. Paid plans go for $6 and $9.50 per user per month billed annually. For enterprise plans contact Conceptboard.
Conceptboard is best for:
- Small teams
- Startups
- Agile teams
- Remote teams
- Interactive whiteboard
- Real-time collaboration
- Project management
Website: Conceptboard
Whiteboard Fox (best free web whiteboard)
Whiteboard Fox is a big name when it comes to free online whiteboards. It’s very user friendly on your web browser, letting you start drawing instantly.
Whiteboard Fox’s blank canvas is a grid. The drawing tools are the most basic ones to draw and erase. You can also add pics. Aside from being an online tool, Whiteboard Fox can also be used on iPads and Android tablets. For teams, all changes get synced in real time for all remote users. To share boards, you just get an easy link which you can email. There are other neat team collaboration tools. For example the admin can allow people to add and erase stuff from boards, or to only draw but not erase.
Whiteboard Fox is a free whiteboard tool.
Whiteboard Fox is best for:
- Individuals
- Small teams
- Startups
- Ease of use
- Team collaboration
- Project planning
Website: Whiteboardfox
Ziteboard (good whiteboard software if you need wireframes)
The name Ziteboard is a portmanteau of zoom and whiteboard. This company hails from Hungary. It aims to help with real-time collaboration mainly for education but also for general team brainstorming.
Ziteboard is good for designing things like wireframes, workflows as well as basic whiteboarding content. You get to draw freehand and then Ziteboard gives you line smoothing and shape recognition. You can insert images and PDFs, graphs, sticky notes and navigation boxes. Real-time collaboration on interactive whiteboards allow text chatting, and audio and video conferencing tools. Digital whiteboards can be exported as high-resolution PDFs.
The free version of Ziteboard lets each user own 3 whiteboards. Pro subscriptions are $9 per month or $85 per year.
Ziteboard is best for:
- Small teams
- Startups
- SMBs
- Freehand drawing
- Wireframes
- Project planning
- Real-time collaboration
- Presentations
Website: Ziteboard
Stormboard (best online whiteboard templates)
Stormboard is a Canadian company from Edmonton that launched their collaborative whiteboard platform, Edistorm, in 2009. It got rebranded as Stormboard in 2013.
Stormboard is a very high-end shared digital workspace tool. It is especially tooled for remote teams and distributed workforces. The canvas has no boundaries. You can add text, free-form drawings, files, images and videos. There are Substorms and index cards for collecting and organizing large amounts of ideas. There are also whiteboard post-it notes. Stormboard has a good library of whiteboard templates. These include templates for agile scrum, daily standups, presentations, affinity mapping, and of course, brainstorming sessions. You can use Stormboard online or on your mobile device.
Stormboard for teachers and other individuals is free. It gets you 5 boards and allows up to 5 users per board. Business plan is $8.33 per user per month billed annually, and Enterprise plan is $200 per user per year.
Stormboard is best for:
- Remote teams
- Startups
- SMBs
- Large business
- Designers
- Project planning
- Video conferencing
- Templates
Website: Stormboard
MURAL (best digital whiteboard for enterprise)
MURAL was first conceived back in 2011. The co-founders were aiming to create a visual collaboration platform that would be ideal for remote work.
Today MURAL has a suite of visual collaboration tools suited for any business size. You can easily collect ideas, notes or tasks on sticky notes. These can be turned into charts, wireframes, flowcharts and more. MURAL is also a great virtual teaching tool. There are many settings for moderators or instructors to lead virtual conferences. MURAL has over 100 templates. These include operations dashboard, idea sketch pads, and design canvas. MURAL also gives its clients lots of help learning the platform as well as great customer service.
The Starter and Plus plans cost $12 and $20 per user per month billed annually. For Enterprise prices contact MURAL.
MURAL is best for:
- SMEs
- Large Businesses
- Enterprise
- Virtual classrooms
- Templates
- Brainstorming sessions
- Remote collaboration
Website: Mural
IPEVO Annotator (good free whiteboard tool for teaching)
Annotator is an interactive whiteboard tool from IPEVO. IPEVO is a specialist for distance teaching and learning. Annotator is a great tool for this.
IPEVO has another app called Whiteboard for iOS and Android devices. This is good for displaying or drawing live images or camera snapshots. Many of IPEVO Whiteboard’s features are available in IPEVO Annotator, which is even more interactive. Here you still get all the whiteboard tools like drawing, shapes, zooms and annotations. There is also a live cursor, screenshots, videos and live recordings. Two users can work at the same time with a multi-pen mode. Whiteboards can be exported as JPEGs and PDFs.
IPEVO Annotator is free, as is IPEVO Whiteboard.
IPEVO Annotator is best for:
- Small teams
- Remoter teaching
- Virtual classrooms
- Interactive whiteboards
- Presentations
Website: IPEVO
Conclusion
Here you can see a collection of free online whiteboard tools to collaborate in a classroom. There is a pdf version, a google slides version and a teacher-only online whiteboard that does not require any login information. The aim of this collection is to provide an overview for teachers, students and parents what the options are in terms of collaboration in the classroom.