Whiteboard
What can a Zoom whiteboard do?
A Zoom whiteboard can be used for synchronous and asynchronous engagement. Pull up a whiteboard in your Zoom session to use with your virtual or hybrid class, or start a whiteboard directly from the Zoom desktop client without launching a meeting.
A whiteboard may be an essential educator tool, but Zoom white board introduces even more possibilities...
Add text, drawings, sticky notes, shapes, images, and comments in different colors and sizes.
Works seamlessly with the Apple Pencil, start drawing on the shared whiteboard and everyone in the Zoom meeting can see what is being drawn or written.
Save and share whiteboards with students and colleagues, and give them permission to view, comment, or edit.
Lock and unlock a whiteboard to control access.
Access whiteboards within or outside of Zoom meetings from your Zoom account.
Fit all the information you need - an infinite canvas, you won't run out of room.
Use whiteboards on a variety of devices, laptop, iPad, and tablet.
Teaching & Learning
Endless opportunities for teaching and learning beyond the traditional classroom space.
Hybrid teaching: Illustrate or write notes easily be seen by remote and in-person students. Invite in-person participants up to the board to add their ideas, and ask students on the Zoom meeting to participate simultaneously.
Lesson prep: Start a new whiteboard outside a Zoom meeting. Build your lesson around the whiteboard, adding images or text you’d like students to comment on. When it’s time for class, simply pull up your saved whiteboard and get started.
Study guides: Keep a whiteboard for important notes, processes, equations or information. If you want, give students edit access to contribute their own ideas to make it a collaborative guide.
Visual lessons: Design collaborative lessons, incorporate drawing tools and shapes, like having students work together to build a storyboard for a visual narrative, or draw a 3-D structure.
Collaborative planning & brainstorming
Brainstorming: Create your own whiteboards to keep track of lesson ideas, topics of discussion, and more.
Faculty/Staff meetings: take notes, record suggestions, track action items during meetings. Share meeting notes, encourage faculty and staff to leave comments.
Planning sessions: gather colleagues, either in person or remotely via zoom, work collaboratively brainstorm ideas, special projects, and field trips. Use sticky notes to jot down ideas and move them around whiteboard by group or topic.
Professional development & workshops
Interactive discussions: create simple visual diagrams ahead of time, which participants can annotate or comment on for an engaging experience.
Workshop resources: export as a PDF or PNG and email to attendees as a reference sheet or workshop takeaway.
Get started... Zoom Whiteboard
Supports up to 100 people, ideas can be put forward and developed by multiple contributors by colleagues in different departments or territories. Instead of than everyone trying to all attend a single meeting in a particular location and time zone, this process can unfold effortlessly over time, with each individual accessing the project board remotely and at a time that suits them.
Remote and hybrid users/students can now use a single platform for their chat, video and whiteboard collaboration.
Whiteboard’s infinite canvas also allows you to visualize ideas fluidly. You can upload images, add shapes, connectors and advanced sticky notes – ‘advanced’ because they work just like the real thing. For students a good tool for group projects/collaboration with all students not just those in class but with everyone.
How to Create a Whiteboard? Zoom Meeting, Zoom Desktop Client, and Zoom Web interface.
How to Create a Whiteboard?
From a live Zoom Meeting:
Start meeting and click the Whiteboard button on the in-meeting controls.
Click New Whiteboard, click the arrow next to All Participants can edit to select what permissions you want participants to have.
Click Open and Collaborate.
How to Create a Whiteboard?
From Zoom Desktop Client ( can be used outside of a Zoom meeting)
Log into Zoom desktop client and click the Whiteboards button at the top right
Click New to create a new whiteboard.
How to Create a Whiteboard?
From Zoom Web interface
Sign into the Zoom web portal and from the left navigation click Whiteboards.
Click + New at the top right to create a new whiteboard.
How to share a Whiteboard?
With a whiteboard created, click on Share at the top right to send the whiteboard to other users
Enter email addresses of the users you want to share the whiteboard with and set their permissions and click on Send.
Additionally, click Copy Link and then paste the link in a message or email to send to others.
Whiteboard Tools are available for use on the left side of the screen.
How do I use the whiteboard controls?
Select Tool: Places cursor in select mode so you can click objects and change their properties. Clicking an object will bring up that object’s context menu.
Pencil Tool: Places cursor into drawing mode to perform freehand sketching
Brush types: Pen or Highlighter
Context menu: change line thickness & change color
Shapes: Places cursor into shape mode to create square, circles, or diamond shaped objects
Context menu: change Fill: Full, opaque, hollow, change shape/color
Lines: Create line objects
Line types: straight, one-end arrow, double-end arrow
Context menu: change line thickness and change color
Text: Create text. Double-clicking a text object puts the object into “text editing” mode.
Context menu: Font style (bold, italic, underline), size, alignment, and color
StickyNote: Creates a “note” idea that can be used to draw attention. Double-clicking a sticky note puts the stickynote into text editing mode.
Context menu: change background color
Image: Upload a .jpg or .png file from your computer onto the board
Eraser: Puts cursor in eraser mode. Clicking objects while in this mode will delete them from the canvas.
Color: Changes the color for objects that will be created
Note: once you change a color for an object, new objects of that type will retain that color.
How do I comment on a whiteboard?
Individuals who can access a board in the role of Owner, Editor, or Commenter, can place a comment on a board.
How to attach a comment to an object: Click the comment icon at the top right and hover your cursor over an existing object. Click on the object to attach your comment.
How to reply to a comment: Hover your cursor over the comment icon and click. Click the Add a reply text and then click the Reply button when you are finished.
How to delete a comment: Hover your cursor over the comment icon and click. Click the dotted line icon to the right of the comment you wish to remove, then click Delete.