(Online) Lecturing with drawing boards

In a number of lectures, teachers need to write math or need to draw diagrams, graphs etc. This is a special category of lecturing. How can teachers best use their board and what possibilities are available to draw on digital boards?  And what are methods for drawing on boards when recording knowlegde video clips or for online lecturing?

There are a multide of ways in which lecturers can make pre-recorded video's including mathematics demonstrations, proof writing, theorem discussions or problem solving (as well as - of course - for chemistry, physics, statistics, dynamics, logic etc.) .

Also, there are a number of ways in which lecturers can write mathematics in real-time with student in a synchronous conference setting, for example with Zoom.

Of course, the general guidelines for Lecturing Effectively always need to be kept in mind.

Want to try something yourself?

Head over to the VU Education Lab. We have an iPad Pro, a visualiser Jourist DC80, a Wacom Intuos S drawing tablet and an Elgato Key Light Air for you to try.

Live lectures and Workgroups

During online teaching you can use different  methods to write on a board. At VU Amsterdam the main tool for doing live online lectures is using Zoom.

Picture of a classroom in which Sophia de Jong of the Faculty of Sciences uses her iPad to write and display maths on the board while also directly recording it.
An example of how Thilo Kielmann of the Faculty of Sciences uses an overhead projector to write and present the math using Zoom
‘Dit model is de Jourist DC80, bij Amazon 130Euro. Dat model was geen bewuste keuze, meer dat hij snel leverbaar was. Werkt heel eenvoudig. 
In Zoom: Share screen -> Advanced -> Content from 2nd camera’
An example of the Wisklips series of lecturer Theo de Haan of the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam are shown.
Sophia de Jong of the Beta Faculty explains how she moved to online teaching with a simple pen-and-paper solution for mathematics writing.
An example of a Mathematics knowledge clip by Prof. Bob Rink of the School of Business and Economics.
Bob is recording these video's with the help of the iPad, Apple Pencil, the Goodnotes and Reflector Teacher apps. Bob specially purchased a good microphone (the MacBook pro microphone absorbs too much fan noise). Bob:"In short, it's not completely trivial to make this kind of movies, but once you know how to do it (technically) well you manage. I also tried Kaltura and Zoom for recording, but I didn't like that. The nice thing about Goodnotes is that it also has a marker, an eraser, and a laser pointer. Writing on the iPad's fairly smooth screen is tricky, but it seems you can get screen stickers that feel like paper."
Using a light board. This is an example video of Wout Cozijn of the Beta faculty.  
Maths pre-written in a powerpoint slide
Using the whiteboard using lecture capture
Using a Tablet

Pre-recorded lectures

Professional

To record lectures, teachers can use methods involving green screens and professional support of multi-media specialists, script-writers, camera men, light- and sound engineers etc. Of course, producing such video's will result in professional clips, but it comes at a cost and takes a lot of planning, time and effort to produce. Please consult AVC of the VU if you want to make such clips.

You could also opt for preparing all the mathematics writing on a prepared powerpoint slide. But this also takes time and effort and most mathematicians do not like that: doing the maths requires careful building up of notations, equations etc.

Adequate

A maybe less professional way of recording such video's is the one demonstrated by Theo de Haan who prepares his lectures concisely, but simply uses his own classroom and one camera operator and writes on the blackboard. The result however is very much to-the-point.

Weblecture

An often used approach to recorded lectures is to capture an actual lecture that is conducted in front of a group students. VU Amsterdam has multiple ways to support teachers in recording their lectures in this format. The result is reasonable, but it lacks the quality of the previous methods of pre-recording a lecture. Please again, consult AVC of the VU if you want to make such clips.

Simplified

A further simplified way of recording such lectures is by writing the maths on a Tablet such as an Apple iPad Pro or - a bit less sophisticated a Wacom tablet.

Finally (or firstly?), you could also set up your iPhone and record your explanations by simply writing on a piece of paper. See the story of Sophia de Jong.

Materials for doing the math in a simplified way

When you want to pre-record videos with a Wacom Tablet, we recommend the Wacom Intuos M or Wacom Intuos S (the latter is a bit smaller).

If you have more money to spend, using an Apple iPad (Pro) allows you write directly on a sheet which can provide you with a better form of feedback of your writing.

Both devices can also be used when you want to do a live lecture or workgroup in which you want to demonstrate maths.

It takes some time to learn to be fluent with a tablet: 

Watch the videos to learn more about these tips.

Watch some video's to see how you can use the whiteboard of Zoom to write on a board within Zoom.