Online whiteboards
for effective collaboration
Different tools in practice
Whiteboards are an integral part of teaching. However, the use of online whiteboards only recently was pushed into spotlight. Several technical solutions compete for the market and with the sudden move to online teaching settings, many different applications have emerged. Each solutions caters to different teaching scenarios. In this Refresh Teaching event, we will hear from ETH faculty about several application scenarios and settings.
Prof. Tobias Luthe (D-BAUG)
Prof. Tobias Luthe (D-BAUG), IRL-PLUS – Systemic Design Labs, Professor at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), presents experiences from virtual teaching with Miro and Padlet, together with some further participative online tools. Miro is used both as co-design systems mapping board, as schedule course organizer, and as data repository. Padlet is used as low-threshold participative “pin board” and data repository. Both are part of “virtually nudged physical outdoor learning” didactics.
Prof. Ralf Hiptmair (D-MATH)
Prof. Dr. Ralf Hiptmair Professor at D-MATH, ETHZ, regularly teaching courses and seminars in the field of computational mathematics. He uses AWWAPP (A web whiteboard, https://awwapp.com/) for small-scale teaching in the framework of student seminars and student thesis supervision and for scientific discussions with international collaborators.
Dr. Michèle Gmünden
Dr. Michèle Gmünden (D-GESS), is a senior researcher in the Think Tank at the Center for Security Studies (D-GESS) and used Jamboard for group work in an interactive seminar to raise awareness for the dual-use dilemma in the life-sciences. Jamboard is very easy to use and similar to a classical flipchart: everyone can modify the document and changes become immediately visible.
Dr. Ulrich Genick
Dr. Ulrich Genick (D-BIOL), presents the use of Google Slide for collaboration among students.Google Slide was used as an easy-to-implement “whiteboard”-style tool for short in-class exercises (5-10 min each) in a Zoom-taught lecture with approx. 70 students. The idea behind these exercises was to let students “experience” key concepts implicitly before explaining them explicitly. Google Slide allows students to work on problems individually or in small groups, lets the teacher observe and give feedback to students during the exercise and allows the sharing and discussion of solutions after the exercise.
Katrin Wolf and Urs Brändle
Katrin Wolf and Urs Brändle have used PowerPoint365 slides as a virtual replacement for FlipCharts in a “Problem Based Learning”-Session with First Semester Students of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Web-based like Google Slides, PowerPoint 365 comes with nethz-Login, Desktop sync and the possibility to monitor student activities.
