Why you shouldn’t use Zoom Whiteboard

and a better alternative.

February 23 — Yiming Xuzhou

Zoom meetings are equipped with a shareable whiteboard that allows you to view and annotate over a host’s whiteboard sessions. And in breakout rooms. How do you use this? Why shouldn’t you use it?

Although Zoom’s online whiteboard can be used for presentations over slide decks, it comes with a slew of issues. First, the online whiteboard on Zoom does not save and share the drawings you make after you end the meeting or delete your whiteboard. During a class on Zoom, students need to save the drawings made on a whiteboard so they can use the information to study later on.

If you use the Zoom whiteboard, students have to either quickly copy down the notes or rewatch the lecture if it is recorded. Instead of focusing on learning the material, students are left to frantically write in their own notebooks or iPads before the online whiteboard disappears. Without being able to collaborate in real time, the Zoom whiteboard is similar to watching a teacher write on a lesser version of a physical whiteboard.

Zoom allows the meeting’s host to let viewers annotate over the board during a presentation. However, this often leads to distractions where people will draw over the host for everyone to see. In this case, the host will have to turn off annotating settings, preventing students from collaborating with the teacher and peers.

Additionally, the user interface of the whiteboard on Zoom can be confusing and difficult to use for the meeting’s host. It comes as no surprise that many teachers have chosen instead to screen-share themselves using a virtual whiteboard software instead of relying on Zoom’s whiteboard. While this solves the problem better than Zoom’s whiteboard, some teachers need to share slides (like PowerPoint or Google Slides) during their classes.

Only one interactive whiteboard app allows the user to upload slides, draw over them with whiteboard tools, and share it with up to 300 viewers as if they were in the same room. Oneboard’s whiteboard makes it easy to teach with unlimited whiteboard space. Oneboard’s infinite canvas makes it easy to draw and collaborate with others at any time, from anywhere. Instead of using a whiteboard like Zoom’s, oneboard helps students retain information, keep whiteboards saved, and annotate with their own notes on top of lectures.

Remote teams and team members can also use oneboard’s digital whiteboard to insert images and collaborate while video conferencing. When used in conjunction with video conferencing software, oneboard’s web whiteboard has the power to elevate the productivity and participation of an otherwise colorless meeting.

In the future, oneboard is planning to add a dedicated web app that rivals awwapp. The app will be available for download on the Apple’s IOS store and Samsung’s Galaxy App Store on any compatible devices.