Make learning fun with mini whiteboards

Whiteboards are great, low-tech tools for engaging students actively in the classroom. Their potential is frequently overlooked in higher education, as fellow academic Alan Meek highlighted in his guide encouraging educators to embrace them in 2024. Yet even more overlooked, however, is the mini whiteboard, a core tool in many primary and secondary settings. In this resource, you’ll learn how they can add a touch of magic to learning experiences.

Interactive, tech-free formative assessment

Mini whiteboards are useful for running tech-free quizzes and formative assessment activities for large groups. Depending on class size, students can have a mini whiteboard each, or one between pairs or small groups for think-pair-share and discussion. Mini whiteboards can be used for responding to quizzes with short answer, true or false, or multiple-choice questions. What’s more, they allow teachers to quickly identify and unpick misconceptions and concerns without singling out individuals. Pausing between questions to wipe boards clean also gives students time to process and prepare for the next question, making participation more accessible.

When running quizzes with mini whiteboards, ask students to hold up their boards rather than raise a hand or call out an answer. This enables more anonymous participation, particularly in a lecture setting, because students can present their answers to the educator rather than to peers. To deepen discussion and encourage verbal engagement, take time to read out and acknowledge answers, or ask students to explain or clarify a response to a neighbour or to the class. 

Write, erase, replace

Mini whiteboards are familiar to many students who used them in previous educational settings, so introducing them into higher education teaching often prompts a feeling of playful nostalgia. Their size and tactile nature encourage active, screen-free engagement, and many students find the ability to wipe away or quickly adjust their answers helpful. Use this “wipeability” to encourage learners to make mistakes when exploring new concepts or problems, and consider modelling this explicitly as a group. For example, start by asking students to copy a sentence, problem or concept that has a mistake in it onto the board. Then, ask them to remove or correct it, perhaps using different coloured pens to annotate and extend their thinking.

Alternatively, set a problem that students can tackle individually or in groups. Then, ask them to display, share or swap their boards with others for feedback, before allowing them to adjust answers as you discuss problems in greater depth. 

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Create a giant, interconnected whiteboard

Mini whiteboards are great for quick-fire listing tasks or brainstorming activities. Give students a set time to write down as many responses as they can to a question, to list ideas or to brainstorm solutions to a problem. Then, take advantage of the boards’ portability and start connecting their responses. Where possible, group them together where concepts interlink, overlap or differ.

To extend this further, draw or plot connections between boards, creating an “ideas exhibition” that students can move around and interact with. Take photos of individual boards or of the amassed group and share with students via your virtual learning environment or another digital tool, so they can return to these in later study.

Represent information visually

Mini whiteboards work well for creative, visual tasks where students may feel out of their comfort zone drawing on paper, or where confidence in using digital tools can vary. Creating a diagram, chart or visual representation that can be easily edited and erased reduces pressure to make a drawing perfect and encourages students to engage in a low-stakes way. Moreover, educators can demonstrate these tasks on the classroom’s main whiteboard, prompting engagement through a collective activity as students draw along in real time.

There are so many ways to use mini whiteboards in higher education teaching. They offer light-touch, responsive and active engagement touchpoints, reducing reliance on pre-prepared digital solutions. From quick-fire keyword tasks to interactive student-led peer quizzing, these tools encourage educators and students to pause, check and creatively extend learning in a dynamic way. 

Eleanor Hodgson is senior educator developer at the University of Exeter.

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