Whiteboards are extensively used as a smart platform for fostering innovation and creativity in the corporate world. Studies indicate that the use of whiteboard offers a myriad of benefits such as better collaboration and brainstorming, effective problem solving and enhanced retention of ideas and concepts. Here is a list of four incredible ways in which you can effectively upgrade the whiteboard experience in your classroom training or corporate endeavors.
Ensure Board Organization
It is absolutely essential to plan out the way you are going to use your whiteboard before a presentation or training session. You can draw a rough sketch of your board on a sheet of paper and actually create a picture of how you would want your board to look in front of the audience. The whiteboard layout is a critical aspect of how the content is perceived by the audience. You can create different zones of scribbling down the aim, errors, charts, working space and so on to ensure that everything is adequately visible to your audience and the concepts do not end up getting muddled.
Ensure legible handwriting size and font
One of the most annoying aspects of whiteboard interaction is an unintelligible scribble that makes focusing on the content extremely daunting. It is not only important to write clearly but also ensure that the size of your font does not exceed an inch per letter. Instead of incorporating larger letters for important ideas and key takeaways, you must make the supporting points smaller in size. Alternatively, you can also use different color markers to highlight a particular concept or create a flowchart of processes.
Incorporate pictorial symbols such as clouds and arrows
An effective method to make your whiteboard content more visually appealing is using symbols such as clouds or arrows to convey a noteworthy message or project a natural flow of thoughts. Whiteboards are all about the visual portrayal of ideas and concepts, and simple yet creative ‘comic book’ symbols such as arrows and clouds can serve to enhance your interactive experience multiple times over. While simple textual content can come across as typically mundane and boring, use of interesting and eye-catching figures will ensure that your ideas are effectively received and retained by the audience.
Ask, then erase
Another aspect of whiteboard learning that can play an obvious damper on your interactive sessions is erasing off the content without taking a confirmation from your audience. Regardless of however neat and creative your presentation might be, it is absolutely essential to ensure that your audience has had sufficient time to grasp the content and take down any points of interest that they might want to retain for future reference. You must make sure to ask your audience if it’s ok to erase the content on the white board and proceed with the next set of ideas before actually doing so.
While the aforementioned points might seem pretty trivial and commonplace, it always helps to get a reminder of the simple aspects that frequently end up slipping through the cracks and going unheeded.