The ability to work with others is a critical skill for academic and professional success. However, it can be difficult when you are separated from others due to schedules or geography. Online collaborative whiteboard services can help you connect with your classmates, a tutor, or a teacher at anytime from anywhere, but they are often costly, difficult to set up, and have limited capability for real-time communication. Stoodle was created to provide an alternative.
What is Stoodle?
According to the website, Stoodle is “the ultimate online learning experience”. Basically, Stoodle is a free online collaborative whiteboard service, designed for students, tutors, and teachers to share information. It is an excellent way to connect those with information to those who need it.
Stoodle is simple. It includes just the features needed to make online collaboration with a whiteboard effective and efficient. Those features include
- Communicate in real-time through voice and text chat
- Invite any number of people into the session
- Add whiteboard pages easily
- Share your whiteboard with others
- Use basic drawing tools
- Upload images
Stoodle is free, doesn’t require an account, and is incredibly easy to use. You go to the Stoodle website and click on Launch Classroom. Stoodle will ask for your name. Type your name in the box, click OK, and your whiteboard is prepared. Stoodle will remind you to send the URL to those you want to invite. It’s that easy. The video below by ER’s EdTech Tutorials gives an good overview of how to use Stoodle.
Why Use Stoodle?
Stoodle is such an adaptable tool that it can be used for many different purposes. It requires almost no set-up, so it’s ideal for impromptu review and brainstorming sessions or informal tutoring. Because Stoodle is free, it is open to everyone. It is also ideal for non-traditional students who would like to work with their classmates, but are separated by geography. The Stoodle whiteboards can be used for all kinds of process work, from brainstorming, creating concept maps for reviews, problem solving, or editing writing projects. And you can store your whiteboard sessions to review later.
Communicating with your peers shouldn’t be difficult. Whether you are a non-traditional student or taking classes in a face-to-face environment, Stoodle offers you the opportunity to connect with your classmates, a tutor, or a teacher at anytime from anywhere, at no cost. With real-time communication options, unlimited whiteboard pages, and the ability to save your whiteboard for review later, Stoodle is a terrific alternative to other online whiteboard services.