Is it OK to use whiteboard? or need animation?

[KevalDomadia]

I will be teaching Full Stack software engineering.

A bit of background: Been a developer for 14 years and now started an offline training institute where I teach students how to code and design their database, etc.

In my classes, I use whiteboard and marker.

I bought few courses on Udemy to see what other instructors are doing and figured most of them explain (draw) in an animated format.

On whiteboard, I "draw", how one thing connects to another.

I approached few animators and got really expensive quotations.

My question is.

Can I just use the whiteboard - as I do with my students in my classes or will it look 'cheap'?

PS: I need suggestions for my couse creation in Udemy.

[AHardin · Accepted solution]

So, the short answer is yes, you can definitely use a whiteboard. But is that ideal? It really depends on a number of factors:

1. The quality of your lighting and camera to ensure the whiteboard is very easy to see and read.
2. How good your handwriting is. If your handwriting isn't the best, then students will inevitably complain.
3. The quality of your audio because when you're using a whiteboard, moving around, and writing, you want to make sure you have a good lapel mic that doesn't pick up background noise.

You don't have to pay someone for animations. You can do animations in PowerPoint very easily, and there are some great courses on Udemy that show you how to use them effectively; I personally took a few earlier this year to become competent at them. I personally use animations in my latest courses when showing network and cybersecurity diagramming concepts, as well as to animate my text.

Another option is to use a drawing tablet along with PowerPoint. In some of my courses, I use a large 15.6" XP-Pen Artist Pro drawing tablet and PowerPoint as my canvas to write on and explain concepts. It works well, but I haven't been using it because I prefer PowerPoint animations.

[KevalDomadia]

Thank you. I do use a lapel and I had a look at XP Pen artist pro. Seems like that is something I can try with. Thanks.

[AHardin]

You're welcome! I'd try using your drawing tablet and see how that works out rather than a whiteboard. It might be a good solution for you where you can use a combination of PowerPoint animations and handwriting within your PowerPoints.