For many educators, teaching online has meant facing the now-familiar sight of muted microphones, black screens and disengaged students. In my first remote class of 2020, at the height of lockdown, I ended each session with a headache and a profound sense of frustration – speaking, as it seemed, to a silent wall. As an instructor for entrepreneurship development, a course rooted in experiential learning, the lack of visual and verbal interaction severely undermined the course’s active, hands-on ethos.
To address this challenge, I shifted my focus from requesting participation to designing it. This strategic change led me to integrate Miro, a visual digital workspace, into my classes. Miro enables real-time visualisation and co-creation of ideas, whether individually or in teams. Since its launch in 2011, adoption has accelerated, particularly in remote work and learning contexts, owing to its intuitive design.
Miro now acts as a central tool for facilitating and documenting entrepreneurship projects. The platform’s interactive nature has not only increased participation but also enhanced conceptual understanding in my class.
From passive presence to active contribution
In my courses, participation through Miro became a mandatory element for attendance verification and participation grading. The use of visually appealing templates and structured collaborative exercises helped break away from the “podcast-style” class, in which an instructor speaks continuously while students listen passively. Importantly, a lack of contributions on Miro is clearly visible, allowing instructors to address non-participation.
Formal teaching evaluations conducted by my university frequently cite Miro as a factor contributing to more dynamic and comprehensible sessions. This feedback underscores the value of experimenting with digital tools through an iterative process that, in my experience, has evolved into a core instructional strength.
A laboratory of participation
In my courses, Miro functions as a creation laboratory:
- I assign each team a dedicated “frame” containing clear, visible instructions.
- I monitor progress, provide feedback and redirect efforts when necessary.
- I begin activities with an open question, requiring every student to respond with at least one digital Post-it note
- Students use voting features to identify the strongest ideas. This is followed by a discussion of the most compelling contributions.
This approach results in a collective course memory – a digital record of notes, ideas and reflections – while also making engagement levels immediately transparent. Students, working from home, can collaborate as though sharing a physical table, reinforcing active learning through problem-solving and real-time co-creation.
An effective 90-minute session incorporating Miro
1. Pre-class preparation: use an appropriate template for the class topic (your own or one from the Miroverse). Create one frame per team with instructions at the top left, set a timer for eight- to 10-minute rounds and enable voting. Share the link for the Zoom session with students.
2. Warm-up (three to five minutes): conduct quick check-ins. While students log in, create a “Review Map”. Each student writes a Post-it in response to one of the following prompts: “Last class we saw…”, “What I remember most…” and “I have a question…”
3. Review of the previous class (five to seven minutes): a student provides a summary. The instructor then offers additional information and clarification.
4. Core class content (20 to 25 minutes): explain the essentials and create breakout groups for practice. Monitor their activity in real time using the cursors with their names on the board.
5. Exercise of the day in breakout rooms (15 to 20 minutes): visit each team to check in and provide feedback. Exercise types: reflection, examples, ideas, empathy maps, user personas, diagrams, and so on.
6. Reflection and feedback (15 to 20 minutes): back in the main room, each team shares what they did and learned and, if applicable, offers a brief demo. The instructor provides specific feedback: successes, areas for improvement and agreements on the board.
7. Wrap up and tasks (15 to 20 minutes): recap key points and address any last questions. Leave clear task instructions on the board or learning management system, using the following structure: objective, deliverable, format, rubric and due date.
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Enhancing activity design with GenAI
The integration of GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude has further expanded the instructional possibilities of Miro. While educators bring subject matter expertise in fields such as finance, business, marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship, AI serves as a co-pilot, expediting the creation of activity prompts, refining instructions and tailoring exercises to different learning levels.
Recommended tactics to sustain motivation and engagement:
- Clear instructions: keep concise, well-written task descriptions visible on the Miro board for reference during breakout sessions.
- Active monitoring: visit breakout rooms briefly to maintain presence and provide guidance.
- Structured pacing: use visible timers to define specific durations and objectives for each activity block, helping students remain focused and on task.
The transition from passive attendance to active engagement in online classes requires deliberate instructional design. Tools such as Miro, enhanced by GenAI, enable educators to create structured, visually rich learning environments in which participation is both expected and documented.
While technology provides templates, frames, timers and voting features, its real pedagogical value emerges through intentional facilitation, where the educator’s role shifts from delivering content to orchestrating collaborative, purposeful learning experiences.
Jaime Eduardo Moncada Garibay is an educator at CETYS Universidad’s School of Business and Management.
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