Share your examples of Lucid in Higher Ed

Hello everyone!  I am Jim Bard and I work with pre-service teachers participating in student teaching.  Sharing ideas and experiences with each other is a crucial part of the curriculum, but this can be difficult since all of the students are spread out across the state.  I use Lucidspark as a place for students to easily share ideas with each other even though they aren’t physically together.  I like how students can share with stickies, add images, add links, and ask their classmates for advice.  Here is an example from one of my cohorts.

I had the privilege of joining a classroom discussion at Brigham Young University focused on logical fallacies. The session began with an engaging introduction to critical thinking and the common logical fallacies we often use when making decisions or drawing conclusions. Afterward, the class split into groups, each tasked with evaluating a scenario and identifying the logical fallacy it represented.

It was inspiring to see the students' enthusiasm as they used tools like emojis, voting features, sticky notes, and more to participate actively. These tools allowed them to engage meaningfully without feeling pressured to speak aloud, fostering inclusivity. Some students shared their insights verbally, while others contributed quietly yet effectively.

The instructor later shared that this lecture was overwhelmingly rated as the students' favorite of the semester! They appreciated how intuitive and engaging the tools were, making critical thinking not just accessible but also fun.
 

Hi all! My name is Mia Hoyt and I am a part of the Canvas and Ed Tech Support Services team at Northern Virginia Community Colleges. I create and run trainings for our staff and faculty on Canvas, Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and now on Lucid! 

I use Lucidspark to teach about Lucid. Normally we use Google Slides for our presentations, but I created our Lucid training utilizing Paths like slides. When I’m done giving the presentation part, I share the Lucidspark (my Paths are all locked down) and the participants get to try out the tools on the blank parts of the screen and then I show them how to manage participants as they are doing that. 

My faculty love the idea of not having to move back and forth between a presentation and a whiteboard. This is the way to have both in one place. 

Thanks for sharing Mia!  What an great idea to use paths to help guide users through different interactive activities!

Hi Folks, I am a faculty member in the Nurse Educator master’s program at Weber State University. I teach a Teaching Strategies course in Canvas. This past fall, I tried Lucidchart for the first time. The students created a concept map assignment for their potential students. The central concept in the map needed to be a medical condition but they could branch off as much as they liked.  In the assignment, they needed to provide a description of the assignment, specific instructions, and include a Lucid Concept map as an example. The students accomplished the assignment with no issues. There were varying levels of detail in their submissions (as you can see below), but overall, I was pleased. I will definitely use Lucid again.

My name is Larry Kaptain. I’m in my second year of teaching large classes (previously taught for 27 years and have been a dean for the past 16 years) in the core curriculum at the University of Colorado Denver. One class is a cultural diversity core course, U.S. Music: Social and Political Impact. This class focuses on the Star-Spangled Banner and jazz.

For a final project, I previously tried having students create e-portfolios and video presentations--without significant results. Then, I learned that Canvas had Lucid embedded. Concept maps seemed like a good project because students when students engage with each other, they often create something meaningful that would reflect what they learned in the class. The results exceeded my expectations, and I’m an optimistic guy.

1. Students did not receive a great deal of detail or examples. I made a series of short videos on Loom (1 minute to 2 minutes) explaining the steps and used Canvas to group the students (randomly—in pairs).
2. They received a bare-bones introduction and a simple template of the class’s five objectives. They were then instructed to make connections, utilize video, images, and sound files, and either focus on a single objective or present all five.
3. Of course, one person was unresponsive, so their partner submitted a project without collaboration.
4. I stressed that students obtained transferable skills (for life) when creating concept maps. Over and over, I heard, “I’ve never done this before.” My response was, “Good.”
5. The only technical challenge was for students who did not upload through the Canvas Assignment portal (to show in Speed Grader). They tried sending me PDFs or Lucid links of their work. I had to keep saying they were building in Lucid but needed to submit (upload) it to Canvas. To get this point across, I created written instructions, diagrams, and a 58-second video. It (mostly) worked.
6. They had 4 weeks (November and the first week of December), with an early introduction in September.

The course was on cultural diversity, and the five objectives were to use U.S. Music to better understand our nation's challenges with race, gender, religion, and immigration. The five objectives are marginalization, social access and rights, collective identities, self-awareness, and societal contributions.

This is the template that I provided to the students. 

The possibilities for students to use Lucid to affirm their learning are broad and deep. 

Hello!
My name is Gonzalo Raffo. I’m a higher education teacher at a couple of universities in Lima, Peru. I’ve been using virtual boards for teaching since the pandemic and have found Lucid to be very helpful in my classes. I tend to use it to portray the chronological order of the class, starting on the left with the students “signing in” (letting me know their name, aspirations, and profile picture) and then progressing through the topics to discuss. I like the fact that all the students can roam around the board, even peeking at what other groups are doing, and pairing it with AI features. I also enjoy the fact that I can quickly explain and develop the class session using the keyboard shortcut for sticky note creation (either Tab or Enter).