Using Padlet

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Victoria University now has a licence for Padlet. Padlet is an online tool that is best described as an online post-it board. It can be used by students and teachers to post notes on a common page. The notes posted can contain links, videos, images and document files. This can be shared with any student or teacher by embedding the padlet on a VU Collaborate page, or providing them with the unique Padlet link. Padlet allows you to create as many online post-it boards or "walls" as you like and insert ideas anonymously or with your name. You can set these Padlets to private or public. Private walls can be created by requiring a password to access them, or by limiting access to registered users with specified emails. Teachers can use this to collaborate within a subject department that is not accessible by the students and moderate all notes before they appear. If you intend to share a padlet with students, set your padlet to Secret and share the link or embed the padlet in VU Collaborate. 

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Step One: Accessing Padlet

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1. If you haven't yet done so, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to request a VU Padlet account. Using the University's licence removes the limit of three Padlet's for teachers when using Padlet.com.

NOTE: If you wish to run an activity where students create their own Padlet, they can create up to three Padlet's with the free account at https://www.padlet.com.

2. Go to Padlet at Victoria University and log in with your provided login details.

3. When you sign in, the first thing you see is the Dashboard. If you had an existing Padlet account, you will be given the option to import previously created Padlets into your VU Collaborate Padlet Backpack. 

4. Click Make a Padlet, to create a new Padlet board.

5. Padlet offers several kinds of options as shown in the image below which can be used for different learning tasks. 

• Wall - similar to Pinterest, allows you to post texts, images or videos.
• Stream - looks like a blog where only one post is seen at a time in order. 
• Grid - displays items in a row and therefore looks better when the items are of similar size. 
• Map - allows posts to be added as a point on a map.
• Shelf - allows the categorisation of tasks since it displays items in columns.
• Canvas - can be used to develop mind maps to show inter-relationships. 
• Timeline - displays in a horizontal list of items.

5. For the purpose of this guide, we will focus on the simplest option, Wall.

 

Step Two: Setting up your Padlet

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1. Set up your basic details such as the title, description and wallpaper of your Padlet "wall".

The Title of your Padlet would ideally be the unit name or unit code, while its Description would be a suitable place to insert the question or discussion prompts. You can also customise the web address to the Unit code or name or correspond to a teaching week.

2. Once this is done, you can scroll down to the advanced details that involve the posts and comments on posts as well as apply content filtering to your padlet.

Click Next once you finalised the settings.

3. Next, to ensure other users (students or colleagues) can access and post on your Padlet, you would need to configure padlet Privacy settings.

To access the Privacy setting, click on the Share option on the top right.

4. Configure the access to your Padlet under the Privacy section that has 4 standard options; Private, Password Protected, Organisation wide, and Secret.

As shown in the image below, your padlet should be set to Secret (only viewable by embed code or link) and writable (Can Write). If you choose the "Organisation wide" option, it's restricted to users in your organization. Visitors not in your organization will be denied access, in this case, students won't be able to access them as they're not required to have accounts).

5. Select Add Members (staff), if you wish to by entering their names, emails or usernames and adjusting their individual permissions. You can only add other staff that have a Padlet account. 

6. Once the steps above are complete, you can start posting to your Padlet by clicking on the plus icon at the bottom of your Padlet. Alternatively, double click anywhere within the wall or drag files into it.

7. Click on the picture below to see a video showing how to Anonymity in Padlet posts and Padlet Settings.
This is not one of our lovely professionally done videos, just a quick demonstration. 

 

Step Three: Sharing your Wall

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Walls created in Padlet can be exported in several ways, including as a PDF, an image, a spreadsheet or printed out. Your Padlet wall can also be shared by copying its unique URL, sent via email, Facebook, Twitter or embedded into your VU Collaborate site. 

Share in a VU Collaborate space

To embed the code into an HTML page in your learning space, first, you will have to copy the embed code from Padlet.

1. In your Padlet, click Share

2. Select Embed in your blog or your website, then click copy to copy the embed code.

    

3. Return to your Unit Space, and add a new document or edit an existing document HMTL page.
In the HTML editor, click on the insert stuff icon, then select Enter Embed Code.

4. Paste your embed code into the text box, then click Next.

5. Click Insert.

6. Then click Save and Close, to confirm your changes.

 

 

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Resolving common issues

What to do when there is no plus icon to add posts

This usually happens when the sharing settings have not been properly set to allow users to add posts to the Padlet. You can update this setting via the Share button on the Padlet.

1. Click the Share button on the right-hand corner of the Padlet



2. Click on Change Privacy

You might notice that the settings are on Can Read which restricts users to reading only. This needs to be changed to Can Write to allow users to add posts

3. Click on the dropdown arrow next to Can read

4. Select Can Write then click below the selections box to return to the settings.

Visitors should now be able to post to your Padlet board.