Whiteboard Assistant FAQs

Q. Do I need SuperNova Education Kit to use the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant?

A: SuperNova Education Kit is the name we give to a range of assistive technology software and hardware bundles, specifically curated for educational use.

The Complete Education Kit is SuperNova Magnifier & Speech software together with a range of accessories including a Hovercam camera, laptop, wireless mouse, wireless ear buds and a backpack. Though there are other flexible options in the range, which also includes a Software and Camera Kit, and SuperNova Magnifier & Speech software alone.

As each option includes SuperNova Magnifier & Speech software, each option is compatible with the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant.

The Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant is downloaded on the teacher's PC. It enables them to share the contents they are displaying on their electronic whiteboard with students using SuperNova software. The students view the content on their own laptop or tablet, but teachers have full control of what is displayed.

Q: What does the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant do?

A: The Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant makes sharing the whiteboard contents easy for teachers. It means you can display the contents you are already sharing on your electronic whiteboard to the screens on the students' laptop or tablets. This can only be seen on laptops by students who are using SuperNova software.

Teachers can choose when to share the whiteboard contents and for how long. There are options for sharing for set periods of time (to fit in with lesson lengths) or to stop sharing at any time. 

Teachers can also select whether to share the whole screen, or specific windows, so they can work in other windows or use other apps as necessary.

So teachers can be confident they aren't sharing screen content after class, and are only sharing the content that's required.

In technical terms, the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant helps you to install a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) tool.

Q: Does SuperNova Education Kit do more than let vision impaired students see the whiteboard?

A: Yes!  The Complete SuperNova Education Kit includes a full Windows 11 laptop, with SuperNova Magnification & Speech installed; it also includes a Hovercam camera, a computer mouse and wireless earbuds.

Students with vision impairments can use the kit in many ways, including but not limited to:

• read on screen with the accessibility features that meet their individual needs
• type and complete assignments
• listen to text displayed on screen
• scan and read paper documents, and annotate them on screen
• View and read websites with accessibility features
• use the camera as a video camera for practical work, or to view items further away that they may need to magnify
• save screen grabs as images to send or annotate

As SuperNova Education Kits with an active SMA also includes EasyReader Premium vision impaired students can also connect to accessible libraries and download curriculum material and books to read.

Q: Where do I get the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant from?

A: The Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant can be requested directly from Dolphin.  Simply complete the form on the Whiteboard Assistant page and it will be emailed to you straight away, along with helpful user guides. 

This email also includes instructions for your IT Team if they would prefer to make it available to all teachers in your education setting through an MSI.

Q: Can my other students with low vision benefit if they don’t use the SuperNova Education Kit?

A: If your students are using any edition in the SuperNova software range: SuperNova Magnifier, SuperNova Magnifier & Speech or SuperNova Magnifier & Screen Reader' they can access the information on the whiteboard through Dolphin  Whiteboard Assistant. Please note that some functions are not available in all editions, so we recommend SuperNova Magnifier & Speech edition for the best experience.

Q: What is Connect & View?

A: Connect & View is a feature in SuperNova software that enables users to view the content of shared whiteboard, or to view the content from a camera on their screen.  

SuperNova then enables the user to magnify the information on the whiteboard on their screen and adjust the colour scheme or read the text with audio. 

They can also magnify paper documents or other objects placed under a document camera. You can watch this Connect & View video to find out more. 

Q:  What types of Whiteboard does Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant work with?

A:  Any that connects to a teacher's computer. 

Technically, the teacher is sharing a presentation from their computer to the whiteboard. With Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant, this presentation is shared at the same time with selected students' computers, through SuperNova.

In reality the whiteboard itself isn't shared, it's the teacher's presentation that is shared simultaneously with the whiteboard and the SuperNova software.

Q:  Do students with vision impairments need a distance viewing camera to view the whiteboard?

A:  No. Using SuperNova Education Kit, students can view the whiteboard in class without using a camera. 

The information on the whiteboard is streamed directly to their laptop, and they can use SuperNova magnification software to zoom in or enlarge the content on screen.

SuperNova Education Kit does have a camera included.  This can be used to magnify paper documents and objects on the laptop screen.

Q: Do students need to sit near the whiteboard?

A: No! The beauty of SuperNova Education Kit used with the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant is that students can sit anywhere in class. There is no need to have a clear line of sight with the board, and students can sit with their friends or move around the classroom during group work. 

The whiteboard contents are delivered straight into the SuperNova users' screen. It means a better experience for the student than using a long-distance camera to view the whiteboard content: the line of sight is never blocked if someone walks in front of the whiteboard, and the student won't stand out in class as 'different' if they're not using clunky CCTV cameras in class. 

Q: My student has very low vision, will they be able to magnify the whiteboard?

A: Yes. This is why SuperNova Education Kit with Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant is so unique and so popular. 

Designed specifically for students with low vision, SuperNova Education Kit enables students to:

• Magnify the whiteboard, and zoom in up to 64 times the original size.
• Change colour schemes to improve contrast. They can also invert the colour quickly on the touch screen.
• Listen to the text displayed on screen through the speech features in SuperNova.
• Split the screen, so they can view the whiteboard on one side and make notes or work on the other.

Q: What does student see on their screen when viewing the whiteboard?

A: The Connect & View feature in SuperNova creates a viewer: a portion of the screen that displays the contents of the Interactive whiteboard.

The student can adjust the viewer to be top, bottom, left or right side of the screen. The viewer can be set to fill 80%, 50% or 20% of their screen. 

The remaining portion of the screen displays the student’s standard desktop, complete with SuperNova magnification with their preferred settings.   

Q: What happens when the teacher changes to the next slide in the presentation?

A: As the whiteboard display changes through teacher interaction (e.g. next slide, annotation, video playing), this will also happen simultaneously on the screen of any SuperNova user connected.  This ensures students with vision impairments have the same experience at the same time as the rest of the class, for a fully inclusive experience. 

If the student needs to hold or pause their magnified view to stop it changing, students can lock their view with a single button, and unlock in the same way. This will not affect the content displayed to the rest of the class.

Students can also take screenshots of the whiteboard at any point, which can help with a more in-depth inspection, or to refer back to when completing homework.

Q: Can student work and view the whiteboard at the same time?

A: Yes. It's easier to multi-task with SuperNova Education Kit and the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant!  

Students can view the whiteboard on their screen with accessibility features, and work on a document, research online or complete another task on their computer at the same time.  

Q: How can students view the whiteboard display and complete other tasks?

A: Students can switch (Alt-Tab) between the whiteboard image and their standard work magnified by SuperNova. 

Alternatively, they can split the screen to display the interactive whiteboard and another application, such as a Word document, at the same time.

Q: What if the two things they’re viewing require different adjustments to see clearly?

A: When a student splits their on-screen view in SuperNova, they can apply different levels of magnification and colours to each. 

For example: 

A student might zoom in to see the detail of the teacher’s presentation, keeping its original colours. While in a Word document, they may need a small amount of magnification and a screen colour inversion. 

Both applications and their unique views are displayed on-screen simultaneously.

Q: Can the student take snapshots or screen grabs of the teacher's whiteboard?

A: Yes, the snapshot button is conveniently located on the SuperNova toolbar. 

Students can click this button to capture the unmagnified image displayed on the whiteboard. 

These images can then be pasted into a document or saved to explore later.

Q: Can students use Scan & Read with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to capture and read whiteboard content?

A: Yes. Scan & Read can extract printed text (not handwriting) from an image. 

Please note that the accuracy of the scan depends on the quality of the image. Scan & Read with OCR is usually used for printed documents. 

Q: Can my student watch a video I am playing on the whiteboard?

A: Yes. However, there is a possibility that the video will not be the best quality if it's viewed in this way. 

We recommend sharing the video link directly with your student where possible.

Q: How easy is it for the student to control their view of the whiteboard?

A: It is very easy for students to view and adjust the display on their own computer screen in a way that's accessible to them.

With the toolbar, students can zoom in, zoom out, change the colour scheme, rotate the image, capture an image or scan text. 

They can also use Hotkeys which are keyboard-based shortcuts to jump between the desktop, the camera and the whiteboard.

Q: How does the teacher share the class whiteboard?

A: The teacher launches the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant connection at the start of class by double-clicking the Dolphin icon located on their desktop.

Choose 'Start Sharing' and choose whether you'd like to share the entire screen or a specific window (e.g. a set of presentation slides).

Moving through the sharing options, they can also decide how and when they would like to stop sharing. Either select a time limit to share, from the options of 15, 30 or 45 minutes or 1 hour.

Then they simply share the access password with the low vision student who adds it in to Connect & View as appropriate.

You can stop sharing by clicking the 'stop sharing' button, or by closing the window that is being shared. If you set a timer the screen sharing will automatically stop when the allotted time has passed.

Q: What happens at the end of the class when the student leaves?

A: The teacher can either click the 'Stop Sharing' button in the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant to immediately close the connection.

If a window is being shared, you can stop sharing by closing that window on your PC. 

If you set a timer the screen sharing will automatically stop when the allotted time has passed.

Q: We have lots of teachers with lots of laptops and a lot of classrooms. How does the student know which machine to connect to?

A: Each whiteboard that the pupil needs to view should be associated with a classroom specific computer or teacher laptop.

When installing the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant to these machines, we recommend naming each machine with either the teacher’s name or the classroom name. 
This way the student can select the connection associated with that teacher or classroom.

Q: Can my student access, control or change things on my computer?

A: No. The Connect and View feature in SuperNova Education Kit delivers information in one direction: from teacher to student. Students cannot make any changes to teachers’ computers. 

The Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant is a tool that helps you to install a Virtual Network Computing (VNC). This takes care of security as it helps you set a view-only password to give to students.

A secure password should be set for full control. The SuperNova Education Kit is free to download and includes an installation guide. 

Complete the simple form to request the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant download. You will receive an email to download it directly to your computer, along with helpful advice on how to use it. You can also forward the email to your IT department, who can install it on multiple computers throughout your education setting using an MSI. 

The Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant can be downloaded and used by anyone giving a presentation or lesson to a student who uses SuperNova software, which can be helpful for student presentations and group work.

Q: Can the student still see my computer display after the lesson?

A: You can stop sharing your whiteboard presentation at any time by clicking the 'stop sharing' button. 

You can also choose options to share for different periods of time (15, 30, 45 minutes or 1 hour).

Q: Can teachers control which students can view their whiteboard?

A: Yes. Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant comes with password control, which you can set up when you open it.

The password should be shared with the students that need it. 

Students can view in the Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant which students they are sharing their screen with. 

Q: Do I need a WiFi access point in each classroom?

A: No, as long as the student can get a good WiFi signal from the school network, you shouldn’t need an access point in each classroom.

Both teachers and students need to be connected to the same WiFi network to use Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant.

Q: My IT team are going to have questions. Can you help me answer them?

A: Yes. Although VNC is standard technology already in use in many schools, we appreciate there may be technical questions your IT teams will want to ask. 

We recommend you ask them to contact the Dolphin Support Team on 01905 754 577. The Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant is designed to simplify the VNC installation process and makes it easy to download.

Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant is free to download and can be used as needed by anyone giving a presentation or lesson to a student who has a visual impairment and uses any edition of SuperNova.

Q: What does VNC mean?

A: VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. VNC is a type of software that makes it possible to view another computer over a network connection.

Dolphin Whiteboard Assistant is VNC software that must be installed and run on the presenter's computer for SuperNova to make a connection. 

The VNC software does not need to be installed onto SuperNova Education Kit.  

Q: Can my student use Connect & View with their Apple iphone?

A: No. Connect & View is a SuperNova feature and as SuperNova is compatible only with Windows tablets, laptops and PCs, it will not support Apple devices.

Q: Can the teacher be using an Apple device?

A: Yes. Macs include a VNC function called Screen Sharing. This is compatible with students using Connect & View on their Windows device.