Whiteboard animation for teachers and course creators

By Deniffer AlanPublished Oct 31, 2026

TL;DR For a whole course video made in one tool, with script, scenes and voice-over, the teaching-focused picks are VideoScribe (a whiteboard video editor, education discount on request, MP4 for your course platform), Powtoon (Student plan $4 a month and Education plan $8 a month, billed yearly) and Canva, free for verified K-12 teachers. Vyond exports SCORM for an LMS, but only on its Enterprise and Agency plans. If you already have the lesson diagram and want it drawn on screen line by line, that is what WhiteboardAnimation.ai does: you upload the picture, a hand draws the outlines and then the colour, and you put the clip in your course video. We do not write scripts, record voice-over or build scenes, and we have no education plan.

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Tools for teachers and course creators

The other tools’ rows are from their makers’ own pricing, education and help pages, read 31 October 2026 (Animaker’s prices and the Vyond and Doodly trials on 30 October). We have not run these tools for this guide. The last column is the question a teacher with a finished diagram asks: what happens to my own picture?

Education prices, free options and what each tool does with a diagram you already have. US prices; sources at the end of the page.
Tool	What you make	Teacher or student price	Free option	Your own diagram	Into the course
VideoScribe	Whiteboard videos: scenes, library images, voice-over, music	Education discount on request: its pricing page says up to 25% off, its education page from 25%, more with more licences. Lite is $150 a year without it	7-day trial, no card: 3 downloads, up to 5 minutes, watermarked	Upload it. SVGs carry drawing instructions; its help says a raster PNG gets a simple diagonal reveal	1080p MP4 or GIF to upload or embed on your course platform
Powtoon	Animated and whiteboard-style videos from templates	Student $4 a month ($48 a year, 720p); Education $8 a month ($96 a year, 1080p, up to 20 minutes, Powtoon EDU branding)	Free: up to 3 minutes, Powtoon branding	Not stated on the pages we read	MP4; LMS integration on the Institutions and Districts plan (quote)
Vyond	Character animation, with a whiteboard style	No education plan on its pricing page. Starter $58 a month billed yearly ($699), or $99 monthly	Free trial: watermarked, no downloads (its help)	Not stated on the pages we read	MP4, WebM, GIF, captions; SCORM only on Enterprise ($1,649 a year) and Agency
Canva (SpeedPaint app)	Designs, slides and videos; whiteboard animation through the SpeedPaint app	Canva Education is free for verified K-12 teachers and their students	One free SpeedPaint credit; more are bought in the app (price not stated)	Upload an image or page; the app turns it into a speed-drawing video	MP4; Canva Education connects to Canvas, Moodle, Schoology, Google Classroom and others
Explain Everything	An interactive whiteboard you record yourself drawing on	Education Advanced $69 a year	Free: videos up to 3 minutes, 1 slide per project	Import it and draw or annotate over it while recording	Video and web video links; LMS assignments in Canvas, Schoology, Moodle, Blackboard
Animaker	Animated videos from templates and characters	No education plan on its pricing page. Starter $45 a month, or $300 a year	Free: 3 watermarked downloads a month	Not stated on the pages we read	Starter: 10 downloads a month, Full HD, no watermark
Doodly	Doodle videos from its library of characters and props	No education plan on its pricing page. Standard $49 a month	14-day trial through Voomly Cloud (its homepage)	PNG, JPG, SVG or GIF up to 1920 × 1080; its help says SVGs give the best results	MP4 and other video files, 360p to 1080p
PowerPoint (Ink Replay)	Slides; ink you draw replays stroke by stroke	Part of a Microsoft 365 subscription	—	Put it on a slide and trace over it with a pen or stylus yourself	Export the deck as an MP4, up to 1080p (4K on Windows 10 or later)
WhiteboardAnimation.ai	One drawing clip from one finished picture	No education plan. 20 credits for $10, or Starter $15 a month ($12 billed yearly)	5 credits on sign-up; exports 720p and watermarked	Upload a PNG, JPEG or WebP; a hand draws its outlines, then its colour	MP4 or WebM up to 1080p, green screen; on Pro transparent WebM, PNG sequence or layers

Two different jobs share the name "whiteboard animation". Editors such as VideoScribe, Powtoon, Vyond and Animaker build a whole video around a script from their own image libraries. A drawing tool takes a picture you already have and draws it. For a lesson that already has its diagrams, the second is the shorter path; for a course module that needs scenes, captions and narration in one place, the first.

Turn a lesson diagram into a drawing

Four steps from the diagram you already teach with to a clip in your course video. Steps 2 to 4 cost one credit in total: re-timing and exporting are free.

01
Prepare the picture
One idea per picture, clean dark outlines, flat colour, a plain background: a life cycle, a labelled process, a map. Photos and dense screenshots draw less cleanly. Prepare a picture has what works and the prompts we use to make one in ChatGPT or Midjourney.
02
Upload it and let it draw
Upload the PNG, JPEG or WebP in Studio. A hand traces every outline first, then colours region by region. Choose whether the subject or the background is drawn first, or lines only (drawing order).
03
Time it to your narration
Type the total length your explanation needs, or drag the line-art and colour clips on the timeline so the colour lands when you name each part. Pick one of six hands, or none. None of it redraws the picture or spends a credit.
04
Export it into the course video
Export an MP4 or WebM in 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 or the picture’s own shape, and record your voice over it in the editor you already use. Upload the finished video to your course platform or LMS like any other lesson video. On Pro, a transparent export lays the drawing over your own footage or slides.

Plant life cycle animation: the picture as it was uploaded — The picture

A plant life cycle, drawnA seed-to-flower diagram: the outlines take 11 seconds, the whole drawing 51 seconds at default settings. Set it longer if your explanation is.Use this picture Plant life cycle animation: script, prompt and chapters

Photosynthesis animation: the picture as it was uploaded — The picture

Photosynthesis, drawnA labelled process with arrows: sun, water from the roots, carbon dioxide in, oxygen out. Line art 44 seconds, the whole drawing 1 min 35 s.Use this picture Photosynthesis animation: script, prompt and chapters

Solar system animation: the picture as it was uploaded — The picture

The solar system, drawnPlanets in order around the sun, each one a moment to name: line art 15 seconds, the whole drawing 54 seconds.Use this picture Solar system animation: script, prompt and chapters

Four of our published science diagrams as drawn at default settings: strokes in each drawing plan, the whole clip, and how long the line art takes before the colour starts. A detailed diagram such as the ladybug’s takes longer; set the total length to match your narration.
Example	Line strokes	Colour strokes	As drawn	Line art
The water cycle	366	571	1:03	0:21
How a seed grows	150	383	0:50	0:10
The solar system	258	326	0:54	0:14
Ladybug life cycle	4,008	364	2:40	1:58

More science diagrams, each drawn and ready to watch, are in whiteboard animation for lessons.

What WhiteboardAnimation.ai leaves to you

We draw one finished picture. The rest of the course video is made in the tools you already use.

A hand-drawn flow of four steps joined by arrows: a script page, a stack of pictures, one picture being drawn by a hand with a marker (circled in red), and a video timeline with clips above a voice-over waveform. — Illustration: script, pictures, drawing clips, edit. WhiteboardAnimation.ai does only the circled step.

No script, voice-over or scenes. Write the lesson, record your narration and cut the clips together in your video editor or course tool.
No picture from a text prompt. You bring the diagram: your own, a textbook-style drawing you have the rights to, or one you generated elsewhere.
No SCORM package and no LMS integration. You get a video file; it goes into a course the way any video does.
No education plan or discount. 5 free credits on sign-up, one per picture; free exports are 720p and watermarked. Any credit pack (20 for $10) or plan removes the watermark and unlocks 1080p; transparent and layered export is Pro only. Pricing.
Saving the video needs a desktop browser. Exports render in the browser.

For a whole course module drawn from many pictures, How to make a whiteboard animation goes from script to finished video with our clips. To draw a folder of diagrams from Claude or ChatGPT, see MCP.

Which to use

A K-12 teacher with no budget
Canva Education is free once you are verified; its SpeedPaint app has one free credit for a drawing video.
A whole course video in one tool
VideoScribe (ask for the education discount) or Powtoon’s Education plan: script, scenes, voice-over and export in one place.
A corporate course that must be SCORM
Vyond Enterprise or Agency exports SCORM. Otherwise, put the MP4 into your authoring tool.
You draw it live with a stylus
Explain Everything or PowerPoint Ink Replay records your own strokes over the diagram.
The diagram exists; it should draw itself
WhiteboardAnimation.ai: upload it, time it to your narration, export the clip into your course video.

For every tool’s full plans and limits, see Whiteboard animation software compared and Whiteboard animation software pricing. For other ways to make a picture look hand-drawn (After Effects, CapCut, AI video), see Image to drawing animation.

Sources

Read on each maker’s own pages on the date shown, US prices. We have not run these tools for this guide; the clips and stroke counts are our own published examples.

VideoScribe for education (educator and student discount) · read 2026-10-31
VideoScribe pricing (plans, trial, education discount) · read 2026-10-31
VideoScribe eLearning video software (MP4 for course platforms) · read 2026-10-31
VideoScribe help: image settings (raster images use a diagonal reveal) · read 2026-10-31
Powtoon education pricing · read 2026-10-31
Vyond pricing (plans, SCORM export) · read 2026-10-31
Vyond help: free trials · read 2026-10-30
Canva Education · read 2026-10-31
Canva whiteboard animation (SpeedPaint app) · read 2026-10-31
Explain Everything pricing (plans for education) · read 2026-10-31
Animaker pricing · read 2026-10-30
Doodly pricing · read 2026-10-31
Doodly homepage (14-day free trial with Voomly Cloud) · read 2026-10-30
Doodly help: importing a custom image · read 2026-10-31
Doodly help: exporting your videos · read 2026-10-21
Replay your ink strokes in Office (Microsoft Support) · read 2026-10-31
Turn your presentation into a video (Microsoft Support) · read 2026-10-31

FAQ

Questions

It depends on what you start from. To build a whole lesson video in one tool, VideoScribe (education discount on request) and Powtoon (Education plan $8 a month, billed $96 a year) cover script, scenes and voice-over; Canva is free for verified K-12 teachers. Vyond exports SCORM, but only on Enterprise and Agency. If your diagrams already exist, WhiteboardAnimation.ai draws each one line by line for your course video; it has no script, voice-over or education plan.

Give each concept one finished picture, have it drawn, and narrate over it. Here you upload the picture, a hand draws the outlines and then the colour, and you set the length to your explanation on the timeline before exporting an MP4 for your course video. Editors such as VideoScribe build the same kind of video from their own image libraries, with voice-over inside the tool.

Upload the diagram here as a PNG, JPEG or WebP and a hand draws it: our plant life cycle draws in under a minute at default settings, and you can make it longer to match what you say. Export it as an MP4 and record your voice over it, or play it in class. To draw it yourself instead, trace it with a stylus in PowerPoint and add the Ink Replay animation, or record over it in Explain Everything.

Canva Education is free for verified K-12 teachers and students, and its SpeedPaint app gives one free drawing credit. Powtoon and Explain Everything have free plans with short videos and their branding. Here, 5 free credits come with sign-up, one per picture; free exports are 720p and watermarked.

Yes, as a video. VideoScribe, Powtoon, Vyond, Canva, Doodly and PowerPoint all export MP4, which course platforms take as a video lesson. A SCORM package needs Vyond Enterprise or Agency, or an authoring tool that wraps your video. We export MP4, WebM and, on Pro, transparent clips; no SCORM.