Miro
What is Miro
Miro is a sophisticated online whiteboard or 'infinite canvas' that can be used by staff and students at Warwick for collaborative work. It has a broad range of features and is flexible enough to be used in many teaching approaches.
It has the ability to create and reuse templates for lesson activities. These can be copied by students and edited to suit the course requirements.
How do I get a Miro account?
- Open https://miro.com/education-whiteboard/Link opens in a new window
- Follow the instructions here https://help.miro.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017730473-Education-PlanLink opens in a new window
- As evidence of accreditation, please download this image (or screenshot https://warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/charity/).
Access
Miro can be accessed via a near identical interface across mobile, browser Link opens in a new windowand desktop apps. It has proven to be very reliable in terms of connectivity.
Please note that whilst Miro has been approved by Information Security, it is not supported by IDG and given that we have no guarantee of its availability, we recommend that you do not design learning and assessment tasks that have a critical dependency on it.
Accessibility
See https://help.miro.com/hc/en-us/articles/19506114302354-Overview-of-Miro-AccessibilityLink opens in a new window - the text below is summarised from that location.
Compliance & Auditing Miro conducts regular audits against WCAG 2.2 AA standards and publishes an annual Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) based on the VPAT framework.
Keyboard & Assistive Technology Support Users can navigate boards using keyboard alone, with three navigation modes: linear, spatial, and hierarchical. Screen readers and voice recognition software are supported, with labels, descriptions, and actions provided for board objects. Single-character shortcuts can be disabled to avoid conflicts with assistive technologies.
Accessibility Features
- Reduced Motion setting to limit animations
- Customisable board background colours for visibility
- Labelled colours in context menus
- Command Palette for quick VoiceOver-style navigation
- Captions for TalkTrack audio recordings
Board Creator Tools
- Alt text for images
- Accessibility Checker — flags issues like low text contrast, missing alt text, and improper frame usage
Current Status: Availability is on all plans, all platforms (browser, desktop, mobile).
See also How to make your Miro Boards more accessible.Link opens in a new window
What can I do with Miro?
- Use pre-built templatesLink opens in a new window or create your own templates and smart frameworks.
- Unleash your creativityLink opens in a new window and work the way you want to with an infinite canvas.
- Utilize sticky notes, freeform pen, shapes, arrows, smart drawing, and more.
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Get feedback, reviews, and approvals with multiple communication options.
- Easy screen sharing & and creation of presentations by grouping work into framesLink opens in a new window.
In our experience, Miro works like a cross between Padlet and Powerpoint but with more features than the former, and allowing more collaboration than the latter.
How is Miro used in teaching?
You can also see Robert's TEALFest presentation Future Learning Spaces Design Sprint in MiroLink opens in a new window - where he demonstrates the methods used in the IATL Introduction to Design Thinking module, and considers how they may be useful to teachers in designing learning.
Where can I get help?
IDG and Digital Learning cannot resolve technical issues with Miro. However, Digital Learning can support you to use Miro in your teaching. Contact Digital Learning via the online Help Desk.
Miro has extensive online helpLink opens in a new window - we recommend using this to answer technical questions about installation, using the tools, adding templates etc.
- Getting started with MiroLink opens in a new window - all the basics, what is Miro, how to get an account, first steps in setting up a collaborative board.
- Using MiroLink opens in a new window - this covers the tools available, how to use a Miro board for collaboration, sharing boards, and a number of FAQs.
Clicking on the ? help button whilst in Miro itself will open a menu giving access to short video tutorials and links to FAQs, and to get help from the Miro community.