CE Board

Collect student ideas, questions and contributions on a shared classroom board.

Overview

CE Board gives your class a shared space for brainstorming, reading responses, project work and reflection. Students add posts to columns, respond with comments and reactions, and join classroom activities from the same board.

You can use a board independently of a class session. Share its link or QR code, choose what participants can do, and ask students to confirm a display name or seat number before entering. After the activity, export the work or reuse the board’s structure for another class.

CE Board is separate from Message Board. Use CE Board for contributions the class can read together. Use Message Board when students submit AI conversation content for your feedback and grading.

How to Access

Teachers and board creators:

Sign in to Chat Everywhere with an eligible Ultra or Teacher account.
Open Other Features and select CE board, or use the CE board entry in the Teacher Portal.
Select Create board, enter a title, and open the board.

CE Board must also be enabled for your account. If the entry is missing, confirm your account’s plan and contact support about availability.

Students and invited participants:

Open the link or scan the QR code your teacher shared.
Sign in if the board requires an account.
Enter or confirm your name or seat number, then select Enter board.

A paid student plan is not required to join a shared board. Your teacher controls whether guests are allowed and whether you can view, comment or post.

Key Features

Columns for organizing posts, with text, images, PDFs, audio and video attachments.
Comments and reactions for discussing contributions.
Shared-link access, optional account requirements, and view/comment/post permissions.
Required name confirmation, seat-number mode, and optional unique names.
Questions with votes, a timer, raised hands, buzzer rounds, random draw and classroom points.
Presentation mode, CSV export, and print/save-as-PDF.
Board duplication, Trash, restoration and permanent deletion.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Prepare a board

Create a board and give it a title that describes the activity.
Add instructions explaining what students should contribute.
Create or rename columns to organize the activity, such as Ideas, Questions and Next steps.
Adjust the board settings before inviting students.

To delete a column containing posts, choose another column to receive them. Deleting a column does not delete its posts. At least one column must remain.

Open Share.
Choose shared-link access and select the visitor permission: View only, Comment and react, or Post, comment and react.
Enable Require account if students must sign in.
Under Student names, choose Display name or Seat number only.
Set Require unique names / seat numbers as needed, then save the access settings.
Share the saved link or QR code with your class.

Name format	What students enter	Default uniqueness
Display name	A name of up to 50 characters	Duplicates allowed
Seat number only	1–3 digits	Unique within the board

You can override uniqueness in either mode. Display-name comparisons ignore surrounding spaces and letter case. Seat numbers such as 5, 05 and ０５ count as the same number when uniqueness is enabled; leading zeros can still appear on the board.

Students must explicitly confirm their name the first time they enter. Signed-in students can edit the account-name suggestion; guests start with an empty field. This changes their name on this board, not their account profile. The board owner enters directly.

Returning participants normally do not need to confirm again. Changing the naming rules requires another confirmation. A guest using another browser, device, or cleared browser cookies may be treated as a new participant.

3. Resolve a name that is already taken

Ask the student to check the entered name or seat number.
If the student has lost access to their original browser identity, open Share → Manage participant names.
Find the old claim, select Release name, and confirm.
Ask the student to join again and confirm the name.

Releasing a name does not transfer earlier posts or points to a new participant. Those remain attached to the original identity. The participant whose claim was released must confirm a name before continuing.

If duplicate names already exist, resolve the matching claims before enabling uniqueness. Names remain claimed even when participants are temporarily offline.

4. Collect and discuss contributions

Students select a column and create a post.
They can add text, a link and supported attachments, then save.
Read the posts together and use comments or reactions to respond.
Move posts between columns as the discussion develops.

A board supports up to 200 posts, 21 columns, 50 comments per post, and five attachments per post. Images and PDFs can be up to 20 MiB per file; supported audio and video files can be up to 100 MiB. Uploads are checked before they can be attached to a post.

A participant can edit their own posts; the owner can edit any post. If two authorized people edit the same post, the latest committed content save wins. Moves and deletions can report a conflict if the item has changed since it was opened.

5. Use questions and classroom tools

Open the relevant tool from the board’s toolbar:

Tool	Use it to
Questions	Collect questions, let students vote, mark answers, or merge related questions
Timer	Set an activity duration and optionally stop new posts when time expires
Raised hands	See participants waiting to speak
Buzzer	Run a round with one accepted winner
Random draw	Pick a participant and avoid repeating a selection within the round
Points	Award or remove participant points

Question privacy: The owner can see who submitted a question. Students see You on their own questions; other questions have no author label. Presentation mode does not show question author names. There is currently no setting to reveal question authors to everyone.

The owner sees all point totals. Each participant sees only their own total; presentation mode hides point totals. A timer that closes new posting still allows comments and reactions, subject to board permissions.

6. Keep, reuse or delete a board

Export: Choose Print or save as PDF, or Download spreadsheet (CSV). CSV includes posts, comments, questions and point totals. Attachments are not bundled into a downloadable file archive.
Duplicate: From the board library, duplicate a board to reuse its instructions, columns and settings. The copy is private and excludes posts, files, participants and classroom results.
Delete: Move a board to Trash. Its shared link stops granting access.
Restore: Open Trash and restore a board during the 30-day retention period, before permanent deletion begins.
Delete forever: Permanently remove the board and attachments. Once permanent deletion starts, restoration is no longer available, including if cleanup needs to retry.

Previously issued attachment links can remain usable until they expire, and content someone has already downloaded cannot be recalled by deleting a board.

Plans & Access

Account or role	Create and own boards	Join a shared board
Eligible Ultra or Teacher account with CE Board enabled	Yes	Yes
Other signed-in accounts	No	Yes, with a valid invitation
Guest	No	Yes, unless the owner requires an account

An invitation does not grant a paid plan or access to other teacher features. The owner controls the permissions within each board.

Troubleshooting

My name or seat number is already taken

Check your entry first. With uniqueness enabled, 05 and 5 are equivalent. If you changed browsers or devices, ask the owner to release the original claim. Do not use another student’s seat number.

I entered my name, but other students cannot see it on my question

This is the Q&A privacy rule. The teacher can see the submitter; classmates cannot. Your own question is labeled You. This does not mean the board ignored your confirmed name.

My shared link no longer opens the board

Ask the owner for the current link. The owner may have changed access settings, regenerated the invitation, or moved the board to Trash.

A save is waiting for confirmation

A network interruption can happen after a save reaches the server. Use the pending save’s Retry action to check the same operation without creating a duplicate. If the item changed, refresh and reopen it before editing.

I cannot restore a board

It may have passed the retention period or permanent deletion may already have started. A board being permanently deleted cannot be restored, even if attachment cleanup is still retrying.