Dotstorming is a space to post digital sticky notes for brainstorming, collaborative discussions, or voting on a chosen topic. The notes can contain text and or images. What makes Dotstorming different than other digital bulletin boards is that once the notes are posted, people vote for their favourite notes.

After adding a board and a title, users select how many votes the participants will have (up to 10), and start adding posts with text, images, and video. Images and video can be added via URL or upload from the local drive.

Participants can add posts. Names of participants using the board appear below the chat box. Participants name’s appear when they make a comment in the chat. However, comments on posts don’t have the participant name. Once the board is complete, the creator can finalize the board so no new ideas can be posted, but the voting feature is still open. After the voting is complete,  the notes can be sorted according to the number of votes  received.
Educational uses:​
  • Host brainstorming sessions
  • Gather students’ thoughts about a question or problem statement.
  • Post set of answer choices for your students and have them vote for the answer that they think is correct.
  • Use the chat function in Dotstorming to discuss the answer choices before, during, or after voting.

Getting Started

  1. Navigate to Dotstorming web site.
  2. Create a DotStorming board and provide a name to the board.
  3. Invite participants to your board.
  4. Add your ideas to the board using digital sticky notes. Use images, text or a combination of both.
  5. Allow participants to vote on ideas and put new ideas on the board.
  6. After the voting is done, as an option, sort different ideas based on votes received. It will help you in understanding which ideas were popular and which ideas did not generate sufficient interest of participants.