How to make and share padlets (institutional license) - Technology Enhanced Learning Support for Staff

This guide takes you through the step by step process to access and use your university Padlet account. The institutional Padlet licence is for Teaching and Learning at the University of Reading; allowing you to make, configure and securely share an unlimited number of padlets with your students.

1. How to activate your institutional Padlet licence

To start using the institutional Padlet licence, you will need to activate your ‘Teacher’ account. Simply navigate to a Blackboard course and open the Content Market. From here, you can choose ‘Padlet’ > Dashboard (top left). This action creates your account.

2. How to access your account

After you have activated your account via Blackboard (step 1 above) you then have two options for accessing Padlet:

option 1: Open a Blackboard course and select Padlet from the Content Market, or
option 2: Visit padlet.com/universityofreading and sign-in with Microsoft (we recommend bookmarking this link in your browser for quick future access).

3. How to make a padlet

Once you have activated your ‘Teacher’ licence, you can begin making padlets. Depending on your learning activity, there may be a particular padlet format well suited to the task you have designed. Use this video to see the options and suggested learning activities for each format.

Here is a summary (and examples) of the format options:

Wall: posts will be compactly arranged into a “brick-like” layout.
Grid: creates uniform spacing between each post.
Stream: posts arranged in a top-to-bottom feed.
Timeline: posts appear along a horizontal line.
Table: Arrange fields into structured tables. This format will create a board in a table-like layout where each post you publish will create a row and each field within that post creates a column.
Map: posts can be pinned to any location on a map background.
Freeform: posts can be positioned freeform anywhere on the board; they can be resized, connected with lines and labelled.
Columns: turning on Sections allows you to add column headings (to a Wall or Grid) or row headings (to a Timeline).
*Sandbox: this format is like a collaborative whiteboard, great for mind mapping, post-it note activities, etc. More info: What is Sandbox?

3. How to share padlets

Before sharing your padlet, open it and choose the share setting permissions. You can do this from the share settings panel (right side of the padlet screen).

The default setting is ‘University of Reading members’ > ‘Writer’; however you can use the drop down list to select another permission option (for example, Read only or Commenter). Alongside the default setting, you can also allow ‘Visitors with a link’. Carefully check these options in the table below before altering the default setting.

Permission	What does it allow?
‘Visitors with a link’	This setting can be enabled alongside the default permission ‘University of Reading members’. It allows padlets to be accessed by anyone who has the link or QR code, users are not required to sign into their university account to access the board. Students will be given the option to use a nickname, psuedo animal name or to login to their university account. Be aware, if this setting is enabled then it is not possible to prevent students linking the padlet content from social media or other external platforms. These padlets have the benefit that they can be shared externally and in ad hoc scenarios where this may be needed, however, as they present risks in terms of governing who can access (i.e. if the link is passed on), this setting should only be used where data security and accurate author attribution is not a concern.
‘University of Reading members’	This default share setting prevents padlets from being accessed externally. This is the recommended way to share padlets with students when anonymity is not required, and is best used when asking students to access the padlet via Blackboard. Students university usernames will be recognised and attributed to posts (you can toggle ‘Show/Hide’ names if wanting to remove display of authors from the board). If students are using a device that is not already logged into Blackboard, i.e. access via a QR code scanned by their mobile device, they will see a ‘Login’ screen before viewing the padlet (ask students to choose the ‘Login with Microsoft’ option). Ensure you make them aware of this potential pop up screen and allow a minute or so for users to login with their university credentials.

This table describes the two share options available for University of Reading padlets. Other access controls are listed in the table at end of this guide.

Typically, once students have posted on the padlet, you will want to display the entire board for the whole class to see. It is not possible to embed padlets into a PowerPoint, so you should open the padlet in a browser window, to display to the class.

4. How to add padlets to Blackboard

Please be aware you will need to refresh your course to view padlets added via Blackboard Content Market.

There are two options for sharing padlets via Blackboard:

Option 1 – as a link (e.g. via a content folder):

Locate your Blackboard course and open the folder you wish to populate,
Click the purple ‘create’ button and select Content Market from the dropdown list.
From the dropdown list, select Content Market and choose Padlet
This action opens a window displaying your ‘Recent’ padlets, choose from the list or select ‘Make’ to create a new one. If you cannot see your padlet in the list, refresh the page or reopen the Content Market.
Once you have selected your padlet, close the Content Market window to return to the course.
The padlet will be added to your course folder as a link. You can edit the display title and description.

Option 2 – as an embedded item (e.g. via an Ultra Document):

Create an Ultra Document or open an existing one
Select ‘Add Content’ and open the Content Market (click the plus button in the Blackboard Ultra Editor toolbar).
From the Content Market, choose Padlet
This action opens a window displaying your ‘Recent’ padlets, choose from the list or select ‘Make’ to create a new one. If you cannot see your padlet in the list, refresh the page or reopen the Content Market.
Once you have selected your padlet, close the Content Market window to return to the Ultra Document.
The padlet will display as an embedded item.

5. What are the other options for controlling access to a padlet?

Depending on your planned learning activity, you may find the following options useful to control access:

Setting	What does it allow?
‘Visitors with a link’	This setting can be enabled alongside the default permission ‘University of Reading members’. It allows padlets to be accessed by anyone who has the link or QR code, users are not required to sign into their university account to access the board. Students will be given the option to use a nickname, psuedo animal name or to login to their university account. Be aware, if this setting is enabled then it is not possible to prevent students linking the padlet content from social media or other external platforms. These padlets have the benefit that they can be shared externally and in ad hoc scenarios where this may be needed, however, as they present risks in terms of governing who can access (i.e. if the link is passed on), this setting should only be used where data security and accurate author attribution is not a concern.
‘University of Reading members‘	This default share setting prevents padlets from being accessed externally. This is the recommended way to share padlets with students when anonymity is not required, and is best used when asking students to access the padlet via Blackboard. Students university usernames will be recognised and attributed to posts (you can toggle ‘Show/Hide’ names if wanting to remove display of authors from the board). If students are using a device that is not already logged into Blackboard, i.e. access via a QR code scanned by their mobile device, they will see a ‘Login’ screen before viewing the padlet (ask students to choose the ‘Login with Microsoft’ option). Ensure you make them aware of this potential pop up screen and allow a minute or so for users to login with their university credentials.
Permission options	If you wish to change the default ‘Writer’ permission to another type (to allow students to join the padlet with Read only, Commenter, Admin, or Moderator, or to prevent access entirely via ‘No Access’), you can use the drop down list to select another permission option.
‘Collaborator’ email invitations	If you wish to give specific padlet roles to other staff or select students, send them a ‘Collaborator’ invite. The recipient receives an email containing a joining link, which will open the board and assign the specific padlet role you have chosen. Collaborator invites can only be sent to other university padlet account holders, and cannot be passed between users within the university or externally (the link will only work for the invited user account). This is useful if you want another member of staff, or specific students, to moderate posts or co-own the padlet.
‘Freeze’ padlet board	This setting prevents further interaction with the padlet (for example, posting and commenting), but allows students to continue viewing the padlet. This setting is useful when you no longer want to monitor the padlet i.e. the activity has finished but you wish students to retain viewing access without making further posts, comments, reactions etc. You can set a future date to freeze your padlet using ‘Automations‘.
‘Submission‘ link	A submission request allows anyone with the link to post to a padlet without first visiting the board. This feature is especially helpful to prevent students from seeing others’ posts before submitting their own.
‘Auto-Remake‘ link	Auto-remake links allow anyone who clicks on your padlet link to automatically create a duplicate of the padlet in their own account, for editing. This is extremely useful for teachers who want students to work on their own version of a padlet; you can easily view each remade padlet via a list, each student copy can be quickly accessed from your original padlet.
‘Breakout‘ link	If you want students to restrict students to collaborate on a section of a padlet, without seeing the rest of the board, then send them a breakout link.

5. What next?

For more Padlet features and ideas for learning activities, see guidance ‘Using Padlet for Teaching‘.

Guide last updated on October 28, 2025