Tip: Concept Mapping

I tested several different online tools for creating mind maps - here are my favorites.

Concept maps - or mind maps - can be a really useful way to organize information and quickly capture relationships. I use mind maps with my students both to generate ideas (brainstorming as pre-writing) and to organize notes. Last semester I shared a specific strategy (hexagonal thinking) for helping students make connections between course concepts. Today the focus is on tools and strategies that are adaptable to any mapping activity.

A concept map is a visualization of knowledge that is organized by the relationships between the topics. At its core, it is made of concepts that are connected together by lines (or arrows) that are labelled with the relationship between the concepts…Instead of reading explanations from students, concepts maps provide a way to quickly look through students thinking process and understanding of concepts.

Kent State Center for Teaching & learning

The criteria that were most important to me as I tested the concept mapping tools were ease of use and free access. I wanted to find options that had simple, intuitive controls, particularly for getting started quickly, but the free versions needed to be robust enough for students’ and instructors’ most common uses. I found six different options that all worked well and met my criteria - below are the tools I tested, in order roughly from most simple to most sophisticated.

Google Jamboard

If the goal is to get started very quickly, with a small (but easy to figure out) menu of options, Jamboard works well. It most closely of any of the options I tested mimics using a physical whiteboard with markers and sticky notes. There are far fewer pre-built options (like different shapes, arrows, etc.) but the ease of use helps make up for those missing options. It’s also the only option that syncs seamlessly with Google Drive and allows an unlimited number of Jamboards. For immediate use with minimal design options, this is probably the best choice.

Map created with https://jamboard.google.com/

Mural

This is a great option for getting started quickly from a template, and I found it very easy to use. The controls felt intuitive, but there are also well-timed pop-up tutorial options to guide you through creating your first boards. Mural offers a robust free educator option, in addition to free personal use and paid use for larger organizations. This one strikes a nice balance between simplicity of use and many design options.

Map created with https://app.mural.co/

Bubbl.us

I think this is my favorite for brainstorming and expressing a simple relationship hierarchy. It’s very fast to get started using, and it works easily and intuitively with keyboard shortcuts. The pop-up menus are helpful - not annoying, as I found them with some of the other ones I tested. There are many fewer design options (colors, shapes, types of arrows, etc.) and that can help students focus on the ideas rather than playing with design elements.

Map created with https://bubbl.us/

Coggle.it

I’ve seen Coggle recommended a lot, so I tested it out first (which is why the map below is the most well-developed of any of the examples I share here). I think Coggle is middle-of-the-road for ease of use; Jamboard and Bubbl.us are definitely quicker to get started using, but Coggle has some nice keyboard shortcuts that work well, once you figure out what they are. I also like that the design elements (colors and arrow directionality) were not something that I had to add or edit - as I created new nodes, the colors, font sizes, arrow directions all auto-populated.

Map created with https://coggle.it/

Creately

I like that you can begin right away, without creating an account, and it’s pretty easy to get started with dragging shapes to the board. You can start with the basic one box + three circles layout below, or pick another starting template. This tool offers more design elements than Jamboard and more customizability than Coggle, but fewer than Miro.

Map created with https://app.creately.com/

Miro

I get the sense that Miro is the most robust of the options, but it’s slightly less intuitive (I found) for someone getting started. On first use, I ended up doing more clicking around to access different components and had an even harder time correcting mistakes. I do like the clean look of the finished product, and after a couple more attempts this ended up being my favorite tool. One downside is that there are only 3 free boards, but you can make the boards as large as you need (at least, I never came to an end in my testing). You have many design elements to play with, which might be what you or your students need, or might be an unnecessary distraction.

Map created with https://miro.com/app

Other options…

• Scapple - there’s a free trial, but otherwise you have to pay for it. I’m not averse to paying for software that works well (like my beloved email program) but I suspect that also means it’s a more robust software and there might be a learning curve to getting started.

• Lucid - a free trial only gets you 3 editable charts, enough to test it out, not enough to make a free version really usable. If you want more there’s a monthly fee.

• Numbers - it’s somehow a spreadsheet tool for Macs that allows you to create visual displays and maps; I couldn’t test this one but it might be a good option for Mac users who want a more data-visualization option. Here’s an interesting tutorial about using Numbers from a design perspective.

In the end, the one you choose needs to meet your design and ease-of-use needs, and work for your students, too. Happy mapping!