Goodnotes Classroom bridges the gap between what teachers want to do and what their current systems allow.

Created alongside educators and researchers, Goodnotes Classroom shifts the focus back to real human connection, by cutting down on time-consuming admin.

It’s intuitive to use, and allows you to adapt lessons on-the-fly, give students personalized support, and leverage AI in a safe and meaningful way.

Our pedagogy-first approach and 15 years of experience in productivity-boosting tech, means you can focus on the teaching, and trust us to do the rest.

Not set up with Goodnotes Classroom yet? Sign-up here first.

Class Folders

How to keep on top of your classes and class materials

When you open your Goodnotes Classroom app, the first thing you’ll see is the name of your school and a blank page. This is your starting point for organizing all your classes and lesson materials using Class Folders.

You can:

Create new lesson documents
Scan existing paper materials
Import PDFs, images, or files

To add students to a class folder, you can either:

Select them from your school’s student list, or
Generate a QR code for students to scan

All content added to a Class Folder is automatically shared with students via their Goodnotes apps.

Teaching a Lesson

Interactive tools for digital teaching and real-time engagement

Opening a lesson inside a Class Folder brings up a powerful toolbar with writing, drawing, and annotation tools. Teachers can:

Write and highlight in different colors
Add stickers, images, and text boxes
Rearrange handwriting and other elements

At the top of the page, you’ll see two modes: Prep Mode, and Teach Mode.

Prep Mode

Perfect for lesson planning and assignment setup. Anything added here syncs to students’ notebooks once they join the lesson or reopen the page.

Create Answer Zones to define where students write responses. They will help speed up grading later. Teachers can also view all responses to a specific question at once during grading.

Teach Mode

This is your live classroom view. Use the Class Navigator to view student work in real-time.

In Teach mode, you can:

Write directly on a student’s page, visible to them only.
Present a student’s work to the class
Use the Whiteboard to write without syncing to student devices

Students can only see their own work, while teachers can see everyone’s. This lets teachers explain something to a student without affecting the shared lesson file.

Presentation Modes

Three ways to present your lessons clearly and professionally

When presenting with Goodnotes Classroom, you have three different presentation modes to choose from. Each mode mirrors your screen differently, depending on what you want your class to see.

Mirror Entire Screen - Shows everything on your iPad, including the toolbar and interface elements
Mirror Presenter Page - Only shows the content in the Goodnotes document, without UI elements. Students will see a clean, focused presentation.
Mirror Full Page - Shows the full lesson page, regardless of what you’re doing on your own device. This lets you navigate, zoom, and pan on your device freely while keeping the projection stable.

Both Presenter and Full Page modes hide interface elements and names, which allows you to showcase student work anonymously when teaching from real examples.

Creating Assignments

Turn any lesson page into an assignment

In Prep Mode, tap Publish Assignment, select one or more pages, and hit Publish. This will create an assignment from the selected pages.

You can:

Assign standalone documents
Add point values to Answer Zones
Set a title, instructions, and a due date

Students will receive a notification in their notebook when an assignment has been created. Use the Assignments icon to filter through each assignment and view only pages needing grading.

Grading is fast and efficient with features that help you spot trends across student responses.

Personal Documentation Management

One place to plan, teach, and organize your notes

Goodnotes Classroom also gives you a private workplace to:

Create personal notes
Favorite notebooks and pages
Search through all notes, both typed and handwritten

From class prep to test grading, Goodnotes Classroom can help you with all of it and everything in-between.

‍

Ready to bring Goodnotes into your classroom? Sign up for Goodnotes Classroom and start making your lessons more interactive and effective.

‍

Getting Started with Goodnotes Classroom