No, you can only design your workbook in Canva. To make the PDF fillable, you have to use another tool, such as Adobe Acrobat or PDFescape.com.
On the other hand, digital workbooks can bypass a lot of these issues and make the process much easier, both for you and your students. Here are some reasons why.
Now that you understand the “why” part, let’s share some tips to help you create an engaging digital workbook.
Digital workbooks are great as additional material to follow along with a course and keep the students interested.
It’s also quite well-established that additional material and visual aids can significantly boost knowledge retention. People retain more than 60% of what they learn visually, while they only remember 10-20% of what they learned through text or voice.
The learning retention rate for visuals vs other formats
However, to make a workbook truly engaging, you can go with a more interactive approach and get the students involved. Here are some tips on how to make an interactive workbook.
Apps like Google Docs and Microsoft Word can be a great start. They’re easy to use, and if you don’t care much about design, you can create a decent document that will do the job.
The next level would be a platform like Canva. The tool has plenty of pretty templates, making workbook creation quick and easy. While you’ll end up with a nice final product, it won’t be truly interactive.
To make your workbook interactive, consider a specialized workbook creator. We recommend using Wobo as it’s the best option on the market currently. It allows you to create fillable workbooks which you can embed into your course platform or share directly with students.
A messy design makes it frustrating for students to go through the workbook, and they might leave it unattempted.
To avoid this, keep the design simple and don’t go overboard with the layout elements.
Again, a specialized workbook tool can be of great help here as they offer predesigned templates that remove the hassle of coming up with your own designs.
A proper workbook structure will ensure that your students are able to handle its contents and easily complete it.
For this reason, you must adequately divide the workbook into modules. Then, you can divide them into headings and subheadings. This will allow students to focus on one part of the workbook at a time.
It’s best to have a navigation bar next to the workbook, as it’ll help students quickly move between modules. If the navigation bar isn’t available, you’ll need to create an index.
A conversational writing style helps students move forward in the workbook. It keeps them interested, guided, and confident.
When students access the workbook, you can guide them through the steps and explain to them the activity they’ll attempt and its purpose. When they complete it, congratulate them on their progress.
Here’s an example. In its Basic Life Skills workbook, Unicef uses a conversational tone combined with constant questions and “food for thought” sections. That’s a great way to keep the students engaged.
The Basic Life Skills Workbook by Unicef
Here are some tips that you can follow to write in a more conversational style:
Rather than simply adding a lot of information, try to include as many interactive elements as possible. Apart from bullet points, visual aids, charts, text boxes, etc., you can include:
When you incorporate multiple interactive elements, the workbook is no longer about work, but it becomes fun, making it easier for students to attempt questions and consume knowledge.
As mentioned previously, our first choice for creating digital workbooks is Wobo. The software is easy to use and offers all the features you’ll need.
With Wobo, you can create workbooks using templates and easily share them with your students. They’ll be able to complete their tasks without downloading them, and you can have an in-depth overview of their work.
Now, let’s go through the steps to create a workbook for your students with Wobo.
To create a workbook on Wobo, you’ll first need to set up an account.
To do so, go to woboapp.com, and on the top-right corner of the homepage, there’s a Start free trial option.
Wobo’s 14-day free trial
When you click on it, it leads you to the sign-up page. You can sign-up using your email or one of the SSO options.
If you choose to go forward with your email, you’ll see the page as shown below.
After filling in the details, click on the Sign Up button, and it’ll take you to another page to start the 14-day free trial. The good thing is that it doesn’t require you to add your credit card details for the trial.
You’ll then see Wobo’s dashboard and can start creating your workbook.
To create a new workbook, find + New workbook in the dashboard and click on it. This will lead you to the workbook template library.
You can create an interactive Wobo workbook in three ways:
Wobo’s template library
From the left panel, you can visualize templates from the following categories:
You can first preview a theme by clicking on the Preview button, and if it works for you, you can select it and add the workbook name.
The theme will then open in the visual workbook builder. From there, you can edit the style and add different elements.
However, if you can’t find a suitable template, you can choose the build your own option. In this case, the visual builder will show a blank page where you’ll design everything from scratch.
With the third option, instead, you can request a custom workbook from Wobo’s in-house design team.
They’ll ask you to fill out a form regarding design requirements and the services you need.
Once you’ve chosen a template—or decided to build your own—you’ll access the visual builder, which presents a clean and intuitive interface.
While the menu options are on the left panel, you’ll see a real-time preview of the workbook on the right side.
Using the Global Styles menu option, you can do some workbook-level customization, including:
The other menu option is Modules, where you’ll see the list of modules added to the workbook and the different types of content that you put into it.
Below these two menu options, you have the Workbook Cover Page option, which allows you to create the cover page of your workbook using specific settings, including:
Now, it’s time to design your first module.
To start, click on + Add Module button.
The new module is then added to the left panel, and any real-time changes will appear on the right.
Then, a dialog box will open with different question types, exercises, and elements you can add to the workbook.
Select a section from the dialog box and click on + Add.
The section is reflected in the workbook, and you can edit it from the left panel.
Here’s an example.
For instance, let’s imagine that you want to add some text to your workbook module. For that, you’ll have to select the Text Field section and click on + Add. When the text field appears on the right, you can input the title and description from the left panel.
Workbook download link
Similarly, when you add a Radio Buttons section, the option to add title, description, and choices will appear on the left panel.
Go back to modules and add multiple sections in a similar way. All sections will appear under the module’s name.
You can then reorder the sections by simply dragging and dropping.
After adding all the sections, place a Workbook Download Link from the sections list. We recommend placing it at the bottom of the workbook.
The final step is sharing the workbook with your students.
To do this, click on the Share button in the top right corner of the visual workbook editor, which will open a popup window.
Here, you’ll have to add a student group name. If you’re creating the workbook for cohort-based groups, turn on the toggle and choose a start and end date.
To provide access to the workbook forever, keep the toggle off and click on Save. The workbook will be published only once you’ve completed this step.
Then, the invite window will appear, and you can select how to invite your students. You can choose between the two options: Invite by email or Install Thinkific.
Invite Students window
Wobo has a direct integration with Thinkific. So, if you use Thinkific for your online courses, you can use Wobo workbooks directly inside your lessons.
If you use another course platform or just teach live classes via Google Meet or Zoom, you can invite students via email.
Wobo offers some valuable settings that we’d like to mention here. To access these, click on Settings from the drop-down menu in the top-right corner.
Then, go to Workbook Settings → Protecting your IP.
Here, you can add the student’s name and email as a watermark and create a custom watermark text. Moreover, the Disable Text Copying option prevents students from copying the workbook’s content.
Additionally, PDF Settings allows you to choose the page’s dimensions, and there’s an option to add page numbers to your workbook.
In this article, we discussed how interactive workbooks are great for student engagement and shared some tips for creating engaging ones.
We also discussed how you can create digital workbooks using Wobo, a specialized workbook creator. If you want to give Wobo a try, you can start a free trial.
If you have any questions or need help, leave a comment and let us know!
Most often, course creators and teachers use Canva and Google Docs to create their workbooks. However, we recommend Wobo to create a truly interactive one.
You can create a fillable workbook by creating a PDF from Canva, Google Docs, or Microsoft Word. Then, you can upload it to Adobe Acrobat and add fillable fields. An easier way to do this is using a specialized tool like Wobo
Hey there! I'm Baidhurya, the brains behind SellCoursesOnline. I used to run a digital agency, where I helped course businesses launch their eLearning platforms. I also led the tech and marketing teams at StationX, helping it grow to 500K+ students. In addition, I created the popular supply chain network design course. With 8+ years of experience, I'm here to share my expertise and insights on course creation and platforms with you.
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Hey there! I’m Baidhurya, the brains behind SellCoursesOnline. I used to run a digital agency, where I helped course businesses launch their eLearning platforms. I also led the tech and marketing teams at StationX, helping it grow to 500K+ students. In addition, I created the popular supply chain network design course. With 8+ years of experience, I’m here to share my expertise and insights on course creation and platforms with you.
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