Lucidchart: a free collaboration tool for teachers

Today's post comes courtesy of guest blogger, Eliza Wright (from . I think you'll be interested in what she has to say about Lucidchart. Keep reading to learn about her offer for a free educator account. 

A growing number of teachers, as evidenced in a of over 40,000 educators, believe that innovative, collaborative learning systems are instrumental to students’ success. What if you had access to a free tool that makes classroom and at-home collaboration simpler?  Well, now you do.

Lucidchart is a web-based that’s completely free for educators and students.  With our tool, both you and your students can quickly sketch up a variety of visual communications: , , graphic organizers, , and much more.  Teachers can manage a team account that allows them to collaborate with their students' work in real time. If you can’t see why that’s a useful proposition, check out some potential scenarios below and see if you aren’t swayed.

Real-time collaboration means no more late homework excuses.  When your students do work in the editor, changes are synced instantly and immediately visible to everyone on the doc, including collaborators and admins.  We maintain a robust revision history for each document, so if something’s not right, it can be fixed lickety-split.

Our collaboration features also expedite the grading process for teachers.  Educators have told us that with Lucidchart, they don’t have to wait for students to submit work to them. Comments and suggestions can be made as students develop their work, which results in faster feedback and stronger student output. 

Group projects are simplified, since students can collaborate from any location, with any browser, on any device. All your students need is an internet connection.  The painful logistics of group meetings are erased when students discover the live chat and in-editor commenting features. Plus, your kids can work with an unlimited number of collaborators, so group projects can be more effective than ever before.

How to use Lucidchart in Google Drive:

A few more reasons to use Lucidchart

Useful integrations

If your school district is one of the many that uses , you’ll be happy to hear about Lucidchart’s deep integration with both services. These integrations simplify the entire process of sign on, sharing, creating, and organizing, from one central location in Drive. 

Customizable templates

Lucidchart gives you the freedom to start diagramming from scratch or to use one of our fully customizable templates.  We recently introduced over 50 new templates for graphic organizers, which are education specific and span many grades and subject areas.  

Here’s how to access them:

1. Log into Lucidchart.
2. Click the “Create� button.
3. Choose “New Document�.
4. Choose the “Educational� category.
5. And scroll through all the great new templates.

Educational Templates:

Easy to share

Whether you prefer old-school handouts or a digital canvas, Lucidchart makes publishing easy.  Here are all the ways you can share your diagram:

- Traditional print-outs

- Unique webpage hosted on the Lucidchart site

- Permanent online PDF link

- Popular image formats: PDF, PNG, and JPEG

- Embedded in a blog or wiki

- Share on Twitter, Facebook, or the Lucidchart Community page

Where do I sign up? 

Sign up for a professional trial account, preferably using an educational email address.  Once you do that, click to apply for your free educational account.  Then we’ll approve you and you can start diagramming upon login.

If you’re still on the fence about Lucidchart, try out our free and see how diagramming can be fun and easy.

Give us a shout out!

We offer our premium account, with all the perks, to our educational partners at no cost to you because we believe it’s the right thing to do.  We do want to spread the word about this great resource, so if you use Lucidchart and love it, mention or review us (on a school district site, classroom blog, resource list, etc.) and link to our website.  If you need support or more information related to your Lucidchart review, please email Brad at and we’ll be happy to help.  

Happy Diagramming!