“Design Brains Think Differently” – Transforming Your Educational Experience With MindMeister (Success Story)

If you’ve ever groaned at the thought of another classroom group assignment, we’ve got you covered. MindMeister’s effortless, intuitive user interface and collaborative features can fundamentally transform your educational experience. In this post, Henna Brodkin student at the Ohio State University, shares how she uses MindMeister to ideate, visualize, and present her academic work. 

“Design Brains Think Differently” – Transforming Your Educational Experience With MindMeister (Success Story)

Henna Brodkin is a graduate student of the Master of Healthcare Innovation at the Ohio State University’s College of Nursing. She only made her first mind map in the summer of 2020 – just a year later, she’s a bona-fide enthusiast. Along with her classmates, Henna is an institutional license user of MindMeister, reflecting The Ohio State University College of Nursing’s commitment to collaborative online solutions to remote learning. 

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MindMeister’s intuitive and interconnected brainstorming features enable multiple users to participate simultaneously. This has led to the tool being consistently used within the Ohio State College of Nursing, by faculty and students alike.

Find out more about MindMeister’s success story at the Ohio State University College of Nursing on our blog.

Read on further to explore:

  • Digital mind mapping as an intuitive educational tool.
  • Visualizing creative and lateral thinking through mind maps.
  • Mapping relationships across ideas for more effective presentations. 
  • How the Ohio State University’s College of Nursing uses MindMeister.

Flexible, Functional, User-Friendly: Using MindMeister for Classrooms

I use MindMeister nearly every day, as I have two classes each semester, and each class has assignments with MindMeister.

Henna Brodkin

Digital mind mapping is an important tool of instruction and practice across Henna’s classes at university. She explains: “On day one, we were told about mind mapping: what it was, and how it would be used in our program. I never knew that I could map my thoughts digitally, so I started straight away.”

Henna’s educational environment was an instant fit with MindMeister’s flexible functionality and user-friendly interface. She continues: 

“I learned how to use the tool myself, as I find MindMeister very intuitive. I didn’t need the tutorial videos, or the MindMeister Academy, although I know that some of my colleagues find these resources helpful.”

Demonstrating how effortless and intuitive the MindMeister learning curve is, here’s an example of a simple, yet highly colorful and informative mind map Henna created while first learning how to use the tool.

Your ideas matter – and mind mapping is one of the best ways to get them down. Here are some research-backed methods explaining why.

Since then, Henna’s expanded her MindMeister skills to create larger, more complex mind maps, such as this ongoing collaborative Capstone project created with her university classmates.

Visualization, Interconnections, and Creativity while Brainstorming

My brain doesn’t work in a linear way, but MindMeister helps me build connections, even across topics. It helps me express myself.

Henna Brodkin

You might have brainstormed with classmates for group assignments at university, with coworkers for planning projects, or even friends when planning a summer trip. Typically, everyone shares as many ideas as possible, which can firstly result in an overwhelming amount of information. When it’s unclear how such ideas are related or interconnected, it’s especially challenging for people whose ideas and thinking emerge in non-linear patterns.

Many creatives find expressing ideas on mind maps far more effective for nurturing lateral thinking and establishing connections across points. MindMeister’s radiant structure enables greater creativity, interconnectedness and collaboration during ideation. Simply put, being able to connect topics visually helps build understanding of their interrelationships and navigate complex material more efficiently.

MindMeister also includes various beautiful visualization features, such as customizable fonts and colors for both text and connection lines. These greatly help Henna design and structure her ideas. In group assignments at university, she collaborates with colleagues to visualize ideas on their mind maps. She explains:

“I like to ensure that our maps are visually appealing. I love MindMeister’s themes and note hierarchy, because it helps me show the most relevant overview points and elaborate further. I’m quite fond of playing around with themes, categories, and sub-levels.” 

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Effective, Connected, Holistic Presentations

I think the result is better than simply pasting a map into PowerPoint.

Henna Brodkin

If you’ve ever dreaded the thought of another PowerPoint presentation, you’re not alone. Much like brainstorming, traditional styles of presenting information can also make it difficult to clarify connections across topics. This is your surefire route towards information overload, disengaged audiences and less effective presentations. 

MindMeister addresses these challenges through its customization features, which include movable topics, color coding, and connection lines. These enable identifying and clarifying relationships across different points, and ensure more holistic and comprehensive presentations. For example, when you zoom out of your mind map, you can easily get an overview of your information, as well as instantly gauge what points are connected through, for example, similar colors or radians.

Henna is certainly convinced of the benefits. She explains: “Easy access and free alignment options can captivate audiences and draw attention to my points. It’s a double bonus, because it both concentrates audience attention and significantly reduces my own preparation time.”

Similarly, movable topics can keep your workflow fluid and visualize interconnectedness across points. This can enable students to learn material across different topics easier.

When it comes to presenting her work, Henna actually prefers MindMeister’s presentation mode to showcase her content. The tool both enables her creativity, and brings structure to her academic commitments. She explains:

“I come from an artistic background, which helps me see things from a 360 degree perspective. My mind maps tend to be quite large and require moving around, so it’s nice to zoom out and get an overview from time to time. If I’d known of MindMeister before, it would have dramatically changed how I worked in my academic career to date.”

Curious about MindMeister’s different features? Take a look at our useful Help Center for more information.

From the Individual to the Universal: MindMeister’s Scalable Value

MindMeister is deeply and demonstrably integrated into the academic life of the Ohio State College of Nursing students. However, Henna’s professors at the Ohio State University’s College of Nursing are dedicated mind mappers as well. They use MindMeister for classroom instruction as well as project planning. The tool’s various techniques and features can help educators overcome difficulties usually associated with handling multiple project participants, time management and changing task requirements. These were challenges predating the COVID-19 pandemic, and can be reliably addressed through a simple, intuitive collaboration tool which requires little to no onboarding. 

In Henna’s words,“MindMeister’s greatest value lies in its customization and variety. I’ve nearly never used a template. The tool’s flexibility and ease of access are central to my enjoyment of the tool: it lends itself to use by any hands, not just those of an artist.”

Inspired? Curious? Take action today, and watch your ideas take flight on a beautiful canvas right at your fingertips. Our Sales Team is always happy to get in touch with you!

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