Registration

We are delighted to invite you to our latest free webinar! ThingLink Host Louise Jones welcomes special guest star Jon Neale from Quizizz for a fun discussion and live demonstration of how to leverage the unique features of ThingLink and Quizizz to create multi-dimensional immersive learning experiences.

This session has been designed to immerse you in the synergistic potential of integrating ThingLink’s immersive learning experiences with Quizizz’s dynamic lessons, quizzes, and assessments.

What You Will Gain?

Participants of this webinar will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to leverage the unique features of ThingLink and Quizizz to create multi-dimensional learning experiences. ThingLink’s platform allows users to create interactive visual content, transforming images, videos, and virtual tours into engaging educational materials. By embedding these immersive learning experiences into Quizizz’s engaging platform, educators can offer students a rich, interactive learning environment.

Quizizz, renowned for its interactive range of over seventeen quiz types, brings an element of fun and engagement to assessments and learning checks. The ability to embed quizzes into ThingLink’s immersive experiences using the versatile ‘Embed Tag’ opens up new avenues for creating interactive learning modules. This integration not only enhances student engagement but also aids in the retention of knowledge through interactive, hands-on learning.

Why Attend?

1. Enhance Engagement: Learn how to use ThingLink and Quizizz together to make your lessons more interactive and engaging for students.
2. Boost Creativity: Discover new ways to infuse creativity into your lesson plans and assessments, making learning a more enjoyable experience.
3. Practical Insights: Gain practical insights from case studies and examples on how to effectively integrate these tools into your teaching.
4. Free Resources: Get access to a wealth of resources and ideas that you can immediately implement in your classroom.
5. Receive a Certificate of Attendance!

Who Should Attend?

This webinar is ideal for educators at all levels who are interested in leveraging technology to enhance the learning experience. Whether you’re a seasoned technology user or new to educational technology, you’ll find valuable insights and ideas to transform your learning and teaching methods.

Join Us!

Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the combined power of ThingLink and Quizizz.

If you’re unable to join the live webinar, don’t worry we’ve got you covered! Sign up anyway for the action replay and email with all the resources we shared in the webinar.

Join the conversation

Get inspired by some of the content shared by our creative communities!

• ThingLink LinkedIn Page 
• LinkedIn Community 
• X / Twitter ThingLink Page 
• X / Twitter ThingLink Edu Page
• X / Twitter Creative Learning Design Community 
• ThingLink Education Facebook Group. 

• ThingLink Facebook Page 
• Instagram ThingLink

Registration

What a webinar! “Discover Immersive Learning with ThingLink and Adobe Express,” draws upon insights from the recent BETT Education Technology Show. This event spotlighted AI’s pivotal role in shaping future educational ‘Pedtech’ practices and earmarked Immersive Learning as the trend to watch in 2024.

Webinar Highlights:

• BETT 2024’s AI and Immersive Learning Insights: Unpack the latest trends and innovations in AI-driven educational technology, with a special focus on BETT’s prediction of Immersive Learning as a defining trend for 2024.

• Hands-On Demonstrations: Witness firsthand how ThingLink and Adobe Express use AI to easily create content, making it more immersive, interactive, and impactful.

• Interactive Q&A Session: Pose your questions to our experts and delve deeper into the integration of AI tools in education and education in the era of AI.

“Immersive learning can take textbook lessons and build extraordinary worlds for students to explore and learn, hands-on.”
BETT (4 of the Biggest EdTech Trends in 2024)

Hosted by Louise Jones from ThingLink, along with Dean Stokes from Adobe Express, this session is a deep dive into leveraging AI-powered tools to craft immersive learning experiences effortlessly.

Featured Speaker:

Dean Stokes, Adobe Express (Special Guest Star): Well known and much-loved in the edtech community and a long-standing colleague of Louise, Dean will illustrate how Adobe Express’s AI capabilities can empower educators and students to create captivating narratives through visuals, videos, and web pages.

Post BETT Bonanza!

Louise and Dean will also cover some of their thoughts from their presentations on the panel for the Google for Education ‘Creativity Session’, where Louise focussed on the fact that Immersive Learning is ‘not just about headsets’ and Dean demonstrated the ease of creating images fit for purpose for both teachers and learners.

What is Adobe Express for Education? 

Adobe Express for Education is a free offer for K-12 schools and districts. It gives students and educators everything they need to confidently create standout graphics, photos, presentations, webpages, and videos. Adobe Express lets students and educators express themselves in unique and beautiful ways inside and outside the classroom.

Missed it?

Sign up anyway and we’ll send you the action replay with links and resources!

By participating in this webinar, you will:

1. Leverage AI for Immersive Content Creation: Learn to use ThingLink and Adobe Express to craft AI-enhanced images, videos, and virtual tours, offering students a rich, hands-on learning experience.
2. Innovate with AI in Visual Storytelling: Discover how to utilize Adobe Express’s AI features to produce compelling educational content that inspires  and resonates with students.
3. Adopt AI-Driven EdTech Tools: Acquire actionable insights and strategies for incorporating AI into your teaching; enhancing engagement, and elevating learning outcomes in the AI era.
4. Receive a Certificate of Attendance!

Other Ideas for learning about ThingLink you’ll love!

• Free ThingLink Certified Creator Course
• Previous ThingLink On Demand Webinars
• Search Support Articles or Request Support

Connect and Collaborate

For more ideas, use cases and inspiration on content creation, join our communities on social media! LinkedIn Community, Twitter Creative Learning Design Community and ThingLink Education Facebook Group.

The future of immersive learning is not just about consuming content—it’s about creating it. Finding a school or team-friendly yet powerful solution for creating with AI can be challenging. Enter ThingLink’s integration with Skybox AI. Here’s why educators and students alike are raving about this dynamic duo, here’s some helpful ideas to making the most of it!

About Blockade Labs Skybox AI

Blockade Labs specializes in AI-assisted 360-degree image generation technology. With Skybox AI, Blockade Labs aims to make the world of 360-degree imaging more dynamic, interactive, and accessible to all using simple text prompts.

10 Key Pointers for Skybox AI 360 Generation Prompts

1. Keep it simple for effective results.
2. 3-4 phrase prompts are ideal; too long can override style.
3. If prompts are too short, they may lack coherence; add descriptive phrases.
4. Specify location context: “indoors” or “outdoors”.
5. Adjust camera altitude with tags like “aerial view” or “street view”.
6. For night time scenes, use words like “moonlit” or “bioluminescent”.
7. Emphasize context in prompts.
8. Clean up messy images using negative prompts with words like “blurry” or “broken”. (Negative prompts available only in SkyBox AI Interface currently)
9. Explore presets for cleaner images,
10. For sky presets, describe clouds and aim for flat horizons.

Even Better with Enhanced Prompts!

Using Enhanced Prompts is now available in the ThingLink Create with Sky Box Interface. Here’s an example with Enhanced Prompts

Helpful Tip for Teachers! Learners can copy paste the Enhanced Prompts into a ThingLink Info Tag to create vocabulary lists and further research. Original prompt simply ‘George Orwell 1984’. Enhanced Prompt – VR360: Ominous Big Brother billboards, giant telescreens in dystopian cityscape. Style: gritty realism, industrial bleakness, high-contrast light. VR360: Dead trees, gloomy skyscape, towering brutalist architecture.

Another Helpful Tip for Teachers – View in VR! Imagine learners and educators being able to create 360 worlds and view with your VR Headsets.

Click to download the PDF.

Common tips and tricks to getting the most out of your Skybox AI generations!

More Ideas to Follow

Join our ThingLink and Skybox webinar or watch the replay! Sign up here We’ll be collating ideas for games based learning, storytelling and sharing all!

Connect and Collaborate

For more ideas, use cases and inspiration on content creation, join our communities on social media! Twitter / X ThingLink Education and Blockade Labs Skybox AI LinkedIn Community and ThingLink Education Facebook Group. Discord Blockade Labs Community.

What is Skybox AI?

Skybox AI by Blockade Labs is a groundbreaking AI tool which empowers anyone to generate unique, high-quality and detailed 360 visuals from simple plain text prompts and a vast selection of styles. Creators can construct 360-degree immersive visuals ready for annotating in seconds, no coding required.

Why Choose Skybox AI and ThingLink? Benefits include:

1. Secure and Supported Learning: Introduce educators and students to the dynamic world of text-to-image generation in a secure and supported manner. ThingLink account management is all that is required, no additional Skybox accounts are created. The ability to craft prompts and continuously annotate creations not only adds depth to the learning experience but also serves as an invaluable step toward digital fluency.
2. User-Friendly Design: Creating interactive 360-degree worlds with ThingLink and Skybox is incredibly accessible, even for beginners. Kickstart your projects with  straightforward text prompts; no coding skills required.
3. Scalability: Whether you’re crafting a single immersive scene or constructing an expansive, interconnected world, ThingLink and Skybox offer infinite possibilities in terms of size and complexity.
4. Versatile Styling: Tailor the look and feel of your projects with a selection of styles—from “Whimsical World” and “Realistic,” to “Dreamlike,” and more.
5. Make use of VR Headsets: ThingLink has long been the go-to solution for creating content for VR Headsets such as ClassVR, as well as creating real-life contexts, this package enables educators and students to create VR ready experiences from worlds yet to be imagined.

Creating Powerful Moments of Insight – To Kill a Mocking Bird

Next Steps

Complete the form below! Schools, universities and businesses with a ThingLink organization account can purchase Skybox AI as an add-on service for all their users. The entry-level package, priced at $1,000, includes 15,000 image generations per year. If you are an individual Teacher or Professional Individual ThingLink account holder, please go direct to Blockade Labs for a free trial and account.

In Action: Case Studies of ThingLink and SkyBox AI Together

How to Create Extraordinary 360 Spaces With Blockade Labs’ Text to Image AI Tool

How to Unlock the Awesome Power of AI in Education

Connect and Collaborate

For more ideas, use cases and inspiration on content creation, join our communities on social media! Twitter / X ThingLink Education and Blockade Labs Skybox AI LinkedIn Community and ThingLink Education Facebook Group. Discord Blockade Labs Community.

Connect News and Stories

ThingLink X (Twitter) Blockade Labs X (Twitter) ThingLink LinkedIn Blockade Labs LinkedIn

Adding AI-assisted image generation to ThingLink’s creation flow

Since 2016, ThingLink has empowered educators and students to create virtual field trips, interactive walkthroughs, and engaging point-and-click games using annotated 360-degree images and videos.

Until now, users have had the option to download or purchase these images from libraries and photo services, or create their own. The integration with Skybox AI adds an exciting new dimension to ThingLink’s creative workflow. Educators and students can now utilize cutting-edge artificial intelligence to generate scenes for immersive learning experiences, storytelling and entry-level game development, further enhancing engagement and educational outcomes.

Embracing the next generation of storytelling

“We are empowering educators and students to become creators and embrace the next generation of storytelling. Using Skybox AI and ThingLink, it’s possible to both design and execute a visually stunning point-and-click game in the same study unit. It is like having a team of the world’s fastest and best illustrators helping visualize your ideas”.

ThingLink founder and CEO Ulla-Maaria Koivula.

ThingLink’s integration with Skybox AI helps streamline the immersive content creation process and saves time from creating visual assets in one service, and interactive projects in another. Previously, ThingLink has announced similar integrations with Canva and Unsplash.

In addition to the technical integration, ThingLink and Blockade Labs have agreed on a strategic partnership through which Skybox AI can be made accessible to entire organizations, instead of just individual users. This lets Blockade Labs quickly test customer interest in new market segments.

“Creating 3D worlds from text prompts without coding is a powerful step towards unlocking human creativity. We are excited for our partnership with ThingLink and for users to interact with these incredibly imaginative easy-to-use tools”.

Marguerite deCourcelle CEO Blockade Labs.

Schools, universities and businesses that have a ThingLink organization account can purchase Skybox AI as an add-on service for all of their users. The entry level package, priced at $1,000, includes 15,000 image generations per year.

About ThingLink

ThingLink is a trusted immersive learning technology partner for leading businesses and educational institutions in Europe and North America. Thousands of companies, schools, and higher education institutions use ThingLink to create interactive 2D, 3D, VR, and AR learning experiences, such as virtual tours, guided field trips, employee trainings, and branched multimedia simulations.

About Blockade Labs 

Blockade Labs specializes in AI-assisted 360-degree image generation technology. With Skybox AI, Blockade Labs aims to make the world of 360-degree imaging more dynamic, interactive, and accessible to all.

Connect News and Stories

ThingLink X (Twitter) and Blockade Labs X (Twitter)

ThingLink LinkedIn and Blockade Labs LinkedIn

Press Contact 

For additional information or to schedule an interview, please contact

Louise Jones

Community and Engagement @ ThingLink

louise@thinglink.com

The online training revolution is here!

For anyone who needs to create employee and workplace training, there are now a range of easy-to-use and cost-effective online content creation platforms that they can use. And almost all of these incorporate AI in different ways. From easily-editable templates, copy suggestions, and AI-generated presenters who can read your script perfectly without any need for edits – they can all help you to put your content together easily and quickly, even if this is your first course. Each of these platforms saves you time at every step of the creation process, resulting in enormous cumulative time savings.

Anyone can create immersive training content

Using this new generation of tools and platforms, we believe that it really is possible for ANYONE to create their first immersive and engaging online training module from scratch in five days.

We’re going to show you how, with a simple step-by-step guide, using accessible and easy to use platforms such as ThingLink, Canva, D-ID, and ChatGPT.

We know that bespoke site-specific training content and images can be vital for workplace training. So we have included instructions on how to create immersive virtual training simulations using 360 images of your own real-life work environments, using nothing more complicated than a smartphone.

At each step we show how using AI tools can save you hours each day in creating, editing and formatting your content to create slick and professional-looking training for your organisation. Each of the platforms in our 5 day action plan has been designed so that anyone can use them with no prior experience or know-how. You won’t believe how easy and FAST it is to create your own interactive training content once you have the right tools!

The benefits of delivering online employee training

Online training, or elearning, allows employees to access on-demand training materials from any location, at any time, and often even via their own mobile device. This means that it’s easier for staff to fit training sessions into their busy schedules and family commitments. Virtual training also allows for personalized learning experiences, as it can be tailored to the individual needs of each employee, enabling them to learn at their own pace and focus on areas where they need improvement.

Online learning should ideally incorporate interactive and engaging formats, such as videos, quizzes, and simulations. Interactivity has been shown to enhance skills and knowledge retention amongst learners and is now seen as invaluable for effective workplace training.

In this blog we summarized recent research into the effectiveness of training using VR and AR.

Online training is cost-effective training

Training is an unavoidable and ongoing cost for any organisation. From inductions for new hires, upskilling sessions, soft skills development and employee engagement for the current workforce, to refresher courses for those coming back after parental leave, illness or a career break – employee training is an ongoing cycle which can be draining on resources.

As well as the costs of training delivery itself, costs of in-person training can often include additional expense such as travel and venue hire. Ensuring that onboarding and compliance training is delivered as needed whenever any new employee joins the organisation, rather than more economically delivered as a group, can increase costs even further.

The beauty of online training courses is that they are generally vastly cheaper than in-person training. The approach that we have outlined in this blog is incredibly cost effective for even small organisations, and when scaled to larger ones, can make annual cost savings to the tune of thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Importantly, there is no need to invest in costly employee training software, learning programs or training platforms. Indeed the broad functionality of all the apps and platforms we list here means that they can usually be used across an organisation for other purposes, particularly marketing-related activity.

Create online training programs in-house for increased flexibility and responsiveness

In rapidly changing work environments, for example where legislation changes regularly, virtual training provides an effective and efficient way to keep employees updated with the latest skills and knowledge. If your training is created in-house, you can easily and instantly edit and update your training materials without the need for costly and time-intensive authoring by a third party supplier. When training modules are created and hosted in the cloud, this also means that changes are made instantly – everywhere.

However, creating online training from scratch can be an overwhelming proposition, particularly if you have a tight timeline in which to create and deliver training courses.

The good news is that by familiarising yourself with easy-to-learn, user-friendly AI tools and other digital platforms, ANYONE can streamline the creation process to create their first training module in just five days.

For this illustration, our example training material will be the first part of an onboarding course for new starters at a large organisation. But the same process could be used for any kind of training course for any size of organisation. Let’s get started!

A day by day task list to build your own online training from scratch

Day 1: Define your objectives and create an outline or roadmap for your online course content

Start by deciding and outlining your training goals. What do you want your employees to learn from the training? What skills or knowledge should they finish the course with?

Based on these specific goals or objectives, create an outline of the topics to be covered in order. This outline will serve as your training content roadmap whilst you create your course, and can also be used to introduce the course to your trainees at the start of the course!

Your AI helpers: At this stage, you can use ChatGPT, Jasper, Bard – or any similar generative AI copy tool to help you create your objectives. These tools are incredibly useful for generating lists and sparking inspiration.

In action: Here’s an example of how quickly ChatGPT can generate a list of topics to include in your training course. Our example is an onboarding or induction course, so we asked ChatGPT for a list of possible objectives. (Fullscreen to see the detail.)

Top tips: It’s important to be specific when writing your prompts, to give the AI tool as much detail as possible from which it can generate a helpful, relevant and useful list. Of course you can go back and regenerate if it’s not quite right, and then use this first pass as your basis to edit and refine your ideal course roadmap. You can ask ChatGPT (or similar) to generate more detail for each section, or you can populate the finer details yourself.

Finally, decide on the media you’ll use to explain each objective or topic. This will depend very much on what your course involves. But for most subjects, as well as written content, this should ideally include videos, images, or even virtual environments. In our example, we are going to use all of these, to demonstrate how easy it is to create and combine different formats of training content.

Day 2: Gather any images and write your scripts for your training

Written content

You can use ChatGPT or another content creation tool to help on day 2 too.

You can also use AI to:

• Suggest examples, best-practices, scenarios
• Provide curated lists, such as top tens eg use cases
• Re-write text in different formats. For example, re-write bulleted information points in a question and answer format, as a quiz, or even in verse to help staff memorise important points!
• Re-write your content in a different or brand-specific tone of voice

Visual content

As a benchmark, your training should include images and video for interest and freshness. If necessary you can use stock imagery. Ideally however, your visuals should be taken from real-life as much as possible – particularly when demonstrating or introducing a site or environment.

Immersive 360 visuals of your environment

For an immersive and truly engaging experience for your learners, and to allow them to explore their specific work environments during training, 360 imagery is unbeatable. However until very recently, it was difficult to produce 360 images of any work environment without expensive 360 cameras.

This is where ThingLink’s Pano to 360 tool is invaluable! In short, Pano to 360 allows you to take a panoramic photo on your smartphone – of any environment, inside or outside – and create a fully immersive 360 image. This can provide an accurate replication of a real-world environment which is ideal for induction or safety training. The example below was created in this way.

Watch the video below for a brief overview of how it works. Alternatively you can read our launch blog here. Better still, visit our site here and try it for yourself! It’s completely free and unlimited – and you don’t even need a ThingLink account to use it.

Day 3: Create your engaging branded visuals with Canva

Now you’ve written and collected the text and images for your course, it’s time to start working on the overall design!

Anyone can use Canva, the online graphic design tool, to help create visually appealing and high quality training materials – even with no design experience! In Canva you can choose from the thousands of templates available, for all types of training content – and customize them according to your brand and training requirements.

It’s even easy to create videos from scratch with Canva’s huge range of templates to help you get started. However for your first course creation, you may prefer to begin by simply using it to develop and apply a consistent branded visual style across all your training materials. Use the same color palette, fonts, and design elements to create a cohesive look.

Remember your road map from Day 1? You can use Canva to design this into a roadmap that can be used in the course welcome and orientation section! Take a look at our example below for how this might look. We used the Teal Blue Employee Onboarding Template which we chose in the video above.

For lots more inspiration on how you can use Canva to create branded content, see our blog Ten free templates for ThingLink and Canva.

Day 4: Use D-ID to speed up your training video creation

D-ID is a platform that specializes in creating hyper-realistic video content using AI. Utilize this brilliantly simple tool to generate lifelike, AI-driven videos of trainers, without the need for actual filming and editing. Here’s a video below that took less than a minute to generate!

If you are creating an entire online employee training program and using video introductions or explanations, D-ID will truly save you days worth of recording and editing time! The video we created above ,which we will now embed into our training environment, was created in just a few clicks! See below for a demo of how quickly it can be generated.

With D-ID you can also:

• upload your own images, to create a video of yourself or another colleague presenting the information;
• generate a bespoke avatar of your own by using their text-to-image portrait generator;
• upload text in 119 Languages, along with a variety of accents and speaking styles
• upload a voice recording for the avatar to “read” out;
• choose from a range of expressions or styles for the avatar. Some you might like to choose for training are cheerful, excited, friendly or hopeful;
• choose from a range of backgrounds for the avatar to stand in front of, which could for example be chosen to match your organisation’s brand colours, or help with visual accessibility.
• Top tip: Canva now features a D-ID integration, meaning that it’s even faster to incorporate your videos into your visuals!

Day 5: Use ThingLink to wrap up all your training content in a virtual tour or branched learning scenario

ThingLink empowers you create virtual tours, virtual environments and branched learning scenarios with interactive images, videos, and 360-degree content. Upload your Canva visuals to ThingLink and add clickable multimedia tags that display text, images, videos, or links.

Your interactive ThingLink content can then be used to create a learning scenario, using the super simple Scenario Builder tool. The path that your learner takes can be branched or simply linear. Simply upload your images, videos and 360 images into ThingLink, add your tags to make them interactive, then use these individual scenes to build your scenario.

The great news is that you can even use ThingLink’s inbuilt AI tools to help create your tags, re-write text and even suggest questions and branches for your scenario! Check out ThingLink’s AI YouTube playlist here with 30 second shorts explaining all our super-handy AI content creation tools which will save you even more time!

Sample training content created using the AI-powered platforms above

Explore the short onboarding example below to see how we have created part of a training module using the platforms and content we have covered above.

Alternative ways to present employee training in ThingLink.

Interactive 360 images are so useful and versatile that they can be used to create virtual field trips, virtual exhibitions, even escape rooms for gamification of your training. Here are some examples of where ThingLink been used for staff training in the tourism and hospitality industry.

• Using ThingLink to create Virtual Tours in the Tourism Industry – a case study

• How to Create Virtual Training Environments for Students

ThingLink Guided Tours

Another way to present training in ThingLink is with new Guided Tours. Explore this example of employee safety training below!

FAQs

We have a tiny training budget! Isn’t it expensive to invest in AI content creation tools?

The tools we have listed above have a range of pricing models which are suited to organisations of all sizes. The fundamental aspect which unites them all is their ease of use, meaning that you don’t have to outsource your training content creation to 3rd party supplies – you can build everything in house!

Do I need to host my training materials on an e-learning platform?

No. Whilst it’s true that interactive learning created with ThingLink can be shared on any Learning Management System (LMS) or Learning Experience Platform (LXP), it can also be shared via Microsoft Teams, or even with a direct link or embed if you prefer.

Our training materials are confidential. What about security?

Security is vitally important to us. ThingLink supports SAML, Microsoft logins, Azure Tenant ID and Ping Identity for user identification if you require it.

Simply the fastest way to create immersive online training and elearning!

Hopefully we have demonstrated that creating truly tailored and engaging online employee training in just five days is feasible for anyone. By using the systematic approach outlined above, you can quickly develop a really immersive, personalized training solution, whatever your training needs. All you need is the right tools! Happy creating!

Looking for more training and elearning inspiration?

For more inspiration, make sure you’re following us on social media. In particular, please do join our Facebook Education Group and our LinkedIn Community.

Where can I use 360 degree content?

ThingLink provides an interactive platform that allows users to create engaging and immersive virtual tours using 360-degree content. By uploading 360-degree images or videos, users can design comprehensive virtual experiences, seamlessly linking different areas or scenes together. Within these panoramic visuals, interactive tags can be embedded that offer additional information, images, videos, links, or even embedded documents. These tags turn a standard 360-degree view into an interactive exploration, providing context and depth to the viewer’s experience. The use of 360-degree content in ThingLink’s virtual tours fosters a more lifelike, engaging environment that can be applied in various fields like real estate, education, tourism, or training, offering viewers a realistic perspective and interactive journey through a location or concept. The example below shows this in action.

In ThingLink you can also save your 360 scene or tour in virtual reality mode, meaning that you can view it on a VR headset for a fully immersive experience.

What is the difference between photospheres and panoramic images?

Panoramic images typically cover a wide field of view horizontally, often 180 degrees or more, but do not necessarily cover the full 360-degree horizontal and vertical field of view. They are often displayed as a wide, flat image that stretches across the screen. Panoramic photos can be created with photo stitching, piecing together a series of photos taken along a single horizontal plane, or they can be captured with special panoramic cameras.

Photospheres encompass a full 360-degree field of view both horizontally and vertically, forming a complete sphere. They allow the viewer to look up, down, left, right, and all around, as if they were standing in the center of a sphere. Photospheres are typically viewed using special software or online platforms that enable the viewer to navigate the entire sphere. When flattened into a two-dimensional image, they usually appear distorted, especially near the top and bottom. Photospheres can be created by stitching together images taken in all directions, including above and below the camera’s position, or with specialized 360-degree cameras designed to capture a full spherical view.

In summary, panoramic images provide a wide, often linear view across a single plane, while photospheres offer a completely immersive, spherical experience, allowing viewers to explore the entire scene as if they were physically present.

New Pano to 360 by ThingLink: a free tool for creating 360° images

Previously, it was possible to use the Google Street View app to create a photosphere. Many ThingLink creators used this approach to successfully create 360-degree images for virtual tours, such as the Budapest museum education team in this case study. However this app was sadly deprecated in June 2023. At ThingLink, we researched a wide range of 360 camera apps, but none provided the same stitching software that Street View had incorporated to make 360 imaging truly accessible and easy to use. To respond to this need, the ThingLink team developed Pano to 360.

Using AI, the tool blends the panorama together at the zenith and nadir of the photo as well as at the seam between the two ends. You will have the most success if your device’s camera has an ultra wide-angle lens but any device with a panorama image setting will work.

This tool is free for everyone, and you don’t need to be a ThingLink account holder or subscriber. It is compatible with panoramic photos taken on Apple iphones, android phones and in fact all android/ios mobile devices. There is no need for a plugin or for downloading from the app store or Google Play. Simply upload your panorama and in seconds you will have a 360 photosphere ready to download and use as you wish!

The dedicated support page here provides a quick video tutorial on how to use the new tool.

Dedicated 360 degree cameras

On the more accessible end are the immensely popular Ricoh Theta and the newer Ricoh Theta S. These small “fisheye” cameras fit in the palm of your hand and capture VR ready content with the click of a button. Check out a compilation of images and video captured with the Ricoh Theta S in the embed below. Other possible makes of these 360 cameras are the Samsung Gear 360 and the Insta360.

360 video cameras

GoPro Max for 360 Video is designed to take 360 video, and is designed to be as robust as the rest of the GoPro range. Some of the models mentioned above also have 360 video capability.

How do I edit my 360 images?

You can easily edit your raw 360 images using either a platform such as Photoshop, or the popular Canva platform, which is ideal for beginners with both free and pro plans and pricing.  

Where can I learn more?

Join one or more of our friendly social media communities to see user-generated content and great examples! The ThingLink Facebook Education Group and the ThingLink LinkedIn Community would love to welcome you.

On-Demand

This webinar has aired – but sign up anyway and you’ll receive the replay

Registration

Dive Deep into the World of Immersive and Interactive Learning with Us: Since its inception in 2010, ThingLink has stood as a beacon for cutting-edge educational tools, with a keen focus on immersive and interactive learning experiences. 

We invited our US-based community of dedicated educators and innovative creators to join us in a deep dive into these transformative teaching methods. 

To Kill A Mocking Bird Learning Resource created by Dan Fitzpatrick – Interactive Learning Example Created with AI Tools and ThingLink!

Discover What Awaits You in Our Webinar!

1. Understanding AI in Education: By the end of this webinar, you will have gained a deeper understanding of how artificial intelligence is impacting the educational landscape, driving innovations and influencing traditional teaching methodologies.

2. Exploring Immersive Learning in the Age of AI: We will introduce you to the advancements in interactive and immersive learning made possible due to the way Thinglink uses AI to generate images and media.
3. Deep Dive into ThingLink’s AI Innovations: You will gain insights into the development and application of AI tools by ThingLink, exploring their potential in enhancing content delivery and facilitating improved learning experiences.
4. Staying Ahead with AI-Powered Content Creation: This webinar will equip you with knowledge about the latest AI tools and techniques that assist in content creation, allowing educators and creators to craft more effective and engaging learning materials.

Our Special Guest Co-Host Tom Mullaney

Tom Mullaney is a former teacher who infuses EdTech PD with creativity, collaboration, and fun. Tom’s public education experience includes Special Education, Social Studies, educational technology coaching, and digital design. He is an Adobe for Education Creative Educator Innovator and Google for Education Certified Innovator and Trainer who has spoken at national conferences including SXSW EDU, the National Council for the Social Studies, and ISTE. He shares educational technology ideas on his YouTube channel.

You’ve not missed it, you can still catch the replay!

Sign up anyway, we’ve got you covered with an exclusive action replay delivered straight to your inbox!

Other posts we think you’ll love

• Check out our up and coming or previous webinars
• Sign up to watch the replay – AI in Immersive Learning
• New ThingLink webinar series: AI-assisted tools for immersive content creation
• Top Six Outstanding Text to Image AI Generation Tools
• The Best AI Content Creation Tools: A Practical Guide

For more ideas, use cases and inspiration on content creation, join our communities on social media! LinkedIn Community, Twitter Creative Learning Design Community and ThingLink Education Facebook Group.

Happily, the launch of Pano to 360 by ThingLink makes interactive virtual tour creation quick and easy! With this new tool, panoramic images taken with any mobile phone can be easily converted to 360-degree panoramas, otherwise known as photospheres.

With Pano to 360, you don’t require multiple shots or images to be stitched together. And most importantly, you don’t need any experience with graphic design, photography or image software! Instead, AI does the hard work for you, creating high quality 360 images that can be used to create stunning and immersive virtual tours that can be shared anywhere!

The alternative to Google Street View is here

ThingLink has been helping creators worldwide to produce, edit, and share their interactive content since 2011. Their newest development, Pano to 360, has been launched as an easy-to-use alternative to the Google Street View Camera App. Pano to 360 provides a free solution for transforming panoramic images into 360 photospheres. Compatible with all camera-equipped mobile devices, Pano to 360 is accessible for all users.

The easiest way to capture 360 images

Pano to 360 by ThingLink makes creating 360-degree photospheres easy for everyone. Instead of stitching together multiple images, a single panoramic shot is all you require for Pano to 360 to create a high quality 360 image for you in seconds.

How to create a 360 photosphere – a walkthrough

Follow these simple steps to create a 360 image in minutes!

1. Capture your Panorama: Take a panoramic image with your mobile device. Pano to 360 works with any mobile device that includes a camera, including iphones and all android devices.
2. Upload Image: Upload your photo to the Pano to 360 Converter in ThingLink. Use the Converter or upload directly in to ThingLink Guided Tours.
3. Converted to 360 Photosphere: Your panoramic image will then be converted into an immersive 360 photosphere. You can then download if using the Pano to 360 by ThingLink web page.
4. Edit and Share: Add interactive hotspots to your scenes to create guided tours, virtual trips, escape rooms, breakouts or learning materials. The super simple drag and drop functionality of ThingLink means that it is the fastest way to create professional virtual tours and other interactive media. Add audio, floorplans, 3D models, embeds and more! Then share it across your website, landing page, social media, or even in virtual reality mode for viewing on a VR headset for a fully immersive experience!

Who is the Pano to 360 solution designed for?

Anyone who is interested in VR tour creation as an educational solution, publishing or marketing tool can use the new ThingLink feature. It is particularly useful for real estate agents and other real estate industry business owners who want to provide virtual tours for potential buyers whilst avoiding the prohibitive costs associated with solutions such as Matterport.

The benefits of Pano to 360

• Simplicity: No need for multiple shots or stitching individual images together. A single panoramic photo is all you need.
• Quality: The quality of your original image is retained in the 360 photosphere that is created.
• Interactivity: As with all ThingLink content, you can then add tags to your 360 images to create a truly immersive and interactive experience.
• Free and Accessible: Previously, to create a 360 image, creators required dedicated 360 cameras such as the Insta360 or Ricoh Theta. Pano to 360 is free to use and accessible across any device.

We believe we have created the best virtual tour software for anyone who is looking for ease of use, in a cloud-based virtual tour platform Whether you are an educator, marketer, real estate professional, or are creating 360 images and tours for your own personal use, Pano to 360 is so simple to learn and use and delivers the best solution for creating 360 images with any device, anywhere!

Until very recently it was possible to use the Google Street View App to create 360 photospheres but this feature was discontinued in June 2023. ThingLink have developed a solution to replace this super-useful feature: Pano to 360, which converts your panoramas into 360 photospheres using AI image technology.

Can you take a 360 photo with an iPhone?

In conjunction with Pano to 360, your iPhone is more than capable of creating stunning 360-degree photos without needing any additional hardware. While many people may think 360-degree photos require specialized 360-degree cameras like an Insta360, the inbuilt panoramic functionality on your iPhone camera is the first step to create 360-degree images. Here’s how:

Step 1: Shooting 360 Photos with Your iPhone

1. Open the phone’s camera app and select ‘Pano’ mode.

2. Hold your iPhone in portrait orientation and tap the shutter button.

3. Slowly move your phone to capture the surroundings. Try to keep the arrow aligned with the center line.

4. Tap the shutter button again to finish your panoramic photo.

For the best results, try to keep your movements as steady and consistent as possible. Consider investing in a tripod for optimal stability.

Step 2: Converting Your Pano to a 360-degree View with ThingLink

Having captured your panoramic image, it’s now time to transform it into a 360-degree photo with ThingLink’s Pano to 360 feature.

1. Upload to the free converter:

• Upload your Image: Upload your panoramic image to the Pano to 360 Converter by ThingLink. Use the Converter or simply upload directly in to ThingLink Guided Tours. Read more about the two different options at this support article.
• Transform your panorama to 360 Photosphere: Your panoramic image is transformed into an immersive 360 photosphere. You can then download your new 360 image if you are using the Pano to 360 by ThingLink web page.

Step 3: Enhancing Your 360-degree Photo

The power of ThingLink comes from its ability to enhance your 360-degree images with interactive tags. These tags can contain text, images, audio, video, and even links to other web pages. Learn all about the different tags you can add to your image here.

Step 4: Sharing Your Interactive 360-degree Photo

Once you’re happy with your 360-degree picture and the interactive tags, it’s time to share your creation. ThingLink gives you various options for sharing, including embedding the photo on your website or sharing the direct link on social media.

1. Click on ‘Share’ in the top menu.

2. Choose whether you want to embed the photo or share a link.

3. If you choose ‘Embed’, copy the code and paste it into your website’s HTML. If you choose ‘Link’, just copy the link and share it wherever you want.

Using iPhone and Pano to 360 by ThingLink for your 360 images – the perfect partnership!

Taking 360 photos with your iPhone and using ThingLink Pano to 360 to enhance them provides a powerful and immersive way to share immersive scenes and experiences with your audience. From marketing real estate to creating virtual tours, the possibilities are endless. So, get out there and start capturing your panoramas!

FAQs

Isn’t a panorama 360 degrees already?

Even a 360 degree panorama photo is not a true photosphere, which is required for

Do I need an Apple/ios product to use this feature?

No! It is also possible to use Pano to 360 with android phones and other camera-equipped mobile devices such as ipads.

Is this a photo app that I need to download from the App store?

No – it’s accessible direct from your browser on the ThingLink website!

What about 360-degree videos?

Did you know? All ThingLink creators can also use the free high quality images in the ThingLink 360 photo library! Read more here.

Read how you can share your 360 images in Virtual Reality mode to view in a VR headset at our support article.