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.

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.

Since Google decided to retire the beloved Street View Camera App, finding a worthy alternative has been a quest for many. Enter Pano to 360 by ThingLink – a free solution that enables you to create stunning 360-degree photos from panoramic pictures taken with any mobile phone, whether you’re an android user or an iphone/ ios devotee.

Best of all? No need for multiple shots or image stitching, just one panoramic shot is all you need!

Embrace the Future with Pano to 360 By ThingLink

ThingLink has consistently led the way in creating, editing, and sharing interactive media. Their latest offering, Pano to 360, stands as a top contender in the race for the best alternative to the Google Street View Camera App. The tool offers a high-quality, free solution for transforming your panoramic images into immersive 360 photospheres. The web-based tool ensures accessibility across any device, providing a seamless experience for all users.

Revolutionizing 360 Imagery Creation

ThingLink’s Pano to 360 revolutionizes the creation of 360-degree images. Gone are the days of capturing multiple images and stitching them together. All you need is a single panoramic shot, and Pano to 360 does the rest. The simplified process, without compromising on quality, makes it an unrivaled solution in the market.

Just as Google Cardboard camera viewer did for VR, the Google Street View app was developed to be a free and accessible app that opened up the world of 360 photography to everyone, without the need for expensive 360 cameras like Theta or Insta360. Both are now sadly deprecated and so ThingLink set out to develop a replacement for Street View which allowed creators to take pictures in panorama mode that could be transformed easily into 360s.

Creating Your 360 Photosphere in Four Easy Steps

Creating a 360-degree photosphere with Pano to 360 is straightforward:

1. Shoot a Panorama: Take a panoramic photo with your mobile device. Pano to 360 works with any camera-equipped mobile device with a panorama setting, including ipads and other android devices.
2. Upload your Image: Upload your panoramic image to the Pano to 360 Converter to ThingLink. Use the Converter or simply upload directly in to ThingLink Guided Tours.
3. Transform to 360 Photosphere: Your panoramic image is transformed into an immersive 360 photosphere. You can then download the image if you are using the Pano to 360 by ThingLink web page.
4. Edit and Share: If you upload to your ThingLink account, you can then add interactive tags, personalize your photosphere, create guided tours, virtual trips, escape rooms, breakouts or learning materials. Then share it with the world!

Why Choose Pano to 360?

Aside from being an excellent alternative to the discontinued Google Street View Camera App, Pano to 360 by ThingLink offers numerous benefits:

• Simplicity: Say goodbye to complicated processes. No need for multiple shots, editing tools or stitching images. A single panoramic view is all you need.
• Quality: Despite the simplified process, there’s no compromise on the high-resolution quality of the 360 photospheres created.
• Interactivity: Once you upload your 360 image to ThingLink, you can add tags for an engaging, interactive experience. Link 360 images together to create virtual tours, which you can share or embed anywhere with a simple link, or even shared in virtual reality mode for viewing on VR headsets.
• Free and Accessible: Unlike most 360-degree camera apps and panorama apps, Pano to 360 is free to use and accessible across any device via a browser. No need to download from the apple app store/Google Play etc. Perfect for both personal and pro use.

Summary

Pano to 360 By ThingLink brings simplicity, quality, and accessibility to 360-degree imaging. Ideal for anyone who wants to create immersive virtual tours of real spaces – for education, training, real estate, marketing, publishing and more. As the best alternative to the discontinued Google Street View photo app , it eliminates the need for multiple shots and stitching in the panorama 360 conversion process, offering a user-friendly yet high-quality solution.

Experience the revolution today with Pano to 360 by ThingLink and create extraordinary 360 experiences.

Join the conversation and share the creativity!

We’d love to see what you create with Pano to 360! Share your ThingLinks or be inspired by others at our active communities on all social media platforms: LinkedIn Community, Facebook Group and Creative Learning Design Twitter Community.

• Read our blog about how to create 3d images with your phone
• Creating interactive 360-degree videos with ThingLink
• Learn how to create a virtual tour here.

The good news? Your search is over! We’re excited to introduce Pano to 360 by ThingLink: a new free solution that enables you to create stunning 360-degree photospheres from panoramic images taken from any mobile phone. This revolutionary platform fills the gap left by the Google Street View Camera App, providing user-friendly, comprehensive, and high-quality options for virtual tours, field trips, training content and immersive scenes.

Transforming Panoramas into 360 Photospheres

ThingLink’s latest solution is a free platform designed to convert your panoramic images into immersive 360 photospheres, ready to be shared with the world. All you need is your mobile phone – whether that’s an iphone or an android phone. Capture a panorama, and ThingLink will handle the rest. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

• Take a Panoramic Photo: Start by taking a panoramic photo with your mobile phone’s camera. In fact any mobile device with a camera feature can do this, including apple ios and android devices – ensuring maximum accessibility for all users.
• Upload to ThingLink: Next, upload your panoramic image to ThingLink’s new free platform. The platform is web-based, meaning it is accessible and easy to use, whether you’re on a computer, iPad, other tablet or mobile device.
• Convert to 360 Photosphere: With a single click, ThingLink will transform your panoramic view into an engaging 360 photosphere ready for you to download. No image stitching or complicated editing tools required!
• Customize & Share: If you have a ThingLink account (of any type) you can then upload your new 360 image to your media. You can add interactive tags to your photosphere, customize it to your liking, and then share it with the world. It’s that easy!

Why Choose ThingLink’s Pano to 360 Solution?

This ground-breaking platform stands out for several reasons:

• User-friendly Interface: This free solution is designed with all users in mind, boasting a simple and intuitive interface. You don’t need any technical expertise to create stunning, high quality 360-degree photos.
• High Quality: ThingLink uses cutting-edge technology to ensure the resulting 360 photospheres maintain the high-resolution of your original panoramas.
• Interactive: ThingLink’s solutions are known for their interactivity. Add tags to your photospheres to create engaging, informative, and interactive experiences for viewers. Create virtual tours, exhibitions and field trips with your 360 content. You can then share and embed them anywhere: on your website or landing page, use the social sharing option to share to your favourite social media platform – even share in virtual reality mode for viewing on a VR headset. Whenever you update your ThingLink content, it updates in real-time wherever it’s shared – making it dynamic, engaging and interactive!
• Free and Accessible: Unlike many other 360-degree camera apps, ThingLink’s new converter tool is free and accessible on any device, making it a perfect 360-from-panorama app for both personal and pro use.

Try it today for free!

ThingLink’s new free solution provides an unparalleled platform for converting panoramic pictures into immersive 360 photospheres. It’s the ideal alternative to the now-discontinued Google Street View Mobile App, offering simplicity, high quality, and interactivity. Try it out today and revolutionize your 360-degree image creation. No need to download from the app store – just take pictures in panorama mode and visit our website to try it out!

What will you create with Pano to 360?

Join our active social media communities such as the ThingLink LinkedIn Community or the ThingLink Education Facebook Group and show off your new ThingLink creations!

What else can you create with ThingLink?

• Read our blog about how to create 3d images with your phone
• Creating virtual tours for real estate
• Creating interactive 360-degree videos with ThingLink

Online learning for inter-disciplinary teams

As well as offering medicine degrees, University of Central Lancashire School of Medicine runs graduate and postgraduate courses for  health professionals, developing their skills and knowledge. Dr Abhi Jones is the Clinical Lead for Interprofessional Education at the School of Medicine and had created a programme for medical students working in inter-disciplinary teams to practise real-world observational and management skills. Her teaching materials had to fulfil two purposes: to teach students about the different professionals that they’d work with throughout their career, but also to develop their understanding of the different roles and disciplines within medicine such as public health, psychology and sociology.

Focus on Frailty

Frailty is a condition that is increasingly becoming a hot topic in medicine. In part that’s due to the overall ageing of our populations, with many people becoming frail as they age – although it occurs in the young too. Regardless of age, it usually aggravates otherwise minor ailments, so is an important consideration in medicine. Abhi and her colleagues had planned an inter-professional event to focus on a typical scenario where frailty was a key factor.

Health care students across seven different disciplines were to take part – representing medicine, pharmacy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, paramedics, social work and Physician Associates. In real life situations, doctors work together with these professions to create a joint patient management plan. A live training event was planned for 345 attendees, but cancelled due to Covid restrictions. So Abhi and her team had to find a way to bring a realistic scenario to life online. 

The course had been designed to develop observational as well as management skills. Students would be required to add the visual clues provided in the course materials to their prior knowledge of the patient, building up a picture of the patient’s situation and deciding on the best course of action.

“Health professionals need to be able to look carefully – it’s a difficult skill to learn, we needed a very visual tool which could realistically reproduce a real-life home visit”

Dr Abhilasha Jones

Creating the interactive scenario

Abhi’s scenario was based around a fictional patient who suffered from frailty and had fallen at home. “Florence Williamson” was an elderly black lady isolating in her house; her family normally provided daily help, but they were unable to under Covid restrictions. Unable to source any photographs of this exact scenario, Abhi staged and photographed a setting using a 360 camera, which would form the basis of her ThingLink. 

Each disciplinary team in a scenario like this would enter the room armed with prior information – to which the other health teams wouldn’t be party. To reflect this, Abhi ingeniously cloned one ThingLink of her “home setting” image five times, and added different relevant information in each of the five separate versions. Within the scene itself, she had also placed various signs and indicators for all the teams to spot. For example a walking frame used for storage rather than for walking; bags of shopping left unpacked; medicines still in their packaging. Abhi then added various types of tag, including an audio file of a telephone call between the paramedic and GP, medical notes and images. 

Piecing their combined information, insights and conclusions together in real-time, the thirty multidisciplinary teams then each were tasked with producing a management plan for Florence, each plan co-created with Padlet.

A powerful training tool 

As Abhi says “It’s so important to get teams to look at patient safety – and to say what they can see. We needed to create a real world picture”. The ability to present a 360 image of a patient’s home, with visual clues and rich media tags included, gave the most realistic online representation of the patient environment when in-person training was impossible.

What’s next?

Abhi believes that learning resources don’t need to follow traditional didactic models to be effective, and has been using ThingLink in new and innovative ways to create really inspiring training materials and virtual training environments.

Her next project was an escape room with ThingLink. A clinical environment was created, with a simulated patient and all the equipment that students might require will be placed in “locked boxes”. These can only be opened by solving puzzles and answering questions which are embedded in the tags.

Necessity is the mother of invention

“Face-to-face tuition remains a vital element of our medical programmes but the application of new technology is delivering real innovation in the curriculum and providing our students with a fantastic learning experience.”

Dr Abhi Jones

Listen to Dr Abhi Jones explain more about the example in our Higher Education Webinar from the 5th November 2020 here. Watch all our webinars and tutorials on our ThingLink YouTube channel.

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)

A VLE is considered to be any online learning space where the learner interacts with the course content or information in a similar way in which they would do in real life. ThingLink is increasingly the platform of choice for creating interactive learning environments given its ease of use and versatility.

Creating immersive content for VLEs without a 360 camera

It is now easier than ever to create 360-degree, immersive photospheres like the ones in Abhi’s scenario, with the launch of Pano to 360 by ThingLink.

Pano to 360 is a completely free tool which allows anyone (no registration or account required) to upload a panoramic photo taken on any device, which will then be converted instantly to a 360 photosphere.

How to share your ThingLink learning content

Because ThingLink is web-based learning platform, its learning content can be shared in a number of different ways:

• Made accessible on any device (including mobile devices), on demand, to be completed at the learners own pace, as an elearning lesson, course or module.
• Shared as a VR link for experiencing on VR headsets
• It can be completed remotely by a number of participants working together (as in Abhi’s example), shared via Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or another video conferencing platform.
• Alternatively, it can be integrated into any LMS (learning management system) for secure sign on, authentication and tracking of learner progress and completion via inbuilt statistics.

For more inspiration, see these featured case studies and blogs below:

• See this example from Huddersfield University based on a murder mystery game!
• Get students engaged in online learning: Lessons from Finland
• Virtual Field Trips: Award-winning virtual field trips created in ThingLink by Queens University Belfast, which result in student success that rivalled in-person learning
• Virtual Labs from Keele University

Join the conversation!

We have a number of social media communities, forums and groups you can join to see other inspirational examples in action.

• 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 

The full Case Study in a PDF format is available here. If you have any questions about the use of ThingLink in Education or the Healthcare Industry, please get in touch, email louise@thinglink.com