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ThingLink has become an essential tool across numerous industries, making the learning experience more relevant and relatable at every stage. The impact in healthcare related education has been particularly evident, helping learning designers align experiences with hthe approaches they know best to enable health care professionals acquire essential skills and knowledge. This sector, in particular, has seen a surge in utilizing simulations and scenarios to drive more effective and impactful learning outcomes.

Join us to explore the direction of immersive learning with our latest webinar in partnership with the University of Cumbria, “Immersive Learning Landscapes: Healthcare with Scenario-Based Simulations.” Hosted by Louise from ThingLink, alongside Claire WhiteHouse and Finn Drude from the University of Cumbria’s award-winning Digital Health Simulation Team.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Understand the role of simulations and scenarios in Healthcare learning and education, making it more engaging and effective.

2. Experience immersive learning firsthand, through our live demos, see how ThingLink brings complex healthcare scenarios to life, offering a true-to-life learning experience.

3. Gain Insights from Industry Leaders: Hear from Claire WhiteHouse and Finn Drude, pioneers in digital health simulation, about their journey and success in integrating technology with healthcare education.

4. Come away with fresh ideas and insights on how to implement immersive learning strategies within your own context.

Whether you’re a professional in health, an educator, a ThingLink fan, or simply keen on the latest in learning technology, this webinar offers valuable insights and ideas. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us.

The Challenge in Nursing Education: Nursing students must master a mix of theory and practical skills and be ready to make quick decisions in ever-changing situations. Part of their training takes place in real-world healthcare settings, which is crucial for their learning.

Since nursing programs across Europe share core elements, students have the chance to study and train in different countries. However, before starting their clinical practice abroad, they need a thorough orientation to adapt to new work environments and cultures.

Introducing the Care for Europe Project: The “Care for Europe Erasmus+ KA2” project aims to make it easier for nursing students from abroad to fit into their new clinical placements. The project focuses on creating digital tools to help these students get used to their new country and healthcare settings.

This initiative is led by the French Red Cross’s IRFSS Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with partners from universities in Hungary, Spain, and Finland. Together, they’ve developed materials in collaboration with educators, nurses, and students themselves.

A Breakthrough Digital Tool: One of the standout creations is a 360° immersive learning resource built with ThingLink. This learning resource is designed to introduce students to the concept of cultural competence and prepare them for their clinical placements in various countries. It offers virtual tours of actual nursing locations, like hospitals and educational simulation rooms, allowing students to explore and learn about their upcoming work environment before they even arrive.

Learning Modules Offered: The learning resource is divided into four key areas:

1. Cultural Competence: Helps students reflect on their own cultures and understand others better.
2. Understanding Local Nursing: Offers insights into the nursing field and education in the participating countries.
3. Mentoring and Clinical Practices: Guides on mentoring and how to navigate clinical placements.
4. Local Culture and Country Info: Provides a peek into the local culture and practical information about the host country.

Positive Feedback and Future Possibilities: The feedback from both students and teachers across Finland, Spain, France, and Hungary has been extremely positive. The ThingLink platform is praised for being innovative, engaging, and user-friendly. The project has sparked interest not just for educational purposes but also as a potential tool for orienting new healthcare staff or patients in different settings.

Conclusion: The “Care for Europe” project showcases how digital innovation can enhance nursing education and support students in adapting to international clinical environments. By leveraging immersive experiences and collaborative efforts, it offers a forward-thinking approach to preparing nursing students for global opportunities.

With many thanks to case study authors,

Niina Glerean, Senior Lecturer, Laurea University of Applied Sciences

and

Mika Alastalo, Principal Lecturer, Laurea University of Applied Sciences

Breathe life into the ordinary with ThingLink’s brand new Augmented Reality Solution! Easily create an overlay of hotspots containing multimedia information on your images of real-world objects, then share as AR experiences to view via any mobile device. 

What is the ThingLink AR Solution?

ThingLink has always offered the easiest and fastest way to create interactive and immersive experiences for viewing on screens or in Virtual Reality. Now you can add Augmented Reality viewing to the list of easy-to-create interactive media.

The ThingLink AR Solution consists of the new AR Mode in the ThingLink suite (for creating), and the ThingLink AR Viewer App (for viewing).

How does the ThingLink AR Solution work?

Creation:

Using advanced AR technology, ThingLink allows you to upload any image of a real-life object, and then add hotspots to it via the super-simple and intuitive ThingLink interface. The interactive hotspots can contain any combination of multimedia content: images, videos, gifs, text, links, 3d models and much more! Add your hotspots, then add the content you would like to share with your viewers. After creating your AR resource or ‘Collection’ ThingLink generates a share code for you, which you can also convert to a QR code for sharing if you wish.

Viewing:

Your viewer then:

1. Downloads the AR Viewer App from the AppStore and opens it.
2. Enters the share code/scans the QR code.
3. Points their phone camera at the object. 
4. Interacts with the hotspots that appear on their screen!

Both the ThingLink creator interface and the AR Viewer App are very easy to navigate. Our intuitive interface ensures that everyone can enjoy a simple and seamless user experience, without any specific technical expertise.

You can read full instructions, account limitations and details at our Support Article here.

Video above shows the AR solution being used at Savonia University of Applied Sciences’ WaterLAB – a dedicated space for development and testing.

What are the benefits of ThingLink’s AR Solution?

For learning and training

More impactful training with Mixed Reality 

Instantly engage learners with your training by adding augmented reality experiences. From educational institutions to corporate training, the app provides an opportunity for experiential learning. Make complex topics, physical processes or even machinery easier to understand and more engaging through interactive, hands-on experiences that guide learners through processes step-by-step.

Increased accessibility

Providing accessible content is essential. ThingLink is designed to break down barriers and open up new opportunities for exploration for everyone. We’ve built an AR training solution that’s not just easy to use but also makes learning fun and inclusive. No matter their age, training needs or tech skill level, your viewers can dive right into augmented reality training on demand with the ThingLink Viewer App, on a device that’s familiar to them. 

Keep training costs down

Create interactive employee training experiences that don’t rely on expensive AR headsets or training software and can be instantly updated at no additional cost. Create a variety of different overlays for different event simulations and training scenarios. Reduce the training process from two steps (theory, then practical) to one, saving time and money.

For cultural venues:

Clear and accessible information for visitors

No more dealing with cluttered information signs or panels on each object. With the ThingLink AR Viewer App your viewers simply point their device at the image, tap on the hotspot, and access information seamlessly. A whole catalog of objects or artefacts can be accessed with one short code. Retain the original aesthetic integrity of your location, no need for ‘out of context’ information panels that disrupt the experience. Providing information via your visitors’ own devices rather than providing audio guides to visitors keeps your exhibition costs down.

Drive engagement 

Engagement is the key to a memorable experience, and the ThingLink AR Viewer App excels in this area. By adding interactivity to your exhibition or display, you’re not just looking at artefacts – you’re truly experiencing them. Dive deep into historical contexts, gain artistic insights, or even share personal stories attached to objects – the possibilities are endless.

For business:

Increase safety and efficiency and lower costs with optimized troubleshooting 

With the ThingLink AR Solution, you can be sure that whatever the problem, your operators and agents can deal with it swiftly, safely and efficiently. You can reduce potentially costly and hazardous errors with interactive AR product guides that demonstrate correct processes. 

How can you use the ThingLink AR Solution?

The AR Solution has multiple applications in learning, training, industry, marketing, retail, art and culture, tourism and more. In fact its applications are almost limitless!

Add multimedia tags to paintings, structures, products, machinery and technical equipment, production lines or in fact any workplace object, unlocking layers of information and insights in an instant. Here are some key use cases by sector.

1. Galleries and Exhibitions

Augmented reality can transform the traditional gallery and exhibition experience into a truly immersive one. This application can add an extra layer of interpretive content to artworks, bringing them to life with interactive, animations, audio descriptions, artist interviews, 3d objects or historical contexts. Visitors, equipped with the AR app on their smartphones or tablets, can point their devices at an artwork and watch as the static display evolves into an interactive multimedia experience. This not only boosts visitor engagement but also offers an exciting new way to delve deeper into the stories and ideas behind each piece.

In the example below, you can watch how the solution was used to create AR guides for an exhibition in Columbus, Ohio. You can read the full case study blog here.

2. Onboarding and Impactful Training

The use of augmented reality in onboarding and training programs can revolutionize the way companies educate their new hires or existing employees. By incorporating AR features into their training, companies can make complicated training materials interactive and engaging. For example, employees could scan a machine with their phone to see a step-by-step AR guide on how to operate it, minimizing risks and facilitating a faster learning curve. This hands-on learning approach helps improve the understanding and retention of information, making training more effective.

3. Troubleshooting, Maintenance and Product Guidance 

Provide detailed visual guides to instruments, machines and appliances for your field operators, agents and customers. Reduce costly errors and the time taken to resolve issues by providing clear and sequenced instructions in multimedia format, including videos to show processes and functionality in action. Increase accuracy and confidence, avoid potentially dangerous and/or expensive mistakes from incorrect use and procedures and reduce hazards to employees and customers. Step-by-step walkthroughs with videos, images and even 3D models can guide them independently through the correct actions when products and machinery display a fault. These AR applications work across a wide spectrum of industries – from those as diverse as manufacturing, utilities, healthcare and hospitality.

ThingLink’s AR solution is one of the best AR apps for use in environments where information or guidance needs to be regularly updated. Any changes that you make to your content in ThingLink are updated in real-time, meaning that whenever the viewer opens the app, their material will automatically be the most up-to-date version. In the example below, the AR solution is used to troubleshoot complex instruments in a water network.

4. Escape Rooms and Treasure Hunts

Augmented reality can bring an innovative twist to traditional escape rooms and breakout sessions. With AR technology, you can design thrilling scavenger hunts or gamified experiences in any location or space. For instance, clues or puzzles could be placed in real-world environments, but only visible through the AR app, making the challenge more immersive and engaging. You can also incorporate educational content in these AR games, turning any location or learning experience into an interactive adventure. This can be especially impactful in settings like museums, educational institutions, or corporate team-building exercises. Popular experiences such as Pokemon Go have made the concept of an AR treasure hunt familiar to everyone, and now with ThingLink AR solution, it’s incredibly easy to make your own! In the video below, educator Christoffer Dithmer has used the AR solution to add additional layers of information to a history book for his students.

5. Information Panels and Directions for City Guides and Trails

Augmented reality applications can provide interactive information or direction panels in a variety of spaces, from public parks to buildings and tourist attractions. Users can simply point their AR-enabled device at a location or object to view a layer of digital information – this could include historical facts, architectural details, or even directions to nearby points of interest. This provides an innovative way for visitors to interact with their surroundings, making navigation easier and experiences richer.

6. Historical Education and Tourism

Historical sites and museums can adopt augmented reality to provide immersive tours and educational experiences. Users can view re-enactments of historical events, see how historical figures looked, or visualize how ruins and buildings looked in their prime, all by downloading the augmented reality app. This application of AR makes history more accessible and engaging, and helps users develop a deeper appreciation for cultural heritage. 

Device and Platform Compatibility

ThingLink’s AR Viewer App is available as a mobile app for iOS (for iphone/ipad/other Apple devices) and for Android devices/operating systems.

Experience the ThingLink AR Solution 🌐💼: Transforming everyday tasks into seamless and efficient experiences!

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Discover the new ThingLink Augmented Reality App! In this exclusive free webinar Louise from ThingLink is joined by Special Guests Patryk Wójtowicz, Savonia University of Applied Sciences and Sarah Dove from Ohio State University.

Together they explore how to create AR experiences with the new Augmented Reality app and just a handful of the uses of this versatile solution.

What is the new ThingLink Augmented Reality Solution?

Breathe life into the ordinary with ThingLink’s brand new Augmented Reality Solution! Easily create an overlay of hotspots containing multimedia information on your images of real-world objects, then share as AR experiences to view via mobile devices with the ThingLink AR Viewer app.

With our new solution, a phone or tablet can be a portal to a vibrant world brimming with multimedia information, offering immersive experiences like never before.

Watch our playlist with introduction from ThingLink Founder and CEO Ulla-Maaria Koivula and our expanding list of real world and live use cases

Six Key Takeaways! What You Will Gain:

1. In-depth Understanding: Grasp the fundamentals and advanced features of the ThingLink Augmented Reality App. Learn how it can breathe life into ordinary settings with hotspots of multimedia / multimodal information.
2. Hands-On Demos: Experience live demonstrations on creating and deploying AR experiences. See real-world applications that showcase the app’s versatility across various industries and education sectors.
3. Creative Inspiration: Spark your imagination with innovative use cases presented by our guest speakers. Discover how AR can transform learning, training, and customer engagement.
4. Networking Opportunities: Connect with like-minded professionals, educators, and AR enthusiasts. Share ideas, challenges, and solutions in an interactive Q&A session.
5. Future Trends: Hear from ThingLink’s Founder and CEO, Ulla-Maaria Koivula, about the vision behind the AR app and what the future holds for AR in education, training, and beyond.
6. Resource Access: Get exclusive access to resources that will help you get started with the ThingLink Augmented Reality App immediately after the webinar.

Who Should Attend?

This webinar is designed for everyone keen on exploring new dimensions of interactive and immersive experiences. It’s perfect for:

• Educators and trainers looking to enhance learning with AR.
• HR and development professionals interested in innovative onboarding and training solutions.
• Product managers and marketers seeking to create interactive product guides.
• Museum, exhibition, and visitor attraction managers aiming to offer engaging displays.
• Technology enthusiasts eager to explore the latest in AR innovations.

Catch the Replay!

Sign up to receive the action replay and all the resources shared during the event. Embrace the power of AR and transform any space or object into a dynamic, interactive canvas. See you there!

In this article, we look at examples of the use of elearning platforms to solve training challenges in the health and care sector. These include:

• How do 3D models and 360 videos help with the introduction of new equipment and the onboarding of new employees?
• What kind of interactive learning programs could be used when teaching first aid?
• How could you get to know the working stages of home care virtually?

What is online training for employees?

More and more online learning solutions are being used in care and health sector training programs to meet the training needs of new and existing employees. They can be used for onboarding, CPD, compliance training and towards qualifications.

Online training refers to any form of instruction or learning that occurs via the internet, an intranet or connected digital devices. This type of training eliminates physical barriers and allows courses to be accessed from any location through multiple delivery methods such as video, audio, text, interactive exercises, quizzes, etc.

What are the benefits of online training – for employees and employers?

Online training is generally more cost and time effective. Training solutions online are easier to organise and implement than in-person alternatives, and the pricing reflects that. They can also be carried out at times that suit both employee and employer – either on-site or even at home.

It has been proven that online training using realistic and immersive scenarios improve knowledge retention, soft skills such as problem-solving, delegation and team-building skills, and help prepare trainees for working under pressure, particularly when the online task must be completed real-time. For this reason, immersive scenario based learning is being used increasingly across all sectors, in corporate training as well as emergency and safety training.

In the social and health sector, the uses and functionality of online employee training software and packages is hugely varied. It gives trainees the opportunity to visit customer homes virtually and practice home care tasks. Instructional videos offer new employees an opportunity for a refresher or to upskill their skills base, which in turn boosts employee engagement and job satusfaction. Moving around a new and unfamiliar location such as a hospital is made easier with the help of virtual tours undertaken before starting work there.

The advantage of online training is its versatility. For example, with the help of elearning training modules, different types of media can be assembled into a clear, visual entity. The integration of 360-videos and images, 3D models, instructional videos, info tags, quizzes and embeds together form a learning environment where movement is intuitive and easy. Anyone can be a content creator and course content can be updated at any time.

Example 1. 3D models and 360 videos support online training for nurses

At Nova Hospital in Finland, an interactive online learning solution was created for the onboarding of new employees. The hospital had acquired new equipment, the use of which required training sessions. An on-demand virtual multimedia employee training program was created with ThingLink. The user-friendly training platform supported new hires and students to get to know the hospital’s facilities and equipment with the help of 360 videos, instructional videos, 3D models and gamification. 3D models offer the possibility to rotate hospital devices and look at them from different perspectives. The hospital’s new premises can be shown with VR glasses also in, for example, job interviews, which motivates applicants.

Read more about the Nova Hospital case here.

The training materials cover the use of acute room equipment with the help of videos, info tags, 3D models and gamification.

Example 2. Simulations and scenarios as an elearning solution when teaching first aid

Vocational college Samiedu’s eWorking project uses simulation learning based on real emergency care situations. ThingLink Scenario Builder training materials were created on patient classification, stroke patient care, and ambulance driving. The materials are used in the Samiedu online courses as well as in online employee training in the rescue service.

The teachers noticed that there were previously not enough high-quality realistic online learning experiences in Finnish about these themes. With the help of simulations, in the future students and new hires will be able to practice, for example, arriving at an accident situation and classifying patients in a challenging situation. Through the simulation, you can also practice decision-making under pressure and deal with the emotions brought up by the situation. The simulations created by nursing professionals proceed in a scenario-like manner, step by step, according to the treatment protocol.

In the learning material “Patient path for a stroke patient”, the student practices the correct treatment protocol with the help of a scenario.

Samiedu’s teachers acted as photographers and content producers in the project. ThingLink’s design and content production services offered support for technical implementation and pedagogical design.

“In nursing work, protocol is central, and scenario-like learning is particularly well suited to nursing teaching.”

Nikki Kotilainen, Samiedu

Read more about the eWorking case here.

Read more about ThingLink Scenario Builder.

Example 3. Getting to know well-being technology through stories

The HyGGe project partners wanted to produce an online training program on the use of wellness technology. The goal was that the material could be used while working, regardless of time and place, and that it could also be used in distance education during the pandemic. The target group is social and health professionals and students. In the virtual learning environment, the user can, for example, practice home care customer visits and familiarize themselves with the safety protocol of a daycare center with the help of authentic stories. Some employees and customers are nervous about using wellness technology. With the help of the story, it is easy to remember that the use of technological aids, such as a security telephone, starts from the customer’s needs. This lowers the threshold for using technology in employee training.

The online training course has been built by teachers from 8 educational institutions and uses several platforms. Among other things, visits to the homes of the elderly using 360 photos were implemented with ThingLink. HyGGe was awarded the Pedagogical Act of the Year honor at WinNova.

In the home care escape game, you can experience the everyday life of a home care nurse on a client visit. You can try the game from the embed above.

“It is enough to distribute one ThingLink link to the students. They get all the necessary information from there.”

WinNova’s HyGGe team

Read more about the HyGGe case study here.

Example 4. Learning the digital skills of home care with the help of virtual tours

Home care workers need a variety of digital skills in their work. For example, remote measurement, the use of safety technology and online services may feel difficult to the employee. As a solution, the Kotien Kylä learning environment was created in ThingLink at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, where digital skills are practiced at your own pace with the help of customer stories. In the online employee training program, the learner can go on virtual visits to real homes and get to know authentic stories and customer needs. Using ThingLink to create the materials meant that workers were able to access the virtual tours on any mobile device at any time. Content creators don’t need to worry about hosting their training material on a formal learning management system (LMS) – content is all accessible securely via the cloud.

Read more about the Kotien kylä case here.

Example 5. Virtual learning environments support practical nurses training courses

In Raseko vocational school, employee training has been boosted with virtual learning material which was created for practical nurses. The training platform allow new employees to familiarize themselves with the stages of nursing work also remotely. For example, changing sheets becomes familiar with the help of videos, and students can practice the Finnish and Swedish vocabulary of the field with the help of mini-games embedded in ThingLink.

Read more about the Raseko case study here.

How are medical 3d models used in training?

However 3D imaging is now being used increasingly as a training tool across a wide range of healthcare settings in ways you may not expect. For example, with the help of simple-to-build 3D models of equipment, alongside 360 images of healthcare settings, staff can familiarize themselves with the use and functionality of medical equipment anytime and anywhere. 3D models and 360 videos can help to simplify the use of complex equipment and work both in new employees’ orientations and as refresher material for experienced employees.

In this case study we look at how ThingLink was used in Finland to create training materials from 3D and 360 images, and how staff were trained to capture and edit these images themselves. It is a great example of how colleges and healthcare workplaces can create interactive content collaboratively that answers the needs of students as well as staff.

3D models created for the learning environment

Central Finland Hospital District is the largest non-university hospital district in Finland. Central Finland Hospital Nova is a unit in Jyväskylä offering specialized medical care in the hospital district. Northern Central Finland Vocational College POKE offers professional degree training and continuing education and training for companies and other employers in the area.

Together Nova and POKE jointly created a learning environment using 3D models, presented in and annotated with ThingLink. The materials are now being used in the training of healthcare professionals at Nova and for emergency workers training at POKE.

Medical 3D models created through collaboration

The 3D models and associated training materials were born out of Nova’s need to describe the use of emergency operating room medical devices for temporary employees but also POKE’s requirement for more examples of real-life working examples for their social and health students.

POKE’s digital learning environment expert Pekka Ouli trained Nova’s staff in using 3D medical models and building ThingLink learning environments to annotate them with rich media content. Central Finland Hospital District technical expert Antti Mähönen provides technical support for content production in Nova’s training unit. They report that the introduction of 3D imaging has produced a very successful collaboration between the hospital and the school.

From POKE, lecturer Milja Forsman, designer Katja Huttunen, teacher Matti Nurro and lecturer Ulla Martinmäki were also involved in the content production. The materials were produced by Milla Sivonen, Nova’s teaching assistant. He now also uses the materials when training new emergency workers at POKE.

The training materials cover the use of acute room equipment with the help of videos, information tags, 3D models and a mobile game.

At Nova for example, there was a need for training material on the use of a particular model of defibrillator. A ThingLink video about the use of the defibrillator was created as preliminary training material and at time of writing has already collected 1500 views. The material has made the work of the trainer easier, since the employees have been able to familiarize themselves with the device even before the training. The video also serves as review material for current employees. The 3D visualization created from the defibrillator allows you to view the device from different sides, and the tags added to the 3D model provide additional information. A mobile game has also been created about using the device on the seppo.io platform. The game was linked to ThingLink as part of the training material.

Parts of the PHILIPS V6O respirator are named using tags in a 360 image in ThingLink.

How can medical 3D models be created?

At POKE, the use and creation of 3D models and 3D printing are commonplace. POKE trained Nova’s staff in the technology used to create 3D models and the photogrammetry involved in 360 shooting. Now hospital employees can quickly create a 3D model and take 360 photos themselves. Professional input was needed however for the scripting of the descriptions, when considering what subjects are described and how the information is presented in the training material. This is particularly the case for the creation of anatomical models

You can familiarize yourself with the Oxylog ventilator in addition to the operating videos, but also with the help of a 3D model.

Nova filmed and produced the training materials itself under the guidance of POKE. In this way, it was possible to ensure that the educational materials provided the perspective that was needed in medical care orientations. When the materials are created in-house, it is also easy for Nova’s staff to update them if necessary.

“360 environments combined with AR are the easiest entities to implement in an organization. The key is that the organization can produce the material itself.”

Pekka Ouli, POKE

In terms of content production, technical support was also provided to Nova when required. The ThingLink team also provided support for descriptions, pedagogical design and content production.

The benefits of using medical 3D models in this way

At Nova, the virtual training materials created in ThingLink are also being used in recruitment, to present the hospital’s facilities, for example, in job interviews. Applicants can easily be shown Nova’s new facilities with VR glasses. In Central Finland it can be challenging to find new employees. Nova’s new, comfortable facilities and making them visible with VR glasses help address this recruitment challenge.

In training sessions, virtual materials also offer an opportunity to teach the teachers and reinforce knowledge. Employees can familiarize themselves with the topic and the use of devices in a virtual learning environment with the help of 3D models, videos and rich media information tags in advance, so that in the teaching situation they can focus more on practical training.

Developing the use of medical 3D models at Nova

In the future, Nova will expand the use of ThingLink will expand to use the Scenario Builder tool. The scenarios build branching logic into authentic learning experiences that simulate real-life situations, decision making and problem-solving.

Examples of immersive materials and virtual reality used in healthcare training – further reading

In this article we highlight recent research into the use of VR and AR in training; many examples are from the medical sector

This support article shows just how easy it is to create 3d models for use in ThingLink

Are you interested in ThingLink’s design and content production services?

Do you need a partner for planning, filming and building interactive 360 ​​environments? Do you need support in presenting school or company facilities, orientations, trainings or producing online training materials? ThingLink’s design and content production services are tailored to your needs and may include, for example:

• the planning and execution of the tour or presentation with a professional specialized in the planning and filming of interactive contents
• filming and editing: photos, videos, 360 photos, 360 videos, drone photos
• planning, implementation of an online course or training and ThingLink user training in cooperation with the customer

Note on compatible 3D file formats for using in ThingLink

Currently only .glb files are compatible with the ThingLink editor. It is not currently possible to use .fbx, .dae, .dxf, .ztl or .obj files for 3D annotation. Further formats will be added in the future.

Introduction

As the UK government increases University places for student nurses, so demand for clinical placements grows. Simultaneously, hospital placements become more restricted due to Covid. To ease pressure on placements, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have recently authorised the use of ‘simulated placements’ to fulfil a limited number of clinical hours. The challenge for universities is to design and deliver simulated placements that are meaningful, realistic and meet the strict criteria of the NMC. 

At Huddersfield University, the Department of Nursing has designed a 3-week simulated placement by orchestrating and coordinating a series of technologies to provide a structured, innovative, virtual learning experience focused on team building. ThingLink has been critical in the design and delivery of these immersive activities.

This particular initiative was designed for the BSc Year 2 Pre-registration Nursing Programme, with a cohort of over 300 students, and was delivered wholly online. It was decided to focus on ‘Team Building and Leadership’, key skills in nursing. The focus of this placement was to encourage students to recognise and develop their role in a team and their skills in leadership. 

To achieve this, the team at Huddersfield developed a series of interlinked, virtual and immersive scenarios. These innovative activities were designed to be fun, engaging and motivating to encourage students to engage during the full three weeks, whilst also achieving their learning outcomes. During the placement, students completed a virtual Escape Room based on heart conditions, an online Murder Mystery set in a hospital, and stopped the breakout of an infection in a virtual care home. These formed the keystones of the simulated placement, together with interactive sessions on Inflammatory Bowel Disease, a group activity on promoting health and wellbeing, and a synchronous session on ‘Mental Health First Aid’. 

Asynchronous activities were interspersed with synchronous sessions to provide instruction and feedback, with each activity building on the last. The use of appropriate technologies also allowed instant data capture ensuring debrief sessions were relevant and targeted. Between activities, students were asked to determine their Team Role using a bespoke phone app and complete an online Action Plan. 

In common with many universities, Huddersfield has an organically developed ecosystem of services that support online learning. At its core are Brightspace – the University’s VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) – and Microsoft Teams, used for all online synchronous teaching. These two systems form the backbone for online delivery. Neither provide for rich, group-based, immersive, problem-solving interactions deemed necessary for this placement. The 6-months the working group had available did not allow sufficient time to procure, test and integrate new enterprise systems into the University. Instead, the group was faced with using easy-to-use, subscription-based services, of which ThingLink was key. 

Since pedagogy should lead design, a series of teaching activities were designed based on pedagogical good practice in simulated and online learning. 

Based on this, three key scenarios were agreed:

1. A Virtual Escape Room Activity where students work in groups to ‘Escape’ by applying clinical theory 
2. A ‘Murder Mystery’ in which students interview suspects, find clues and work together to solve a hospital-based murder
3. An Infection Control scenario where students had to control the spread of an infection and take leadership decisions in a clinical environment.

These scenarios were chosen on the basis that they:

• required teamwork in small groups
• could be completed online
• involved problem-solving skills and the application of clinical theory
• represented increasing levels of complexity and realism 

After 3 months, the design was completed, and the team moved into content development. The group used drama students to act as suspects in the Murder Mystery, and media students to help with filming and editing videos, ensuring students beyond Nursing benefited from the process. Each scenario was tested with both academic and IT colleagues to identify bugs and check content validity and accessibility. During this testing phase several issues were identified and addressed. In this way both reliability and validity were checked prior to release. 

At the start of the placement, students were allocated into small teams of around 8 -10 students. They completed all the activities in this group, working with the same students, each time attempting to recognise and improve their team building skills.  The first of these activities was a Virtual Escape Room created in a 2D immersive space where the students were represented by avatars that could interact with each other and objects. The task involved solving theory based puzzles to escape. The second and third activities were both based entirely in ThingLink. These were:

1.  Murder Mystery

This was a hospital-based virtual murder mystery where students were challenged to work together to identify the murderer. The student groups were timetabled to meet in MS Teams and asked to work through the ThingLink scenario together. The scenario consisted of a series of 360° rooms that students could explore independently. Each room contained clues, and a suspect who could be interviewed using interactive videos. Although the students met as a group, they could each explore the ThingLink scenario independently. This meant the students had to allocate tasks, exchange information, and decide on the murderer together to complete the task in the allocated time limit. Support was provided via a live chat room, staffed by two tutors, that students accessed from within the ThingLink scene.

2. Breakout!

Once again, the student groups were timetabled to meet in MS Teams to complete a scenario created in ThingLink. This time the scenario was based in a Care Home in which the group needed to prevent the outbreak of an unknown infection. Students had to apply their knowledge of Infection Control and make leadership decisions in a time-limited environment. Only by applying the correct Policy Guidelines could students successfully complete the Task. For example, determining which residents should be kept in their rooms and which were allowed out; how the laundry should be safely handled and cleaned. This scenario was chosen as the last activity as it was the most complex and true-to-life; the two previous scenarios providing students with the confidence to tackle it successfully.  This scenario continued over two days as students were given updates on the escalating infection. As the infection grew, they had to make critical decisions on the wellbeing and safety of residents and staff. 

Each of the three scenarios was preceded with an online briefing session, to ensure students understood the task, together with the opportunity to complete a practice session using a very simple ThingLink scenario with clear instructions. 

Each of the virtual activities was followed with a debrief session to provide feedback and generate discussion. Because the technologies used included a range of data capturing systems, it was possible to quickly download information from each activity and include it in the debrief presentation. For example, capturing the response time for each group or using MS Forms to capture each groups’ Murder Mystery answers.

Between each scenario, students were asked to download and use a bespoke phone app. 

They used this to identify their predominant Team Role before completing a structured Action Plan on how to improve their contribution to the remote team. The students could download and save this as a PDF and submit it as evidence of successful completion of the task. Students were also encouraged to add the Action Plan to their professional portfolio and discuss it with their Academic Advisors.

How the Initiative was Received

Student satisfaction with the placement was measured as part of an overall Evaluation plan. Evaluation of the placement was carried out through a combination of student questionnaires and collection of relevant data from the systems. Satisfaction on the ThingLink scenarios was particularly high. 80% or more of the students agreed or strongly agreed each of the evaluation statements, with most statements scoring over 90% agreement, demonstrating their satisfaction with the scenarios and the effectiveness of the learning. 

Their comments on the evaluation form reinforced this.

“The murder mystery was my favourite activity of the placement as it was engaging and got our minds working. It helped some of the team members open up and become more comfortable as-well. Great activity.”

“loved this actively, was perfect for me as I am a visual learner and enjoy working out puzzles etc, I am also dyslexia so the fact you are doing things like this that work well with my dyslexia mind and allow me to show my strengths is amazing thank you so much :)”

“This was probably the most difficult activity of the lot. However, that did not stop it from being fun and engaging. Making decisions in part two and three was very difficult and allowed us to put ourselves in the shoes of the ward manager etc, which was great and insightful.”

The scenarios have now been delivered four more times since their inception, and each time the evaluation results have reflected similarly high levels of student satisfaction.

In addition to the evaluation form, staff noticed students were fully engaging during the activities and were motivated to complete them; often difficult to achieve with online learning. The chat on Teams was particularly active during the scenarios, with students voicing their theories. 

This was also reflected during the debrief sessions which directly followed each scenario. Students were keen to voice their theories, but also express how much they had enjoyed each of the activities and what they had learned from it. None of the students reported difficulties using ThingLink as a medium. Instead, students were focussed on the activity and completing the task without the technology being a barrier. In addition, structuring and use of ThingLink in this way allowed all students to complete the activities simultaneously and semi-independently. This activity was completed successfully by over 380 students, with support from just two members of staff. 

The Learning Outcomes 

The Placement had two key learning outcomes:

• Collaborate via a virtual environment with other health care professional students to build on your leadership and team working skills.
• Reflect upon leadership styles and group dynamics when working in teams from your own and colleague perspectives

These set out to address the NMC Standards of proficiency, Platform 5, “Leading and managing nursing care and working in teams” whilst also building students’ confidence in using technology to collaborate. 

Improvements in leadership and teamwork are difficult to measure objectively over a short period, but the evaluation plan described above sought to gauge students’ own measure of the effectiveness of the learning. 

For example, the statement, “I felt the activity helped me be a better team player” was scored as strongly agree/agree by over 85% of students for all activities, whilst 90% of students strongly agreed/agreed with the statement, “the activity gave me an insight into leadership” for the Breakout Scenario. 

In addition, comments from students in the evaluation indicate that students were reflecting and understanding their own role in a work environment team successfully. 

• “It was fun and didn’t feel like work, however raised my awareness around teamwork and leadership skills”

• “This was good for team working and taking on different roles working together to get one outcome everyone was happy with”

• “I enjoyed this activity and it did push me out of my comfort zone in terms of pushing my leadership skills forward when others don’t speak out.”

• “One of the best activities, we split in groups and merged together at the end to discuss the outcome and complete the activity”

Plans to Further Develop the Initiative

Following the successful first delivery of this placement in February 2022, the Department of Nursing have pursued a 4-step approach to develop the initiative further. These are:

1. Improve the initiative using feedback from students and staff. 

2. Repurpose the content for different programmes

3.  Reproduce the design principles in other disciplines

4. Disseminate the approach to the learning community

The hope is to develop the approach and the initiative further and to promulgate good practice in the application of multiple technologies to build a scaffolded series of scenarios across Higher Education and beyond. To this end, the team delivered a workshop at a National Learning Conference in September 2022 to demonstrate the principles and approach.

Through such workshops we hope to provide others with the tools and knowledge to create similar activities, transferring these practices to other disciplines and applications of simulation.

The Simulated Placement as a whole also reached the final ten of the ECEL e-Learning Excellence Awards in 2022, receiving a Certificate of Merit from the Judges.  

Biography

Tim Cappelli has worked with learning technology for over 20 years, from setting up work-based learning centres to introducing blended learning initiatives to HE. He managed the first large-scale deployment of iPads in HE, the development of a learning platform in WordPress and the creation of a digital Curriculum Mapping Tool.

Hayley Hewitt worked as a teacher in the UK and abroad, as well as in FE colleges before moving into HE as an Instructional Designer. She uses pedagogical knowledge combined with technology to help create engaging and effective learning experiences for students. She enjoys working with subject matter experts to improve e-learning materials and course content.

We are very grateful to Tim and Hayley for allowing us to share this case study.

FAQs about using ThingLink for virtual training

What are the benefits of virtual team building?

Escape Rooms and scenarios using ThingLink can also be used in any situations where an element of team bonding is required, particularly between remote employees who may eventually work in person together in a situation where time pressure or jeopardy is very real. Remote workers can collaborate on a realistic scenario which might be faced in a real life work day. They are simultaneously practising their core skills whilst also developing the softer skills of working under time pressure, collaborating, communication skills, knowledge sharing, delegation etc.

What software is required for creating virtual team building games and challenges like these?

As in the example from Huddersfield University, these team challenges work best by using any sort of video chat or video conferencing platform to create a shared virtual workspace – such as MS Teams, Google Meet or Zoom calls.

What other virtual team building activities could be used with ThingLink?

You may want to assist team building in a more general way, in a non-work context. Here are some more virtual team building ideas involving fun games; they work especially well for large groups or teams who remote work and need to increase team cohesion. With many teams now working entirely from a “virtual office”, those water cooler and coffee break conversations which used to be part of organisational or company culture are difficult to replicate when teams only ever meet via video conference.

• What about a virtual scavenger hunt around a series of linked ThingLink scenes?
• Embed a virtual trivia game or quiz into the interactive tags in ThingLink for employees to solve. This could be shared during a video call team meeting, a virtual happy hour or can be accessed asynchronously if your team is split between timezones, making it tricky to schedule even conference calls and virtual meetings.
• To welcome new team members, why not create an interactive organization chart like this editable Canva template? You can include bios and interesting facts if you like! A fun way to build team camaraderie and increase employee engagement.

ThingLink can also be used as the hub for other types of virtual events as in this example of a virtual careers forum, created during the pandemic.

For an immersive team building event, ThingLink works with Igloo Vision to deliver in-person, face-to-face shared VR experiences in 360 pop-up pods.

Further reading:

Case study on the use of ThingLink by University of Central Lancashire scenarios in multi-disciplinary healthcare teams

Case study on the use of ThingLink to create escape rooms for medical, nursing and multi-disciplinary healthcare students

In this blog we provide the best interactive infographic examples that we have seen created in ThingLink and even some infographic templates which you can edit and adapt depending on your own content strategy.

Infographics in eLearning and workplace training

Infographics are, in short, the ideal method of data visualization using visual communication. They can be used for:

• Showing the structure or operation algorithm of a complex mechanism.
• Demonstrations of a business project.
• Displaying the ratio of objects or facts in time and space. demonstrations of development trends.
• To focus and motivate people to study a specific topic.
• Infographic helps to demonstrate the relationship between parts and different objects.
• Showing the structure of the company.
• Infographics allows you to establish a hierarchy of subordination amongst complex information.

This graph is used for internal communications to provide an overview of the product updates.

Infographics in Сlassroom learning

Recently, infographics have found application in education. The visualization of complex educational information, the ability to present information clearly, informatively, aesthetically attractive, is becoming a requirement of the modern educational process.

Information visualization for schoolchildren and students is one of the most important components in modern education. As we wrote at the beginning of the article, people perceive visually about 90% of all information.

The huge flow of information that falls on the student leads to perception problems. All this leads to the need to create conditions for a more complete and comfortable perception of new knowledge.

Infographics in this case are ideally suited to make information easier and more accessible. In addition, students will be able to better remember dates, events, interconnections and facts. Interactive content in the classroom instantly engages students and keeps their attention. in addition, the interactive elements aid in active learning, which is well documented as a means to aid in knowledge retention.

The image shows different stages of carbon cycle, while the hotspots provide additional information for each stage.

The introduction of infographics in the educational process brings:

• For teacher — the presentation of material in a new, interesting, informative form.
• For student — there is interest in a new form of learning material, the most understandable and easily digestible material, involvement in the learning process and the development of the creative component.

Infographics in classroom learning help increase the efficiency of perception of information. Infographics in the educational process makes it possible to organize interesting work in the classroom, as well as to increase the level of training of specialists not only at schools, but also at the universities.

Types of Infographics in Marketing and Editorial

Infographics are a great tool for marketing to customers, employees, and investors. With the help of infographics, you can convey any business information to the desired audience. In this case, infographics plays the role of advertising, ensuring the availability of information.

At the same time infographics begin to turn into a PR tool: companies increasingly began to apply and send out not just press releases, but fully-fledged infographics to journalists.

Infographics can be considered another marketing technique in the submission of information in order to attract customers and in the promotion of products. Animated infographics could be used, but animations can often create a distraction. An interactive infographic on the other hand, allows your customer or audience to choose the specific product, service or feature that most interests them.

This infographic shows different data for the player – while also prompting the viewer to buy a shirt.

You can use infographics for:

• Preparation of materials for the press. The key purpose of the press release is to attract the attention of journalists who receive large amounts of such messages. Having equipped printed or electronic materials with infographics, they can be presented in the form of accessible and understandable analytics or visual stories highlighting your key points.
• Development of commercial offers. During the presentations, the speakers’ time is limited, and much needs to be said to potential investors, partners or clients. For the transmission of basic information in a concise, presentable and easy-to-read form, infographics are used.
• Advertising and marketing strategy. Of course, marketing technology and infographics are closely related. When only 20-30 seconds of air is allocated for a commercial, and you need to show and say the maximum, the most advanced methods are used. Infographics in an accessible, understandable and eye-catching form allows you to talk about all the advantages of the advertised product.
• Interaction with customers and target audience. Suppose a sales specialist needs to tell a potential customer about the types of services, the advantages of offers, compare this data with information from competitors, etc. Infographics provide an opportunity to illustrate all the points, make them simple and understandable even to an uninformed audience. This works equally well either in person at a trade show, or on a landing page.
• Creating presentations. Today more and more business presentations, business projects are done in this format. Text presentations or presentations in pictures and photographs, as was done before, are outdated. And infographic became more and more popular.

For more infographic design inspiration, join one of our groups or communities on social media like Facebook Education group or the ThingLink LinkedIn Community.

There are also two other blogs in this interactive infographics series. How to Create Interactive Infographics looks at how to use the super easy Canva graphic design platform to create your own. And for a basic introduction, Interactive infographics covers the theory behind them and where they can be used.

Want to read more about creating different types of interactive content? Try our blog on interactive maps!

This blog is based on the article Infographics: What are they and how to use them at work and in everyday life by Alexey Solomatin, Head of Product at ThingLink.

You don’t need a dedicated development team if you have platforms that speed up and simplify the process of creating interactive content with strong visual elements. There are several easy to learn and use infographic tools available online.

Canva is a great free tool for creating non-interactive infographics online, with simple functionality. Canva provides many free tools for creating a base image for your infographic:

• Templates and backgrounds, including infographic templates.
• Graphs and charts.
• Different fonts.
• Photos, graphics and animations.
• The ability to save your content in jpg, png or PDF format.

Canva also provide a wide range of free tutorials which cover the complete creation process and will take you from complete beginner to fully-fledged infographic maker!

Checklist for creating an infographic

Let’s suppose you are determined to use infographics to solve your problem. But where do you start? How to make information easy to digest? How to avoid common mistakes? Below we’ll talk about what is essential to know when creating an infographic: this checklist will help you in your work.

1. Find a topic that will be useful and interesting to your potential customers or your audience. It will not be difficult if you are really well versed in the information that you are describing. Just interesting facts or statistics, or maybe the whole story – the choice is yours. Draw, write, imagine.
2. After you have selected some statistics and information that you would like to display in the infographic, you need to understand what format it is most suitable for. As we’ve mentioned above, there are several types of infographics. Reread that part and choose the one that will be most suitable for your purposes.
3. The more data you have, the better. You can not be limited to 1-2 numbers or pictures. No one wants to see unverified or untrustworthy numbers. Give more facts, more convincing, more useful visual material.
4. The most challenging part: the “assembly” of the design. It’s better if you have an idea of what format may fit your story. The messages mustn’t contradict each other, and the facts are arranged sequentially. At this stage, it is important not to rush, to consider all possible options for the “location” of the main semantic parts.
5. So, you got the finished infographic. Check it out again! Ask colleagues for feedback.

Make static infographics interactive!

For the next level you can turn your static infographic into an interactive experience. For that, you can use ThingLink. ThingLink allows you to create interactive images, videos and 360° pictures. With ThingLink insert informational hotspots – or tags – into your images. The tags can contain text, videos (for example, from Youtube), pictures, and links to other online resources as well as different embeds from other services. Above is a fantastic example of an interactive infographic created in ThingLink by Carmanah Technologies. Read here how they created this and other clear and effective interactive content for product marketing.

ThingLink is a great tool for making your infographics interactive.

• The interface is intuitive, simple, and easy to use.
• You can share your interactive infographic on social networks or embed it into your blog or website.
• The infographics you create will work great on all modern web browsers as well as oniOS and Android devices.

Did you know?

We perceive information through the senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. With the help of the organs of vision, a person receives about 90% of the information, about 9% with the help of the organs of hearing, and only 1% with the help of the rest of the senses. Based on the above data, we can conclude that information is best perceived visually.

What you need to keep in mind when creating an interactive infographic

Infographics are a powerful current trend that have reached all types of content, from publishing, education and content marketing. But what are infographics in simple words? Here is a very simple definition: infographics are images that convey meaning through graphics, not text. They are a method of data visualization

When creating an interactive infographic, ask yourself a few questions, the answers to which will help you:

• Do the images and interactive elements help to clearly represent your data?
• How well does the design reflect the values and characteristics of your brand, target audience and marketing strategy?
• Where will the interactive graphic live? If it is hosted on your site, you might want the design to fit the overall style of the site.

How to determine whether the work in question is an infographic or not is simple enough. Remove all the text from it and see if the remaining image conveys any meaning, or is it simply and eye-catching and decorative element? If you have a meaningless image left in front of you – you are presented with a standard illustration. If the meaning remains, you are dealing with an example of infographics.

Your task is to help the reader understand the topic better. The following recommendations will help:

• Decide on an idea, simplify it. Then come back and simplify again.
• Use only the most essential and exciting information. There should not be too much text.
• Try out the tools we’ve mentioned. Canva can be used to create the base image, and ThingLink will help you make your infographic truly interactive.
• Look at the finished chart to see if your audience understands it. If not, redo it.

Looking for more inspiration?

In the next blog in our series on infographics we look at the best interactive infographic examples in ThingLink which will inspire you. Or why not look next at how to create an interactive map with ThingLink?

More more examples, follow our groups and communities on social media like Facebook Education Group or the ThingLink Community on LinkedIn.

This blog is based on the article Infographics: What are they and how to use them at work and in everyday life by Alexey Solomatin, Head of Product at ThingLink

Your new employees won’t lose their way with this brilliant new feature. Our new navigation functionality is available now to improve online training experiences and orientation activities, perfect for new hires.

High-quality workplace simulations with multimedia hotspots became increasingly popular in corporate training /  online learning courses during the pandemic. Interactive and accessible ways of showcasing a place, space or situation have continued to increase in popularity, because they are proven to be highly effective. 

What can online training for employees be used for?

We’ve seen a real surge in immersive tour type training content created for online courses or elearning, particularly in essential compliance training for onboarding new employees or as a refresher activity. In employee training, interactive workplace simulations are seen as cost and time saving assets enabling organizations to be more efficient and effective.

We have listened and acted upon suggestions from our elearning / employee training training courses customers and providers. Our latest update enables you to add an interactive floor plan or ‘mini map’ that shows the exact location of the view on the simulation or tour. 

An example of online employee training

Check out this demonstration of a multimedia workplace (factory construction site ‘digital twin’ created with Unity) example used in online training below and here. What’s really nice is you can also click on the hotspots directly on the floor plan to transition to that scene / factory floor area.

How to create online training like this

To try this feature, create your own floor plan as a base image for a scene and add your 360 multimedia scenes using the Tour Tag. Then simply add your floor plan scene ID in the settings panel. Read more in our brilliant walkthrough support article

Many elearning or online based training courses are specifically designed to be completed as stand alone, on-demand learning experiences. Our improved functionality can increase the effectiveness of employee engagement in elearning / online training leading to better information or skills retention.

It’s so easy to create your own online training!

The ease of the authoring experience has been noted as a stand out feature of ThingLink. Once created your simulation or virtual tour can be embedded into your learning management system (LMS) or training platform. It can also be used in scenario based learning with branching questions creating gamification. Your training materials can be viewed on any platform or mobile device, meaning they can be accessed anywhere and anytime.

Links to other great articles about using virtual tours in elearning / online training courses.

• Ten reasons to get ThingLink’s elearning solution
• Learn how to create interactive content 
• Create impactful employee training programs with scenario based learning
• Five great examples of interactive online content
• How to create virtual tours
• Onboarding ideas – online employee training sessions
• What are ‘Soft skills’? ThingLink to demonstrate Meta Skills
• Scenario based learning for corporate training
• Ideas for learning programs 
• ThingLink integrations and apps that can be embedded
• ThingLink free Certified Creator Course – An example of training modules in action