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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!

Bridging the Digital and Physical Worlds

Breaking Geographical Barriers

Virtual tours make museums accessible to a global audience, breaking down geographical barriers. Potential visitors can ‘walk’ through your exhibits from anywhere in the world. This exposure often ignites the desire to experience the museum in person, converting virtual visitors into physical ones.

Case Study: Highland Folk Museum

In this case study on the Highland Folk Museum in Scotland, we showed how virtual tours of the museum helped pique interest for visitors.

“Regular visitors love being able to see their favourite buildings and collections up close, and are keen to return to the museum, and people who haven’t been before are telling us they can’t wait to come and visit in real life; it’s made them curious. ThingLink has been the perfect way to present our unique buildings to an online audience.”

Helen Pickles, Highland Folk Museum Project Officer

Use Your Museum Virtual Tour as a Teaser Experience

Think of a virtual exhibition or tour as a sort of “trailer” for your museum. It provides a tantalizing glimpse of your collections, compelling viewers to come and see the full story in person. The virtual tour can showcase highlights and unique artefacts, sparking curiosity and encouraging an in-person visit to see more.

Enhancing Outreach with Virtual Tours

Virtual gallery and museum tours are valuable educational and outreach tools. They can be used in classrooms, inspiring students and educators to organize field trips to your museum for a more hands-on experience. This educational aspect transforms the virtual experience into an invitation for an educational journey on-site.

Particularly for those who may never have stepped foot in an art museum or gallery before, allowing students to explore the site in virtual reality makes a real-life visit less daunting.

Case Study: Orton Geological Museum, Columbus

One aspect of inclusivity and accessibility which can often be overlooked is the fact that museums and galleries can be overwhelming, confusing or intimidating for some visitors. Feedback about this virtual tour of the Orton Geological Museum and Library at Ohio State University showed that most of the recent in-person visitors had explored the virtual tour first, suggesting that familiarity with the space encouraged a subsequent physical visit.

Explore the Virtual Tour below!

Using Technology to Enhance the Visitor Experience

Interactive Elements

Modern virtual tours and online exhibits are more than just panoramic images; they can include interactive multimedia elements such as clickable information points, 3d models, audio guides, quizzes and video clips. This interactive functionality enrich the virtual user experience, making it more engaging and memorable, which in turn fuels the desire for a real-world visit.

Social Media Integration

Virtual tours are shareable on social media, expanding your museum’s reach. Users can share their favorite parts of the tour with their network, effectively becoming ambassadors of your museum. This organic marketing can lead to increased interest and foot traffic.

Accessibility and Inclusivity

Virtual tours make your museum more accessible to individuals who might have disabilities or geographical/financial limitations that prevent them from visiting in person. By providing this inclusive experience, you build a relationship with a wider audience, who may be motivated to visit in person if their circumstances change.

Case Study: ROM

In our case study ROM’s Interactive and Responsive Virtual Museum Tours Solve Access Issues, we examined how the Royal Ontario Museum used a virtual tour to help fulfil their mandate of providing museum access to students across their entire province, all 415,000 square miles of it.

Building Anticipation

Special Exhibits and Events

Use virtual tours to preview special artworks or exhibitions. This strategy creates anticipation, encouraging people to visit in person to be part of the exclusive experience.

Virtual tours: A powerful strategic tool

In conclusion, virtual museum tours are not just a supplement to the physical experience; they are a strategic tool for increasing in-person visits. By breaking down geographical barriers, offering teaser experiences, enhancing educational outreach, utilizing interactive technology, and building anticipation, virtual tours can significantly boost physical attendance at your museum. Embracing this digital innovation could be the key to unlocking a new era of museum engagement and visitor growth.

The easiest way to create your own virtual tours and exhibitions

Read through our selection of blogs and case studies below to see how easy it is to create your own interactive museum or gallery virtual tour.

• How to Create a Virtual Exhibition: The Online Tool Used by the World’s Leading Museums

• How ThingLink’s AR App and Virtual Tour Made an Art Exhibition More Accessible

• How Museums and Technology Are Collaborating

Established in 1914 in Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) exhibits global art, culture, and natural history. It’s one of North America’s leading cultural institutions, and Canada’s largest, most comprehensive museum. It is home to an unparalleled collection of 13 million pieces spanning art, cultural artifacts, and natural history treasures across its 40 galleries and exhibition spaces. ROM is also Canada’s foremost institute for field research.

In 2021 we showcased the fantastic Great Whales Virtual Exhibition in the case study ROM’s Virtual Tours Solve Access Issues. In the wake of this project, and incorporating feedback from users of that virtual tour, ROM’s Coordinator of Digital Content and Experiences Sarah Elliott and her colleagues have created another exemplary virtual museum tour with ThingLink: Sustainable Style. You can explore the entire virtual tour below. Click on the fullscreen icon bottom far right to view it fullscreen!

A truly virtual museum tour

The Sustainable Style virtual tour fulfils three main purposes. Firstly, it was made to create a virtual climate change “gallery” of objects throughout the museum. Simultaneously it preserves and archives in digital format a temporary climate change art installation in the museum – Noelle Hamlyn:Lifers. Thirdly, it also serves as the knowledge base for a number of educational activities that the museum are developing.

Sustainable Style can therefore be considered a truly “virtual exhibition” as it groups together otherwise distinct displays, and both permanent and temporary exhibits.

Addresses diverse learning needs

Sarah and her colleagues have designed the tour format and navigation based on the previous virtual tour user feedback, in particular to address more comprehensively the diverse learning needs of the museum’s audiences. The tour now includes more ways to navigate around the featured areas depending on your preference. They also updated and expanded their “how to use” video which was a very popular feature of their Great Whales tour. This is shown below and is a must-watch for all virtual tour creators!

“We are really confident that this tour addresses more of the diverse learning needs of our audience.”

Sarah Elliott, Coordinator of Digital Content and Experiences, ROM

Thanks to Royal Ontario Museum for allowing us to share this fantastic case study. 

How you can blend physical and digital spaces in a virtual tour or exhibition

Technology has paved the way for blends of digital and traditional museum experiences, in almost limitless variations. Forefront of these innovations is the emergence of the virtual museum concept. As this example from ROM shows, the concept isn’t just an online exhibit that mimics the physical spaces; it’s an enhanced, mixed reality user experience that bridges geographical and physical gaps. And ThingLink is one of the easiest-to-use tools that is transforming the way that museum educators and content producers create and share virtual museum tours.

You can fully customize ThingLink content and format to suit the unique requirements of each virtual museum tour. You can include multimedia elements such as videos, 3D models, forms, quizzes, embeds, links and audio in your tags. Why not provide visitors with videos of artists discussing their creations or 3D models that allow a 360-degree view of sculptures? The blending of various media forms enriches the online museum experience, making it more immersive than ever.

The museum with no walls: share anywhere!

ThingLink content can be embedded seamlessly into web pages using HTML – just click “share” and the link is instantly generated for you. This ensures that museum exhibitions can be easily integrated into any website, blog post, or even shared on social media platforms. That way your content can reach wider audiences faster and more efficiently. You can also share in virtual reality mode easily for sharing to VR headsets.

Enhancing accessibility for all

Virtual gallery and museum tours, by their nature, already bridge some of the accessibility gaps of a physical museum. ThingLink’s functionality is designed with inclusivity in mind, with Microsoft Immersive Reader built in to every text and media tag, and a web view accessibility link available for every ThingLink scene you create.

Explore more examples of Virtual Museum Tours and Experiences in ThingLink

• V&A Dundee virtual exhibitions

• Highland Folk Museum virtual exhibitions

• Explore the Smithsonian’s interactive exhibit

• Petofi Literary Museum Budapest links artefacts from major art museums across the city

• Vermont Art Online showcases artworks from the entire state in their virtual exhibition design

More inspiration this way

Join our active groups and communities on social media for more inspiration:

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

It’s hard to imagine now, but there once was a time when traditional museum exhibits relied on static displays and textual descriptions. Over the last few decades, developments in museum education and technology have highlighted the importance of storytelling in the museum environment, allowing museums to go far beyond information-sharing. Now, thanks to accessible and easy-to-use technology, museums of all sizes are able to immerse visitors in compelling narratives and great storytelling – whether that’s in person visits, online, or a hybrid of both.

Storytelling allows museums to breathe life into artefacts and objects by placing them within a narrative framework. It helps visitors relate to the exhibits by presenting them as part of a larger, compelling story, creating a more immersive and memorable experience.

ThingLink has emerged as an easy-to-use but powerful tool for transforming museum experiences, and allows curators, educators – and even visitors and learners – to tell stories in a number of different ways. In this blog post, we highlight three recent case studies where ThingLink is being used by museums for telling stories that bring history alive, in different ways.

Stuhr Museum recreates real life experiences using storytelling in a branched learning scenario

Museums can use ThingLink’s Scenario Builder to recreate a personal story that enhances visitors’ understanding and emotional connection to a real-life historical event. This is exactly what Stuhr Museum, Nebraska did with their inspiring “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” resource, which is testament to the power of storytelling. The learners move through the scenario, and their decision-making at key points in the story reflects the same choices made by three young women over a century ago.

Storytelling is key to Stuhr’s mission, as museum Creative Director Carly Harroun explains:

“Storytelling is something that we’re really trying to emphasise across the museum, since our mission is to share the collective human experience of community building along the Platte River Valley. Our motto is “Your story is our history” and we use storytelling as a vehicle to connect with that empathy in people. To show that these were actual people just like you.”

Carly Harroun, Stuhr Museum Creative Director

You can read the full case study “How Stuhr Museum’s Blizzard Scenario Brings History to Life: Choose your own adventure meets tech and history” here.

Sign up for our exciting Museums Focus webinar on the 28th June to hear from Stuhr’s Creative Director Carly Harroun about how the learning resource was created.
Click below to register!

Wednesday 28th June

9am PDT | 12pm EDT | 5pm BST | 6pm CEST | 7pm EEST

Registration

Highland Folk Museum Tells the Stories of their Historical Artefacts with ThingLink

ThingLink empowers museums to provide visitors with a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural context surrounding artefacts and objects. If artefacts could talk, many would have great stories to tell! Their own stories, and those of the people who owned or used them, can best be understood when visitors see them in their original context.

Living museums are wonderful places to see just how people lived, worked and used these everyday objects, in restored or reproduction buildings and sites. However, many of these once commonplace items are so fragile that it would be impossible to keep them in situ year-round.

The Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore, Scotland, created an innovative solution to this problem with their exemplary ThingLink which we showcased in the case study “Highland Folk Museum Wows the World with Fresh New Twist on Virtual Museum Tours”. This ingenious hybrid solution to combining living history with interactive virtual tours is one that many similar institutions around the world are looking to replicate in future. View all the historic sites as a ThingLink tour here.

Storytelling That Brings Museums Together

As is the case with many capital cities and historical and cultural hubs, the treasures and artefacts of the city of Budapest and wider Hungary are scattered across a number of diverse museums, libraries and institutes. Many of these items which have ended up in separate locations are linked by theme, period and so on. Together, they tell endless stories about the fascinating heritage and history of a culturally rich and diverse nation.

Remarkably, it was only during the Covid lockdown of 2020 that educators from 6 of these institutions came together to envisage a joint and collaborative virtual exhibition for schools. The virtual exhibition tells the story of the growth of Hungarian national identity in the 19th century and is organised thematically. Read the full case study here: Budapest Museums and Galleries, or explore the ThingLink below!

Coming Soon – ThingLink AR App!

ThingLink will soon be adding even more opportunities for museums and galleries to provide engaging interactivity for their visitors with the launch of the new AR App. Currently in BETA, ThingLink AR App’s interactive features will allow users to actively engage with exhibits, fostering a sense of participation and exploration. Visitors can delve deeper into the details, zoom in on specific aspects, and access supplementary materials. For example, a painting can come alive with audio commentary from the artist or a video depicting the historical context in which it was created. Join us on our webinar (link above to join) to find out more! Watch this short video below to see how it will work.

Focus on: How brands are also using ThingLink to share stories

Storytelling is powerful because it creates an emotional connection between a company, its products and its customers. Effective storytelling increases engagement between a brand and its audience, which helps drive conversions and, ultimately, revenue growth.

“Why Storytelling Wins in Marketing”, Forbes Magazine June 2022

Successful brands in the business world have been mastering the art of storytelling for decades, but increasingly it is interactive content that is being used to help make a compelling even more engaging, personalised and meaningful for audiences.

Stories to engage your audience and customers

Although established as an edtech tool, ThingLink is now incorporated into the content marketing strategy of thousands of businesses of all sizes, from startups and entrepreneurs to major global brands. With ThingLink, marketers can engage their customers with their brand story, and maintain their target audience’s attention amongst more static content. Read our selection of blogs on interactive communications and marketing to see examples of this in action!

To see more examples of ThingLink user-generated content, join our social media communities – ThingLink Education Group on Facebook or our ThingLink LinkedIn Community.

Do you have a good story to tell with ThingLink? If you would like us to share your ThingLink creation as a case study, please get in touch! Contact our Communities and Partnerships Director Louise at louise@thinglink.com.

Stuhr Museum in Nebraska used ThingLink’s Scenario Builder to create an emotive and immersive branched learning experience that gives learners an insight into the lives of three real-life ordinary teachers from the pioneer period. By facing the same choices that the three young women were each forced to make over one day in 1888, school students were given an interactive insight into what it might have felt to live this experience.

ThingLink spoke to Carly Harroun and Emily Byerly of Stuhr Museum to find out more about the project. 

About Stuhr Museum

Stuhr Museum is a living history museum in Nebraska which was founded in 1962. Its mission is to share the collective human experience of community building along the Platte River Valley. It provides immersive historical, educational, and cultural experiences for visitors to its 208 acres and 107 buildings. 

Central to the site is Railroad Town, a representation of an 1890s-era prairie settlement. The town is a collection of buildings that together show what a prairie town might have been in the period. It features a bank, post office, general store, newspaper office, blacksmith and tinsmith shops, a wood planing mill and more. Many of these buildings are original artefacts, dating from the 1890s-early 1900s period, whilst the homes were all relocated from their original sites in nearby Grand Island.

Living historians work at the town and bring it to life as it might have been in the pioneer age, dressed in period costume and interacting with visitors to help them interpret the past and visualise what life was like in the 1890s. The museum provides a variety of field trips to Railroad Town to school students, generally from Kindergarten through to 8th grade. 

The first virtual visits using ThingLink

During the height of the covid pandemic, the museum was closed. Even when restrictions were relaxed, the immersive and hands-on nature of the field trips made them difficult. From May 2020 the museum started to look for a way to make virtual versions of their educational opportunities. 

Museum Creative Director Carly Harroun had discovered ThingLink from a former college professor and realised that it was a platform that could be used to create an immersive experience that was as close as possible to a hands-on school visit. 

From the Summer of 2020, the museum started creating virtual versions of the field trips using ThingLink. The museum educators were filmed as if they were talking to the students and they also created teacher handouts. These included worksheets and some further information; they were then presented together in a package for each topic. Schools were given access by link for two weeks, during which time they could complete the learning materials. 

Topics included the Pawnee (the tribe that inhabited the land that the Stuhr Museum is on today), as well as the pioneer trails, rural school and spring on the farm. However as visitors were able to start coming back to the museum for hands-on experiences, schools usually opted for the in-person classes over the virtual versions, if their location made a trip possible.  

Museum adds interactivity to the virtual experiences using Scenario Builder

Emily Byerly joined the museum as Director of Education in June 2022. Her vision for the virtual school visits was to continue to provide some sort of virtual opportunities that were hands-on and immersive. She was keen to provide material relevant to the museum’s particular local area within Nebraska.  She was also keen that it should be accessible to schools that were too far away from the museum to visit in a day, including those in different states. 

The original tours had proved popular, but the directors felt the format could be further improved.

“Even schools who had never before interacted with the museum utilized our virtual programs. But because the original virtual classes we made were based on filmed versions of the in-person classes, they were lacking in interactivity. We wanted to find ways that it could be different.”

Carly Harroun, Stuhr Museum Creative Director

As the two directors discussed possible formats and platforms that might be able to produce something both immersive and engaging, the subject of “choose your own adventure” story books kept emerging. Creative Director Carly Harroun had taken ThingLink’s Certified Creator Course and so was aware that ThingLink’s Scenario Builder is often described as a modern, Education Technology interpretation of this format. An interpretation which the directors describe as “Choose your own adventure meets tech meets history”!

They then needed to find a story that would work well in a branching scenario. Ideally it would feature characters who all chose a different path when faced with a life-changing event. It should be an experience that could equally be used by teachers as supplemental to the field trips or as a standalone experience. They wanted students in any location to be able to use the material to learn about history and the human experience in general.

Scenario format captures our common human experience

Carly Harroun explains:

“The museum is a Humanities organization. We want people and students to realize that history isn’t just names and dates from far away that are just two-dimensional, or black and white. They were real people and so it’s important to find learning opportunities for students to start thinking “What would I do in this situation?” Or “How did this feel?” and building that empathy and connection.” 

One particular event in Nebraskan history leant itself well to the format: one that has come to be known as “The School Children’s Blizzard” of 1888. This event is covered in one of the museum’s in-person classes in Stuhr Museum’s Rural School. The event was exactly what the two directors were looking for. It featured enormous drama, but it also emphasises the human experience common to us all, through the stories of the three teachers who were forced to make what would eventually be life or death decisions. Evidence with which to create the scenario was also easily accessible, as the stories of the three protagonists had been heavily reported-on at the time.

Scenario structure: Within the scenario, the students are given background to the event using text and photos. They then have to start making a series of choices which will determine the path that they take through the scenario. At each stage they can see the consequence of that choice, which is based on what we know about the real-life events. Once they reach the end of the scenario, they are told which of the three young women took that path and what the ultimate outcome was.

The interactive scenario format helps tell stories that resonate

The resulting scenario is one which makes a huge emotional impact. It very successfully builds a sense of empathy and common purpose between the learner and the three young women, giving an urgency and relevance to their stories despite the passage of time.

“Storytelling is something that we’re really trying to emphasise across the museum, since our mission is to share the collective human experience of community building along the Platte River Valley. Our motto is “Your story is our history” and we use storytelling as a vehicle to connect with that empathy in people. To show that these were actual people just like you. They maybe spoke a little different, they dressed a little different, their living situations were different. But they were still people with the full range of emotions that we have today. Within the specific, you find the universal. So whilst we are honing in on three very specific stories that happen in 1888 in this specific portion of the United States, it’s something that can resonate with everyone – that struggle and that pain. People have similar or different struggles today that still connect in some way.” 

Carly Harroun

Responsible content creation when using historical source material

They based the content on a lot of primary resources, particularly archived newspapers – but there were still blanks to be filled in for the scenario to work as a set of stories. For the directors, it was crucial that those blanks were filled in in a responsible way. With the help of the museum’s 19th century subject matter experts they tried to ensure that this was done in a historically plausible way. 

Co-workers, peers and local subject matter experts proofread the scenario along the way, ensuring that it was polished and the kind of quality of product that was museum standard. Emily used her extensive experience within education to ensure that the text was grade level appropriate and that the topics were covered in a sensitive way. The museum also added a disclaimer, since the content covers some difficult topics. 

The scenario supports cross-curricular learning

For schools, the most popular elements of the original virtual classes had been the text-based ones. If a virtual program contained enough text, schools were able to use it for their English language arts and reading provision while concurrently teaching students about history.

The text based elements were also popular with adult learners. The Literacy Council of Grand Island is local to the museum and works with adults who are learning how to read and speak English. For that reason, some of the museum’s original virtual programs were made more textual so that they could be used for adult evening classes. The teachers used the Microsoft Immersive Reader embedded in ThingLink to instantly translate into the various languages required in any particular class. 

For these reasons, text content was also a key consideration for the blizzard scenario, meaning that it too fulfils a dual purpose as both a history and language arts learning resource.

Pricing model and use

The scenario is now available to buy at $25 per classroom for 2 weeks of virtual access. Within the museum it’s already been used for training purposes as a medium for storytelling. It will also be used to train the living history apprentices, who are all local teenage volunteers. 

Future plans

The directors have additional ideas that they plan to develop for older students in a similar way. Carly had seen how ThingLink has been used at the Highland Folk Museum in Scotland, another living history museum and a comparable organization. She is particularly inspired by their use of 360 imagery of the interiors of the historical buildings and plans to create something similar at Stuhr. 

Tips to design scenarios like this:

• Map it out beforehand, including the decision points and outcomes of each choice. For both directors, the hardest part of the process was working out exactly how the three storylines could be represented in parallel. Carly explains the dilemma. “Three different teachers made different decisions within a fairly similar environment. But where should it branch off? How much information is given beforehand? There had to be enough context for people who have never taken the class up here and maybe don’t even know where Nebraska is, or what schools were like in 1888.”  
• Make sure you have all the resources to hand from the start. 
• Use Canva to create the graphic elements and give them a sense of continuity. 
• Write the scenario in the second person to make it more personal to the learner so that they can imagine how it would have felt to be in that situation. 

With grateful thanks to Carly Harroun, Creative Director and
Emily Byerly, Director of Education at Stuhr Museum for allowing us to share this wonderful example!

What else can Scenario Based Learning be used for?

Creating this type of scenario based learning (SBL) based on real-life situations is an extremely effective way for museum and history educators to make their experiences more immersive. However it’s also an approach to instructional design that is increasingly being used in many other areas of online training and elearning courses. Recreating a challenging situation from a real-world context that incorporates decision-making is a type of active learning that helps strengthen problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It encourages high levels of learner engagement – which in turn leads to better knowledge retention. For this reason it’s now used as an effective learning strategy within many corporate training programs, particularly compliance training and onboarding.

For more examples of scenarios and advice on creating your own, you may find the following blogs helpful:

• Five great examples of scenario based learning
• How to create scenario based learning experiences
• Scenario based learning in virtual environments

Have you ever wondered how to offer more structure in your virtual tours, trips or experiences? We are delighted to say that ThingLink is announcing the perfect solution to achieve this.

We showcased all the great new features, explore uses and more in our New Guided Tours Webinar! Couldn’t join us? Sign up anyway and you’ll receive the action replay.

What are ThingLink Guided Tours?

ThingLink Guided Tours offer an easy way to create structured introductions to a physical space using 360 images. Instead of free-form exploration, ThingLink Guided Tours focuses viewer’s attention to one single point at a time. The creator of the tour can add subtitles and audio playback for each focal point.

Try this for yourself with this quick exhibition experience!  Click the arrow to move through the focal points in a sequential way. Make sure to click the person speaking icon on the bottom right corner to hear audio narration. When activated this will move you automatically through the experience.

In this blog post, we will explore how to create a successful virtual exhibition. We will show you how easy it can be to curate digital content effectively, and how to share and promote your virtual exhibit so that it reaches as many people as possible. Creating a successful virtual exhibition is critical for museums looking to engage new audiences in today’s digital age.

However you don’t need a physical space to create your own stunning exhibition. With ThingLink, even local artists groups, individuals, schools and colleges can use the same super-simple platform used by international museums and galleries such as the V&A and the Royal Ontario Museum, to create and host stunning virtual exhibitions. Read on for our expert tips!

What is a virtual exhibition?

A virtual exhibition is any online presentation of a collection of material, made accessible to a global audience via the internet. It allows users to explore the exhibits from the comfort of their own homes, schools or workplaces and at their own pace. This material is usually based on visual content, particularly in the context of museums and galleries. The Pandemic saw a huge rise in the numbers of art, cultural and heritage institutions creating or expanding their virtual or online presence. However the idea of a virtual exhibition has spread beyond the realm of real galleries and museums creating virtual tours of art exhibitions. It’s now easier than ever for anyone to create a completely virtual space for their content to be displayed! In the example below, Hungarian schoolchildren created their own online exhibition in a completely virtual space, with the help of Museum Educators from the Petofi Literary Museum, Budapest.

Why create a virtual exhibition?

• While a physical exhibition requires significant time and financial investment to mount, a virtual exhibition can be created for a fraction of the cost and without many of the logistical challenges.
• A virtual exhibition also has the potential to reach a far wider, even global audience than a physical exhibition since it can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. For these reasons and more, creating a virtual exhibition is an increasingly popular option for museums looking to engage new audiences and tell new stories.
• A virtual exhibition is a great way to engage with your audience and provide them with an immersive experience that they can explore at their own pace, and explore using the sort of media they prefer. that might be video, audio, additional images – or something else!
• It also creates the opportunity to create one joint, collaborative exhibition between institutions. In this example from Budapest, 6 major museums and cultural institutions who had never collaborated in this way before created a schools tour together. Explore their virtual exhibition created in ThingLink below.

• It also means that delicate or fragile artefacts can be taken out of the archives and shown to a wide audience who might not normally be able to see them, even if they were able to visit you in person. This was the case at the Highland Folk Museum in Scotland where fragile artefacts were placed in situ in the on-site buildings, a virtual tour was created, then the artefacts were returned to the archives. This open air museum is always closed throughout the winter, so it also enables visitors to enjoy the exhibition out of season. Explore the full open air museum site virtually at their website here! A snapshot of their immersive virtual museum tour is below.

How do I make a virtual exhibition ?

This can be done using existing collections, or specially commissioned for the purpose.

If you are a museum or gallery curator or educator, you can base your material on photos of your real-life exhibition space. These can be flat images or, for a more realistic immersive experience, 360 images. You can create these with a 360 camera, or even with a smartphone – some of which are able to “stitch together” a 360 image from individual photos.

With ThingLink, you can easily create your own virtual exhibition by tagging images with hotspots that link to additional information, videos, or even other exhibitions.

Creating 360 images for your virtual exhibition

NEW! Creating virtual tours, exhibitions, escape rooms and other immersive content just got even easier! ThingLink has now launched Pano to 360 by ThingLink: an easy way to create a 360 photosphere from a panoramic image using any smartphone. For more information, including step-by-step instructions see this helpful support article. 

How do I create a virtual gallery?

You could also create a virtual space like the example above from Hungarian students. Read the full case study here to learn how they did it!

In this blog we provide you with a template for a 360 virtual art gallery using Canva. A tutorial is included!

How do you organize an online exhibition with ThingLink?

Organizers can share folders to collaborate on the project, editing the content together in real-time. That was the approach taken by the Budapest Museums when co-creating their Kapocs joint exhibition.

What are some tips for creating a virtual art exhibition?

In any online gallery, whether you use photos of physical art pieces or digital art that has been created using software alone, take as high quality images as you possibly can. In ThingLink, your audience will be able to zoom in – you don’t want blurry images! This support article provides all the detail you need for image specifications.

For any type of art exhibition, audiences love to hear from the artists themselves. Why not record videos of the artist creating their work? Alternatively you can add an audio of the artist talking about their work to a carousel of images. This is super easy in ThingLink: you can record straight into the editor, no need to record and upload audio files!

For an exiting 3d virtual exhibition you can display 3d models. A 3d gallery works the same as any other. You can even use your smartphone to create 3d models yourself which can be uploaded into ThingLink! Read how at our support article here.

Benefits of creating a virtual exhibition

Virtual exhibitions have many advantages, including being able to reach a global audience, promoting interactivity and engagement, and increasing accessibility. By taking advantage of these opportunities, museums and galleries can reach new heights in terms of programming and outreach.

A huge benefit of creating your virtual exhibition in ThingLink is the ease by which you can update your content. Should your gallery or exhibition space change at any time, simply take a new background image and swap in the background – simple! This works even if you have created a 360 tour of your space.

Displays can be updated instantly and easily:

“ThingLink is so responsive – we can update it ourselves in 30 seconds. It’s able to change and adapt as we do”. 
Sarah Elliot, Digital Content Producer, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Examples of successful virtual exhibitions

• There are many examples created in ThingLink based on real-world museums, galleries or exhibitions. Here is a selection of our favourites.
• Highland Folk Museum, Scotland
• V&A Dundee 
• Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
• Vermont Art Online
• Budapest Museums and Galleries
• Savonlinna Senior Secondary School of Arts, Finland

How do I share my virtual exhibition?

• Social media is a great place to start. Share a direct link to your ThingLink virtual exhibition to Facebook or Twitter and allow your audience to explore from there.
• You can also embed in your website or landing page, or simply share the link via email or your favourite messaging service!
• For a truly immersive experience, you can instantly share the exhibition in Virtual reality mode. Read more on how to do that here in our support article.
• You could even host a virtual event or private view where you share your virtual exhibition for the first time with a select audience at a particular time via a link or via Microsoft Teams or Google Meet.

New for 2024! ThingLink’s AR App is the simplest way to create self-guided in-person exhibitions

Have you heard about the new AR App by ThingLink? It’s the easiest and fastest way to create an interactive virtual guide for your exhibition visitors! Augmented reality information and links are provided in hotspots that appear as they scan an artwork with their phone. Ideal for self-guided tours.

The Barnett Centre at Ohio State University used the ThingLink AR App to guide visitors around their exhibition Accessible Expressions Ohio.

Read just how easily and quickly they did it at our case study here.

Or learn more about AR mode at our support article here.

Over to you!

After reading this post, you should be equipped with the knowledge of how to create your own virtual exhibition using Thinglink. This is a great way to showcase your products or services in a unique and engaging way. If you have any questions about how to get started, feel free to reach out to our team of experts at ThingLink. We would be happy to help you create a stunning virtual exhibition that highlights your space, your work or brand in the best light possible.

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

Our latest ThingLink update enables you to add a floor plan or ‘mini map’ that shows the exact location of where you are on the 360-degree tour!

Virtual tours with embedded hotspots are increasingly popular, and uses soared during the pandemic in so many different ways. These highly interactive and accessible ways of showcasing a place, space or situation have continued to increase in popularity. 

We’ve seen a real surge in virtual tours created for real estate, interactive games by educators, holiday homes, virtual schools, transitions, campus tours and staff development, particularly essential training for onboarding new employees.

In fact, real estate professionals and potential buyers see virtual tours as an essential part of the purchase process now.  In learning and development training, virtual tours or interactive 360-degree images are seen as cost and time saving assets enabling organizations to be more efficient and effective.

Check out this brilliant virtual tour example featuring our new floor plan feature here, simply enter! What’s really nice about this is you can also click on the hotspots directly on the floor plan to transition to that scene / room.

Virtual tour quick and easy instructions!

Tour creation: To try this feature, you can create your own floor plan as a base image for a scene and add your 360 media 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

Are you looking for a new virtual tour platform? ThingLink was the Best Rated Virtual Tour Software of 2022. It is the quickest and easiest virtual tour creator. Get started for free today. Once you’ve created your tour simply share or embed in your preferred place, social media or website! 

Discover more about virtual reality and virtual tours in our post with great examples

How do I create a Virtual Tour? Quick and easy tutorial to create tours. 

Where can I see some examples? View great examples of virtual tours here

How do I make a high-quality virtual tour with my phone? You can create 360-degree images with (e.g  Insta360) or without a 360 degree camera.

NEW! The easy way to create 360 images: Pano to 360

Creating virtual tours, exhibitions, escape rooms and other immersive content just got even easier! ThingLink has now launched Pano to 360 by ThingLink: an easy way to create a 360 photosphere from a panoramic image using any smartphone. For more information, including step-by-step instructions see this helpful support article. 

Some inspiring examples of interactive maps created by ThingLink users.

Thanks to mobile apps like Google maps, we are now all used to using maps every day that contain multiple links and rich media. But you don’t need a complicated or expensive map tool to become an interactive map maker. No need for coding, web design experience, javascript, APIs or expensive GIS software. For a professional-looking interactive map now all you need is ThingLink – and a little inspiration from our community!

Creating their own custom maps and infographics remains one of the most popular ways for people to use ThingLink. Here are some of our favourite examples which we hope will inspire you!

1.  Maps for orientation and navigating virtual visits

Keele University has created an informative interactive map of the School of Geography, Geology, and Environment campus. The map uses an aerial photo of the campus that connects to multiple points of information as well as 360-degree videos from different parts of the campus area. Included in the map view are also example reports from international field trips. For more information, see our specialized virtual tours collection and article.  

2.  Interactive maps for improved data visualization: European Fashion Trade Show Report by Fashion united

Fashion United shows how ThingLink’s tour creator layout expands this notion by combining any image into one unified experience. Their editorial team published an interactive map featuring highlights from the biggest European fashion trade shows in 2020.  Clicking on the various icons will give viewers a deeper dive, zoning into each specific region. Virtual tours are most commonly associated with 360/VR images, videos or still images of a physical space but this brings them all together in one place. For more information, full article here.

3. Dynamic informational maps: A Global Port Restrictions Map by Wilhemson Ships Service

Informational maps present essential information that is dynamically updated in real-time across the web, wherever your map is embedded. With the COVID-19 outbreak, ports imposed various restrictions on vessels and crew, it was essential to keep all the information updated and accessible to the global fleet. During the crisis, this world map was consistently one of the top viewed ThingLink designs.  Global Port Restrictions Map by Wilhemson Ships Service. More information on their website.

4. Interactive Maps for a collection of resources:  A map of virtual museums by Vermont Art Online  

Curators at the Middlebury College Museum of Art in Vermont, Sarah Laursen and Sarah Briggs, developed Vermont Art Online in direct response to the COVID-19 crisis. Vermont Art Online is a resource for teachers and families that offers virtual 3D tours of temporarily closed museums and galleries throughout the state of Vermont. Their map using a state map as the initial map design includes an informative legend image tag. 

 As well as benefiting museum visitors, the site also helps to promote art institutions’ visibility by increasing their website traffic. As curators and educators with digital media backgrounds, they used their skills and local connections to empower fellow curators.

Did you know: You don’t even need a 360 camera to capture 360 images like the ones in the tour below? New pano to 360 by ThingLink allows you to convert any panoramic photo into fully 360 photosphere!

5. Experiential interactive maps with sound effects: Halloween tour by Europa-Park

Have fun with custom styling, icons and interactive content! 

This type of map is the ideal solution for communicating, educating, and reeling in your audience within landing pages.  To bring their website content to life, DERTOUR created an interactive map featuring many attractions in the theme park that guests can experience.  Turn up the sound! The tags might make you jump! 

Behind every pumpkin hides one of the fantastic Halloween highlights awaiting guests at Europa-Park.

6. Interactive maps for training providers: Map of the Hanford Nuclear Site by Nicholson Construction

This map provides multidimensional perspectives with aerial photography and ‘zoom’ functionality with tour tags.  Nicholson Construction are providing information in the most accessible way possible to demonstrate their work at the Hanford Nuclear Site.

How do I share my maps?

Once you have created your own map in ThingLink, you can choose from various sharing options including copying an embed code, sharing a link (eg to social media) or even sharing as an accessible webpage.

Your interactive map could even form part of a wider learning scenario, using Scenario Builder. Read more about building a Scenario Based Learning Experience at the link below.

Further inspiration and support

We hope we’ve shown you that anyone can be an interactive map creator with ThingLink. (And remember, you can use the same skills to build your interactive infographics, images and timelines). You can also see more use case examples on our blog, some including templates you can clone.

For more information on all our plans including features and pricing, as well as support and tutorials, go to thinglink.com.