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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’ll 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.

Join Us!

Mark your calendars and don’t miss out on this opportunity to step into the future with ThingLink’s Augmented Reality App.

If you can’t join the live webinar, sign up anyway 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

University Instructional Designer Sarah Dove proposed creating a virtual tour using ThingLink, to increase the accessibility and inclusivity of the exhibition. It would mean that those who were unable to access the center physically could take a tour of the objects within it. It would also provide an introduction to the building before visitors arrived, to give a sense of navigation around the space.

ThingLink provides not one but two solutions

At the time, ThingLink’s AR (Augmented Reality) app was in the final stages of development, and by good fortune was going to be ready to be deployed just when the exhibition was also in its final stage of preparation.

The dual approach could create multiple ways that people could experience the exhibition and engage with the artworks, whether in person, virtually, or a combination of the two. ThingLink was able to provide the solution to create and host both approaches – a Guided Tour and an AR experience. The two were developed in tandem, saving development time.

The virtual tour was launched in early October 2023, followed by the AR experience at the beginning of November 2023.

AR App – so easy to set up and use

Sarah reports that setting up the AR App was “incredibly easy.” Each artwork was photographed, the image uploaded to ThingLink AR App, and the interactive tags added in the same way as you would in the main editor. (Further instructions and link are provided at the bottom of this blog.)

Sarah created a poster for the exhibition which featured two QR codes: one to download the app, and one to visit the artwork collection.

In the video below, you can see that the tags appear instantly as an overlay when visitors scan the artwork with their mobile device. It was so straightforward that the center staff required no additional training on using, or supporting visitors to use the app – and to date, all visitors have enjoyed a smooth and straightforward experience. Just like in the Guided Tour, visitors are also able to purchase the available artworks via a link in the AR app.

How the Guided Tour was created and how it functions

The Guided Tour 360 images were created with a Go Pro camera, with more detailed images of groups of artworks provided within the tour. Visitors to the guided tour can click the tags on any artwork they would like to learn more about, or see in more detail. If the artwork is for sale, there is also a link to purchase via the Art Possible Ohio Shop site. Explore the full Guided Tour below!

It also contains an introduction video from Art Possible Director Megan Fitze which you can watch here:

You don’t necessarily require a 360 camera to create a similar tour. An instructor at OSU has created an example virtual gallery tour for her course students using the new solution Pano to 360 by ThingLink.

Feedback from creators, museum, artists and visitors

The ThingLink resources have been extremely well received both by the director of the Barnett Center – Scott A Jones, and the Director of Art Possible, Ohio – Megan Fitze.

“We work with artists all over the state, some of whom are homebound due to their disabilities. Having this virtual exhibition provided the artist and their loved ones the opportunity to see and share their work on view. The benefits can literally not be measured. Artists were simply excited to share the works with their friends and families and often left affirmative comments on our [social media] posting.”

Megan Fitze (Executive Director, Art Possible Ohio)

“The virtual tour and related supportive technologies added a rich and meaningful dimension to this art exhibition in the Barnett Center this semester. The initial conceptualization for the exhibition was strictly for an in-person audience. Through the thoughtful efforts of Instructional Designer Sarah Dove, the exhibition became available to viewers from around the world through the web-based nature of the technology. While this was my first interaction with such technology, I found the platform easy to navigate and enjoyable.”

Dr. Scott Jones (Director, Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise)

On accessibility:

“The tool itself makes it so easy to include the things that need to be considered for accessibility. The added benefit of people being able to translate it straight into another language just adds even more inclusion.”

Jessica Henderson

“It’s a really nice marriage of UDL (universal design for learning) and accessibility.”

Sarah Dove

On ThingLink overall:

“We have been very impressed and encouraged by how quickly things are updating and how quickly new things are being added. Because ThingLink is very invested in accessibility already it makes integrating these new features so much easier for us.”

Sarah Dove

“You always have the flexibility to find creative solutions with ThingLink”. 

Jessica Henderson

Impact and legacy of the exhibition

Art Possible Ohio intend to keep the Guided Tour active indefinitely as an online fully asynchronous exhibition space. In this way it will also represent archival material – a catalogue of the exhibition and a learning artefact. They will also be sharing it in presentations with stakeholders and potential future partners.

How does the AR app work?

Creating interactive content for the AR app is very straightforward in ThingLink.

1. Take a picture of an object (e.g. a painting)
2. Upload the picture to ThingLink and add hotspots using ThingLink’s main media editor.
3. Go to the AR section in your ThingLink profile, add the scene to an AR collection, and then generate a share code for your collection

For detailed instructions, go to our easy-to-follow article on our support pages.

Should I choose a Virtual Tour or Guided Tour?

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 a virtual tour of the Orton Museum on campus (explore below!) 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.

For this reason the team decided that Guided Tours would be even more useful in this regard than the free-form self-guided virtual tour alternative. The guided tour welcomes viewers to the Barnett Center virtually before coming to the physical exhibition, guiding them through a route that they would take from arrival to the exhibition – rather than relying on the visitor to navigate their own way around the spaces.

On the other hand, Virtual Tours work well when you have a lot of information that you would like to include on each object, such as in the Orton Museum tour above.

Thank you to Sarah Dove and Jessica Henderson for their help in putting this case study together.

Further case studies and blogs you may be interested in

Royal Ontario Museum’s New Virtual Tour

How Stuhr Museum’s Blizzard Scenario Brings History to Life

Highland Folk Museum’s Virtual Tours

Budapest’s Major Museums Create Virtual Tours for Schools

V&A Dundee Widens Access with ThingLink

How Museums and Technology are Collaborating

ROM’s Virtual Tours Solve Access Issues

Join the Conversation!

Get involved with our active groups and communities on social media and explore some inspiring examples of interactive content from our 10 million creators worldwide!

ThingLink LinkedIn Page 

LinkedIn Community

X / Twitter ThingLink Page

X / Twitter ThingLink Edu Page

X / Twitter Creative Learning Design Community

ThingLink Education Facebook Group

Or follow our YouTube channel for tutorials

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

Registration

ThingLink Launches a Revolutionary Solution for Capturing 360 Images

In light of the discontinuation of the Google Street View Camera app, ThingLink has answered the call for a mobile-friendly alternative with a new and groundbreaking addition to its suite of tools. Our game-changing new conversion solution allows you to effortlessly create virtual tours using 360-degree photosphere images, using nothing but your mobile phone.

No need for a specialist 360 camera or equipment

Until now, capturing 360 degree images was only possible with a 360 camera such as the Ricoh Theta z1 or Insta360, plus a monopod or tripod. Now, panoramic photos taken on an iphone or any android mobile device can easily be converted for use in a virtual tour.

Explore the possibilities with this ThingLink Guided Tour

Get inspired with a walk through of this guided tour of a co-working space in Helsinki. Immerse yourself in the impressive converted 360 photosphere, originally captured with an iPhone 12 Pro Max on the panorama setting and converted into a 360 degree photo in ThingLink. Click through or scroll around the embed below.

Don’t Miss Our Jam-Packed Webinar

Want to learn more about our cutting-edge solution for converting panoramic images into fully immersive 360 photospheres? Join our webinar where we’ll take you through a step-by-step tutorial. Witness the endless possibilities come to life through exciting real-life examples and engage in a live Q&A session with our experts. This webinar is suitable for everyone, from complete beginners to experienced ThingLink creators! We give you a full guide as to how to use the new tool.

What can you use the new 360 solution for?

This new solution is for anyone who is interested in virtual tour creation. You may be an educator who wants to make an interactive, immersive experience for your learners, a provider of elearning solutions, a gallerist or museum curator looking for cost-effective ways to create virtual exhibitions, or a real estate agent looking to avoid the high costs of virtual tour software. Anyone and everyone can become a virtual tour creator with ThingLink’s easy to use solution.

ThingLink allows you to create high quality virtual tours of any environment, annotated with rich media hotspots containing further information and links. They can be shared or embedded anywhere via URL, QR code, or even used with VR headsets in virtual reality mode!

Other posts we think you’ll love

• Check out our up and coming or previous webinars
• Sign up to watch the replay – AI in Immersive Learning
• New ThingLink webinar series: AI-assisted tools for immersive content creation
• Top Six Outstanding Text to Image AI Generation Tools
• The Best AI Content Creation Tools: A Practical Guide
• Add a Floor Plan to your virtual tour: highlight different rooms with our fantastic new feature!

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

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.

Student-centered learning is an approach to pedagogy that puts the focus on the student rather than on the teacher. It aims to empower learners by giving them more independence and autonomy to direct their own learning experiences. In a student-centered classroom, the teacher serves as a facilitator rather than a lecturer, working together with students as active participants to co-create learning goals and activities. This approach to student learning values communication skills, collaboration and critical thinking skills over rote memorization teaching methods and passive learning. By allowing students to take ownership of their own learning journey, student-centered teaching prepares them for success in real-world situations where adaptability and self-motivation are essential traits.

Benefits of a student-centered learning environment

A student-centered approach enhances critical thinking skills, problem-solving and decision-making abilities, and the acquisition of new knowledge. Educators usually see higher levels of student engagement, motivation, and self-esteem than in a traditional teacher-centered classroom. Lastly, this approach to the learning process promotes a sense of responsibility, autonomy, and self-discipline in students, preparing them for lifelong learning and success in the future. Ultimately, student-centered instruction is an effective way of giving students meaningful educational experiences, helping them to develop the necessary skills and attitudes needed to thrive in today’s fast-changing world.

How do you promote student-centered learning in the classroom?

As we have seen, one of the key ways to promote student-centered learning in the classroom is to encourage and facilitate active participation from the students themselves. This can be achieved through student-led discussions, small group or individual project-based learning. It can be achieved by following individual students’ interests, by promoting and respecting student choice regarding topics of study or learning activities. Another way to promote student-centered learning is to provide opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and set goals for themselves. This allows them to take responsibility for their own progress, empowering them to become self-directed learners. This will put high school students in particular in a good position to move onto further and higher education.

How can you use ThingLink in student-centered learning?

ThingLink is a versatile and powerful tool that makes any visual media interactive and engaging with multimedia hotspots. It is an ideal tool for enhancing student-centered learning experiences and project-based learning. ThingLink can facilitate collaboration and creativity among students, as they can work together on rich media projects and co-create content. Popular examples for student co-creation are virtual exhibitions, interactive stories and artefacts and virtual tours and expeditions – to either real or imagined places.

Because ThingLink is hosted and updated in the cloud, it is ideally suited for ongoing project work. Students can create a live piece of content which can be updated regularly and when needed.

By integrating ThingLink in student-centered learning, educators can empower students to become active learners and deep thinkers who are able to make meaningful connections between concepts and ideas.

Examples of how you could use ThingLink for student-centered learning

• A virtual exhibition on any character in history that the students choose. In this example below, students at the University of Central Lancashire have created a virtual exhibition on women in history

• A virtual tour or exhibition around places or landmarks of the student’s choice – they can use the free 360 images within the ThingLink image library to create their dream trip!

• Students can upload a piece of content of their choice and add rich media tags at any place within it to record their own personal response to it – in text, image or video format. The main media could be an artwork, a photograph, a 360 image or even a 3D model.
• Students can create a science fair with their own investigations and research of choice presented as interactive virtual exhibits.
• Students could create an interactive infographic to show any process – this could be a scientific process, a business process or a creative one. For more advice on creating interactive infographics with Canva that students can then make interactive in ThingLink, please see this helpful blog post.
• Students could create a timeline on any subject of their choice. This could also be used for personal journalling. For further guidance on how to create an interactive timeline see our blog post.
• An interactive newsletter for their group or club.

For more inspiration on interactive content that students can use to create student-centered learning experiences, take a look at this blog with ten Canva templates that could be adapted.

Hopefully this blog has given you some useful inspiration for ways to use student-centered learning with ThingLink. For more ideas, look out for our education blogs where we share great use cases from some of our talented educators around the world.

Collaborative and student-led

Silenced by History: Herstory, is a collaborative student-led project by students, from across the School of Humanities Language and Global Studies (HLGS) at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan, UK). You can read the full case study here, on which this blog is based.

Students had to identify, gather, co-create and present stories about women from across the Globe who have been silenced throughout history. These women have not been given the same recognition their males counterparts have had in history, and who are generally not included in history books.

“We wanted to address this injustice and to reach out to as many people as possible whilst, at the same time, developing new skills for our students.”

Maria D Iglesias Mora, HLGS, UCLan

Demonstrating how straightforward it is to create an online exhibition without a real-world exhibition space, the students used ThingLink to create a digital artefact to increase awareness about these women’s stories.

How the students created their virtual exhibition material

The main stages were:

1. Gathering information about their chosen woman/women from across the globe: both in English and in the language of the country of origin. For many of the students it was important for them to give visibility to unheard and underrepresented voices from their own countries, communities, or subject areas.
2. Students collaborated via a private MS Teams Chat, and held regular meetings in Microsoft Teams to share and discuss the findings. They used the sessions to explore how to use ThingLink, as well as Canva as a potential tool to manipulate and help edit their designs.
3. Using their background material, interactive images were created in ThingLink. The participants themselves designed the images, selected, edited, and presented the information.

The impact of the virtual exhibition

Herstory has had an overall impact at various levels:

• Raising participants’ confidence and motivation to contribute to future initiatives or to create digital artefacts in ThingLink;
• The stories have potentially inspired others who are going through a challenging time.

“Now the platform has been developed and is live, it is ripe for expansion and the telling of a much wider array of stories…These voices have and will continue contributing to uncover those narratives that have been buried beneath discrimination and injustice in history.”

Maria D Iglesias Mora, HLGS, UCLan

Co-creation and cross collaboration

The case study concludes that

“The pedagogical benefits of storytelling by using an accessible and user-friendly platform such as ThingLink can be easily extrapolated to other disciplines as it provides formative opportunities to assess students and consolidate their learning. The students who took part in Herstory were encouraged by the need to produce an end-product, i.e., build content for a global audience. This type of project can allow our learners to become co-creators, not just consumers of knowledge, and, therefore, it can be applied to any subject since it creates opportunities for cross collaboration. In addition, I believe projects like this can consolidate understanding in any subject area and can enhance other academic and digital skills.”

With grateful thanks to Maria D Iglesias Mora, Co-course Lead Foundation and Lecturer in Hispanic and Global Studies at the School of Humanities, Language and Global Studies, University of Central Lancashire, for having allowed us to share this fantastic project. If you would like to get in touch to discuss the project, please contact Maria via email: MDIglesiasMora@uclan.ac.uk

Do you want to create a similar virtual exhibition?

The same process and approach used by the UCLan students could be used in any discipline to present an interactive, multimedia artefact or exhibition which brings together the collaborative work of a group of students or colleagues.

You could:

• Create virtual art exhibitions, displaying images of your art pieces in a virtual art gallery. For sculpture and other objects you could create a 3d gallery, using the 3d model tagging functionality in ThingLink.
• Create a virtual space for any images using this 360 virtual gallery template – created in Canva. Download and edit via this link which also provides a tutorial on how to use to create your own online gallery. You can even turn it into a virtual reality or VR exhibition using ThingLink’s VR mode.
• Use ThingLink as a storytelling tool by creating an interactive timeline of events or developments
• Create an interactive map with ThingLink to place events or individuals in their relevant locations

Further reading

Read these examples of how educators and exhibitions organizers at real galleries, museums and cultural institutions are using ThingLink to create immersive virtual tours of their spaces which improve access to their cultural heritage artefacts.

• Highland Folk Museum case study
• V&A Dundee case study
• Royal Ontario Museum case study
• Vermont Art Online case study
• Budapest Museums and Galleries case study

Looking for more ways to use ThingLink as a resource for Higher Education? We have summarised three recent independent research papers into the use of ThingLink in HE, including Virtual Labs. Read the summary here.

Educators: Why not join one of our friendly social media communities? ThingLink Education group on Facebook or the ThingLink Community on LinkedIn are a great place to start!

Carmanah is a company based in British Columbia, Canada, that helps improve road safety with a range of products including flashing beacons, radar speed signs and sign systems. Their products and solutions are used for crosswalks, school zones, highways and many other areas where traffic and pedestrians mix. Customers include cities, towns and transportation departments across all of North America.

Carmanah have used ThingLink to create interactive content since 2018. They have embedded ThingLink content on their website to demonstrate how their products work, the technology behind them and the difference they make when used to solve a traffic challenge.

Carmanah’s initial ThingLink content creation solved their challenge of adding a large amount of information to the product images – including features, assembly, results and statistics – to create interactive infographics. Tags variously contained text, images, infographics and video content containing a huge amount of information in a number of different easily digestible and accessible formats. This produced a better user experience as the base image is kept clean and clear. 

Interactive infographics and images

In 2020-21 the marketing team were looking to create an interactive experience which could be used for both their website and trade exhibition use – whether in person or virtual. Their solution was a clever “virtual walking tour” in ThingLink, which links 360 images, videos and 360 videos. Each contains interactive elements for the viewer to explore and discover more about the Carmanah products. 360 images were used from Google Street View (now deprecated) to show a number of their products working in situ.

Tags or hotspots contain:

• links to case studies for those specific locations, clearly showing the challenge and the solution, with solid evidential metrics of the change in driver behaviour and accidents
• data sheets
• links to download application guides
• short video animations showing the Carmanah project approach
• links to further information and pieces of content that would help their target audience choose the correct solution

This solution worked so well that it was worked up into the next level of interactive videos, created specifically for trade shows and exhibitions.

Carmanah’s interactive experience goes on the road

Carmanah’s marketing strategy involves presenting at national trade shows and exhibitions.  Previously, these events had proved a serious challenge from a logistical and product marketing point of view. For previous exhibitions they had produced a scaled-down demo version of one of their products. However, logistical concerns and available space limited the range of products they could show. So it was impossible to demonstrate how products worked together and the different configurations available. It also didn’t answer the challenge of demonstrating them in context – urban and suburban environments where traffic and pedestrian meet. 

Carmanah required a solution which: 

• Was stand-out with eye-catching and engaging content
• could show the full range of products
• was flexible in its application for both online and offline use
• Was fully interactive for visitors to explore depending on their specific needs.

Interactive content – online and offline

Another of the challenges which the team anticipated involved wifi. The unpredictable reliability of wifi at trade shows is a challenge which can impact on the success of any interactive content. They looked at other types of presentation software which could be used both online and offline but no content tools provided the functionality of ThingLink. 

They used the ThingLink offline app in combination with a Microsoft Surface, wirelessly broadcast to a projector – a set up that worked seamlessly for the Business Development Team.

The benefits of interactive content at exhibitions

The final ThingLink content created for the trade show (above) drew a lot of positive feedback from visitors and other exhibitors – immediately grabbing their audience’s attention and helping Carmanah stand out from other exhibitors. More importantly, this type of interactive content meant that the team were able to immerse the customers in the environment in which the products normally sit – showing off their full capability. 

“It was invaluable to be able to place the product in context for our stand visitors rather than see it on its own. They were totally immersed by the content as we took them into various parts of the tour.”

Business Development Team, Carmanah

The content acted as a self-selection tool – with users navigating themselves to the specific area they were interested in. To explore a different product, they clicked on the home button to return to the landing screen where they could choose one of the 4 “families” of products.

“With ThingLink we’re now able to provide a journey to meet different customers’ needs and let them take different paths. It was able to answer and expand on whatever inquiries they had. One platform provides a leaping off point for them all.”

Dakota Hoeppner, Marketing Communications Specialist, Carmanah

How can ThingLink help your sales and marketing teams?

Because Carmanah’s interactive material in ThingLink provides information in different formats – from infographics, detailed text and data, to video footage showing the products working in context, it works well for a range of different users. For those interested in the technical specs and data points, they can dive deeper and easily find as much information as they require. This allows teams to upsell and cross-sell your product or service when appropriate.

Added value: The Intangible Benefits of Interactive Content

Using ThingLink to display their products also provided what Dakota describes as “an intangible sense that we are experts in this industry.” 

“ThingLink matches our technological expertise in our field. We need to show that we are thought leaders in our space – that we know how to create and apply intelligent systems to solve problems. This goes hand in hand with using ThingLink to demonstrate these solutions.” 

Dakota Hoeppner, Marketing Communications Specialist, Carmanah

Interactive content marketing: the key to a fruitful content marketing strategy 

Quality content such as interactive maps, timelines, images and videos and interactive ebooks can all be used in a multifunctional way across your website, trade shows and email marketing. Replace static content on your landing pages to increase lead generation. Create interactive quizzes to get to know your market better and gain valuable user data. 

Want to see more examples of interactive content marketing like this?

You’ll find lots of inspiration at our dedicated Editorial and Marketing page. You can also join our helpful communities on social media for tips, great examples and inspiration, advice and support. Our LinkedIn Community is a great place to start!

“Nobody else does this combination of simplicity, flexibility, plus the offline capability so well as ThingLink. There are so many different features and so much potential in there. It’s just a question of where do we want to take it?”

Dakota Hoeppner, Marketing Communications Specialist, Carmanah

In 2020 we showcased the wonderful collaborative project “Kapocs”,  created in ThingLink by six Budapest cultural institutions during lockdown. The name means “link”in Hungarian, and the project exhibited and linked artefacts that had never previously been shown in the same exhibition space. ThingLink was delighted to speak once more to Anna Kadar, educator at the Petofi Literary Museum (PLM), who had helped initiate Kapocs, about their 2021 schools project based on a 19th century epic poem. 

An Epic Project

János Vitéz (in English “John the Valiant”) is an epic poem written in 1844 by Sandor Petőfi,  considered the national poet of Hungary. The poem tells the story of a young shepherd who leaves home and enjoys adventures around a semi-fantastical world. János Vitéz is known to every Hungarian school child and is part of their core curriculum.

Make Your Own Adventure

The team saw John the Valiant as the ideal starting point for story-based project work for fifth-graders (aged 11–12). Research shows that at this age, children are particularly interested in stories where they can adapt the plot and introduce their own themes, characters and variations. John’s adventures take place in a number of fantasy worlds with limitless possibilities. Expanding and re-shaping his story with their own ideas would be an exciting challenge for these school children.

Valuable Lessons

Anna and her museum education department colleagues, Anna Czékmány, Judit Kodolányi and Diána Sóki had learnt many valuable lessons during lockdown and in creating Kapocs. They knew that creating a community experience and an opportunity for collaborative thinking and creation was key to engaging school pupils. They saw ThingLink as the ideal tool to facilitate a project like this.

Call to Schools

PLM put out the call in January 2021, for any 5th grade classes who would like to create a new character for the poem. In small groups, the children were asked to illustrate their character’s encounter with John the Valiant, and create an interview with him/her/it about this adventure. Over 300 students and 18 teachers signed up.  

Open to All

Initially the project was envisaged as a competition, with only the winning entries exhibited in the final virtual art exhibition. However Anna and her team realised quickly that the project had generated a great deal of enthusiasm, effort and commitment from both the teachers and children. A third wave of the pandemic in Hungary and the threat of more museum closures confirmed their decision to include all entries in the final virtual event. The aim and focus of the project therefore shifted away from competition and towards networking and co-operation.

Training and Support

The museum educators knew that the support of the teachers was key to the project’s success. They provided tutorial videos and group training workshops for the class teachers. They covered both the technical aspects of creating the content and how best to work together. 

Structure of the Accounts

During the creative stage, each teacher had an overview of just their own students: they could view and organize the art pieces, choosing when to make it visible to the museum.

Junior Curators

The classes themselves then attended virtual museum lessons with Anna and her colleagues, where they learnt more about Petőfi, the poem, the key steps in exhibition planning and curating, and using ThingLink to create a joint online exhibition.  

The children divided into groups within their classes and amalgamated their digital art and interviews into a ThingLink scene adding explanations, games and instructions for future visitors into this online gallery. They then created their virtual exhibitions in these virtual spaces. The work was led by the class teachers, with the museum educators supporting via a mentoring system, each educator mentoring 3-4 teachers.

An Old Classic is brought up to date

The children adapted the characters and locations of John the Valiant to their own 21st century world. Petofi’s original poem was very male-dominated, but the children included female characters, with many giving their heroines a traditionally masculine role such as warriors and rebels. 

The children chose to use a wide and inventive variety of media including films, photos, drawings, sound recordings, interviews, instructional videos, cartoons, computer games and quizzes. There were some very ingenious ways of creating content quickly and easily. Some of the children created videos simply by using common video conferencing platforms, reading and acting out the stories they had created. Several schools also reported that the children continued their creative work on their own.

The New Characters Need a Home

The teachers and groups of children then had to combine and arrange their characters and stories in a series of shared spaces. Where would these new characters meet? Many of the classes chose to showcase their characters against a background image from ThingLink’s own 360 image library. As well as using the ThingLink 360 library, one group created their own panoramic virtual 360 space using their own background drawing. Another group used Google Street View (now deprecated) to take and combine images of a local park to create a background for their virtual art gallery.

Conditional Transitions Tool

The groups also made great use of the conditional transitions tool. Exhibition visitors have to answer a question correctly before being allowed to move onto the next scene. One class even created an escape room using the conditional transitions, which was a very popular addition to the virtual exhibition. At the end of the virtual opening, participants were able to decide whether to make their work available to the public.

Making Connections

Feedback from the schools showed that building the exhibition was a very important community experience for the children, who had endured varying degrees of isolation during successive lockdowns. The project won the Museum Pedagogy Award in 2021, an annual prize issued by the Museum Education Methodology Center, a nationwide institution for museum education and museum studies. Anna writes in her museum blog: “This success is really about the work, the flexibility, the ideas and the connections we have made in a very isolated period for all the participants.”

What’s Next at the Museum

Anna and team hope to run the János Vitéz Memorial Exhibition competition again in 2022, making the most of the experience and lessons learned from the first round. 2023 will be the 200th anniversary of Petőfi’s birth, so the museums will cooperate once more with a celebratory project based on the original Kapocs project. Petofi travelled to many towns and villages during his short life, which now feature memorials and celebrate legends in folk tales and songs about the poet. The PLM educators would like other museums outside the capital to be involved in this next stage.

Want to know more about using ThingLink at your museum, gallery or heritage site?

Read more about how you can use ThingLink to easily create your own virtual tours and exhibitions here! You can also read some more real-world examples below. See how real galleries have been creating virtual spaces in ThingLink to share with a global audience.

• Highland Folk Museum: includes annotated 3d models and immersive tours of recreated heritage buildings in their open air museum.
• V&A Dundee: Scottish design museum widens access to museum exhibitions with ThingLink.
• Royal Ontario Museum: Includes video tutorial on tour navigation for an optimal user experience.
• Vermont Art Online: State-wide virtual tour of galleries and museums in ThingLink

Your ThingLink virtual tour can be embedded in your website, shared as a link or on social media, or even viewed in VR (virtual reality) mode.

How to create a virtual gallery

The easiest way to make an online art gallery is with our smart Canva template. Download and read the simple instructions here.

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. 

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