What is the Immersive Tours Pilot?

What is the Immersive Tour?

The Immersive Tours Pilot enables students to use 360º imagery and interactive annotations to share stories about actual locations. The pilot employs the ThingLink platform, which is approved by University Courseware, and allows creators to effortlessly upload their 360º content into its cloud-based editing area. Once uploaded, students can create individual scenes using their spherical recordings and add details such as text descriptions, audio guidance, photo or video embeds, and other features. These scenes can then be linked to form "walking" tours of larger or more intricate areas.

How does an immersive tour differ from a 360º video?

Immersive tours go beyond 360º video and offer additional benefits for both creators and viewers. While 360º imagery (both video and still) provides a foundation, interactive scenes can be built on top of it using tags through ThingLink's drag and drop interface. This allows storytellers to add more context and information at any point in the recorded space. After publication, viewers have control over their own experience as they become the director, selecting tagged hotspots and navigating between scenes at their own pace, whether they are using a desktop browser, mobile phone, or VR headset.

What assistance is available as a pilot participant?

The Immersive Tours Pilot provides a comprehensive package for faculty and students, including tools, training, and support. Our consultants will collaborate with you to assess your learning objectives and design assignment descriptions, align teaching with project outcomes, teach students how to capture 360º imagery and storytelling through ThingLink, provide enterprise accounts to students, and provide ample access to mentorship and assistance for your classes, regardless of the activity. The program ensures that your projects and assignments become class favorites.