The creation of successful online learning experiences relies on systematic planning and pedagogic expertise. To support our business and academic customers better in their efforts to build new cloud-based practices for learning and skills development, we are happy to share that Emmi Ollila joins the ThingLink team as an eLearning specialist. In this role Emmi will be responsible for several tools and service initiatives related to immersive learning design, visual course and module creation and LMS integration. In this interview, we asked Emmi about learning design and what inspires her in her new job!

Topics: eLearning, online learning, training, pedagogy

An historic institution looks to the future

Florida A&M University in Tallahassee FL was founded in 1887, and is the highest-ranked of the public HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the United States. They have been using ThingLink in a variety of ways for the past few years, alongside learning and digital media consultant LMichelle Salvant.

A true EdTech innovator and futurist, LMichelle has long been a proponent of using visual technology to enable young people to best showcase their skills and learning. A ThingLinker herself since 2017, she had initially introduced the platform to FAMU as a platform for virtual tours. More recently she has shown students how they could create their own digital, interactive and immersive multi-media resumes using ThingLink.

Topics: Featured, How To, online learning, remote learning, higher education, contextual learning, ThingLink, Interactive Resumes

This year our education team wishes to send the ThingLink community a special greeting celebrating many of the good moments, projects and partnerships we have seen from all over the world.

The year 2020 has been a whole new kind of challenge for all of us, and it has been astonishing to see all the new different creative ways you have used ThingLink with many other technologies to tackle some of these challenges.

In addition to the several wonderful case studies and examples our users have shared on the ThingLink Facebook groups over the year, in November we invited our community members  to send in their own best of the year projects. We received a great variety of entries which have now been collected to this end of year celebration called Featured Projects 2020.

This interactive collection features examples from professional development and ebooks to higher education, vocational education as well as elementary and secondary education. On each page you can find a short introduction to the project and why we chose to feature this example, there is also a brief description of how this example was created, as well as quotes and greetings from the creators.

Topics: Featured, How To, holiday greeting, virtual tour, exhibition, online learning, remote learning, Tour Creator, training, higher education, contextual learning, Field Trips, ThingLink

ThingLink, the leading provider of smart visual media solutions for online education and publishing welcomes Zach Tussing as the firm's Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). In this role Zach is responsible for annual revenue growth and the related KPIs including lead generation, conversion, and churn. Zach brings ThingLink over 15 years of experience from working in business and sales executive roles at the intersection to education, technology and media. In this interview we asked Zach about his career well as what he sees interesting in edtech and ThingLink!

Topics: edtech, online learning, ThingLink

The Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY) have an admirable vision to create the world’s most sustainable urban region. In 2020 they co-organized the International Water Association Conference, which like so many events this year, eventually had to be cancelled. Central to the event and its visiting experts was a tour of the underground wastewater plant.  Looking for an alternative solution to host the international experts, HSY contacted the ThingLink  to see if it was possible to put together an interactive virtual tour in just a couple of months.

Topics: Featured, How To, virtual tour, online learning, remote learning, Tour Creator, training, higher education, contextual learning, Field Trips

In previous years the students had been provided with a simple PDF map as well as links to the location’s website. This year, the department was keen to better convey the entire experience to students before their arrival, to prepare them more fully so that less time would be required for familiarisation during the trip.

Topics: Featured, How To, education, virtual tour, 360, 21st century learning, online learning, remote learning, Tour Creator, training, higher education, contextual learning, PD, Field Trips, university

Are you looking to create your own Virtual Tours and Expeditions? Do you need to view tours in Virtual Reality mode? ThingLink is the perfect solution for the task. This post provides you with an overview of ThingLink’s virtual tour creator as well as helpful tips and tricks to create your own immersive experiences.

Topics: Featured, How To, education, virtual tour, 360, 21st century learning, online learning, remote learning, workplace learning, Tour Creator, training, teacher training, contextual learning, PD

Question: How to make sure your student/employee has walked through a virtual tour and reached their learning goals? Answer: With ThingLink's new improved transition tag you can now add checkpoints to transitions. Correct responses will unlock the next scene!

Topics: Featured, How To, education, virtual tour, 360, 21st century learning, New Feature, online learning, remote learning, workplace learning, Tour Creator, training, teacher training, contextual learning, PD

Due to Covid-19 the University of Rochester realized that their popular in-person tours couldn’t take place - a serious blow to student recruitment. Research undertaken for the university website had proven that prospective students really valued these in-person tours, which give them an insight into living and studying at Rochester. Crucially, the choice to apply to or accept a place at Rochester was often made on the basis of connections made with current students during a campus visit.

Topics: Interactive video, Featured, virtual tour, 360, Spotlight, creativity, digital skills, higher education, Authentic Visit

When Covid cancelled a medical school’s in-person workshop, ThingLink provided a realistic scenario where students pieced together individual data to diagnose and create a patient management plan.

Topics: Featured, hospitals, residential care, creativity, digital skills, Medical training, higher education, contextual learning