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E-Learning Challenges
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Using Virtual Tours and Field Trips in E-Learning #379

DavidAnderson's avatar
4 years ago

Virtual Tours in E-Learning #379: Challenge | Recap

Virtual tours are a fantastic way to enable learners to discover and explore remote spaces—just like they would if they were on a real-world field trip. Virtual tours can be self-guided, so learners can choose the areas of interest to explore and dig into the details to learn more. Virtual tours can also be structured through conditional navigation or a compelling host who guides learners through each location.

No matter which design approach you take, virtual tours are an essential activity to include in your e-learning toolkit. Before jumping into this week’s challenge, let’s look at some interaction types to help you design your virtual tours.

Interactive Map Tours

Interactive maps are a popular explore-type activity to guide learners from one point to another while sharing information about each location. Maps designs are super flexible and include everything from simple graphics and illustrations to rich media, including photos and video. 

Interactive Maps in E-Learning #314: Challenge | Recap

360° Virtual Tours

Storyline’s 360° image feature enables course designers to create even more immersive tours and explore-type activities. Check out the examples featured in the recap to get an idea of what’s possible with this new feature.

360° Images in E-Learning #337: Challenge | Recap

Challenge of the Week

This week, your challenge is to share an example to demonstrate how virtual tours can be used in e-learning.

Share Your E-Learning Work

  • Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post.
  • Forums: Start  your own thread and share a link to your published example..
  • Personal blog:  If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure.
  • Social Media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.

Last Week’s Challenge:

Before you take your learners on a tour, check out the creative examples from last week’s challenge:


Choose Your E-Learning Challenge #378:
Challenge | Recap

New to the E-Learning Challenges?

The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.

Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article

Published 4 years ago
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82 Comments

    • Jonathan_Hill's avatar
      Jonathan_Hill
      Super Hero
      Nice! We visited Krakow deep in the winter of 2008/9 and I've always wanted to return in the summer. Just as stunning without snow. Where did you get your panoramic image of the Main Square, Maren?
    • NormaJohnson-4b's avatar
      NormaJohnson-4b
      Community Member
      Maren,
      I love the idea of using Light Boxing for the information on each point. I may use that for my actual Tour of the ROC when I produce the learning to use. Thanks for the idea!
    • Ron_Katz's avatar
      Ron_Katz
      Community Member
      Maren,

      Thanks for sharing. Great use of colors in your light boxes. A quick and clean educational experience.
      • maren_west's avatar
        maren_west
        Community Member
        Thanks Ron! I took a page out of Jodi's book and used a Very Peri color palette that ended up working well with my images
    • Ron_Katz's avatar
      Ron_Katz
      Community Member
      Great work, Mackenzie. It inspired my second entry.
    • amarkulshreshth's avatar
      amarkulshreshth
      Community Member
      Very interesting, I like the way you used videos in backgrounds and starting screen with animated globe.
      • Ange's avatar
        Ange
        Community Member
        Thank you Amar. Appreciate the comment. I do like playing around with video backgrounds.
    • Samuel's avatar
      Samuel
      Community Member
      Totally enjoyed this one. I’m interested in learning how you got the plane to fly backwards. Good job!
      • Ange's avatar
        Ange
        Community Member
        Hi Samuel, Thank you. I used a quick-fix simple state change, working on a more elegant way to achieve this. I added the .story file for the slide to the Review page should you be interested in taking a look.
  • Hello,

    I created a Virtual Tour to the Statue of Unity, Gujrat India. The tallest statue in the world. Please have a look and get some interesting facts and information about the Tallest Statue of the World. Hope you will like it.

    http://www.amarkulshreshtha.com/activity/sou/story.html

    LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amar-kulshreshtha-a5b9b12a_elhchallenge-learning-india-activity-6950009231412465664-kqen/?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web
    • Ange's avatar
      Ange
      Community Member
      Fascinating. I love that it was a community effort and used recycled iron from old farming equipment. An impressive site for an impressive leader. Thank you for the tour.
    • NormaJohnson-4b's avatar
      NormaJohnson-4b
      Community Member
      Amar,
      This is just beautiful! I enjoyed the details of the sculpture and all of the information about Patel.
    • Yvonne's avatar
      Yvonne
      Community Member
      Beautifully presented, Amar. Thank you for sharing this robust and inspiring work.
    • LauraHansen-065's avatar
      LauraHansen-065
      Community Member
      echoing the others, love the use of rise! It feels easier to be creative in storyline, so I love the ideas for being more creative in rise
    • KandiceKidd-730's avatar
      KandiceKidd-730
      Community Member
      I love this, Sam. I would have never thought to do that! It looks so bright and fun.
    • NormaJohnson-4b's avatar
      NormaJohnson-4b
      Community Member
      Samuel,
      I loved the use of Rise on this. The details of each sculpture was interesting, definitely makes me want to visit the Stock Yards now!
  • Hello! I'm off on a business trip shortly, so I don't have much time this week. Hope this quick 'one slide' effort meets the brief.

    DOCTOR STRANGE'S GUIDE TO THE MIRROR DIMENSION
    https://bit.ly/elhc379
    • Jonathan_Hill's avatar
      Jonathan_Hill
      Super Hero
      Back from my trip and fixed the dreadful typo (Dr Stange!) - and also took the opportunity to add a 360 'escape' from the mirror dimemsion!

      Funny story: my poor attempts to create a custom 360 image reminded me of the Mirror Dimension in the Doctor Strange film, which inspired this demo.
    • JodiSansone's avatar
      JodiSansone
      Community Member
      Don't despair. Your font helps camouflage it and my brain made the correction on its own. Funny how that works. :)
  • JodiSansone's avatar
    JodiSansone
    Community Member
    A Visit to the Integratron in Landers, CA
    Demo: https://jodisdemos.s3.amazonaws.com/379+Integratron/story.html

    Last Friday when I saw this challenge I was just getting into the car to visit the Integratron with my husband and cousin, so I thought I would document the trip. It's a funky place up in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree National Park. I tried to give you a feel for the Integratron experience and the surroundings of the high desert, which are very stark but beautiful. About half of these photos are mine and the rest are screen captures from the Integratron website. Have a great week!
    • Jonathan_Hill's avatar
      Jonathan_Hill
      Super Hero
      Very comprehensive guide to an attraction I knew nothing about, but now want to visit. Your incorporation of Google Maps as web objects is great, very seamless.
      • JodiSansone's avatar
        JodiSansone
        Community Member
        Landers is about an hour through the desert from Barstow. I recall you are a Hunter Thompson fan, so you might like it ;)
    • KandiceKidd-730's avatar
      KandiceKidd-730
      Community Member
      Jodi, you've done it again! I love this. How did you get your map to do that?? On the map slide?
      • JodiSansone's avatar
        JodiSansone
        Community Member
        Hi KK. Here's link to Alicia de Billy's you tube demo on how to embed a Google map. She did it for the Valentine demo back in February. https://youtu.be/bGBLM7Qky2g It's a web object with some slight modifications to the embed code.
    • NormaJohnson-4b's avatar
      NormaJohnson-4b
      Community Member
      Looks like an interesting day trip! The recording of the sound bath was a nice touch. I agree with Ron, the where to stay was interesting, very exclusive B&Bs for sure.
  • Yvonne's avatar
    Yvonne
    Community Member
    Here is my attempt at creating a virtual tour of the McDonald Observatory exhibit hall:
    https://360.articulate.com/review/content/fdb241f1-f109-4263-b1d6-e975fb96fa65/review

    Last night, we attended a Star Party where an astronomer pointed out summer constellations of the Northern Hemisphere under one of the darkest skies in the US. We then viewed various galaxies and nebulae through five different 8" to 21" telescopes guided by observatory staff. I took photos of the indoor exhibit, as I often like to do, because I usually run out of time to read the text well as we are walking through an area and experiencing it for the first time. I have a deep appreciation for exhibit design, especially regarding interactive displays.

    My fiance (with a steady hand) took a panoramic photo for me using my cell phone and I was able to adjust the canvas size height, edit it, and upload it as a 360 degree image in Storyline360. I recreated the exhibit displays I had clear photos of, simplifying some of the text while communicating main points.
    • JodiSansone's avatar
      JodiSansone
      Community Member
      What a great experience! It is sometimes hard to remember what a dark sky looks like.
      • Yvonne's avatar
        Yvonne
        Community Member
        Thank you, Jodi. I was so impressed to see an edge of the Milky Way with my own eyes in that Dark Sky community. It was the most brilliant night skies I have yet witnessed.
    • amarkulshreshth's avatar
      amarkulshreshth
      Community Member
      I really like how you created this virtual tour. Inspired by your work I posted my eLearning challenge after a long time...
      • Yvonne's avatar
        Yvonne
        Community Member
        I am extremely glad to hear; your project is inspiring.
    • Ron_Katz's avatar
      Ron_Katz
      Community Member
      Yvonne, I like how you have everything conveniently in one room. How did you create your 360 degree image?
      • Yvonne's avatar
        Yvonne
        Community Member
        We used the Panorama setting on my phone to create a 9000x2000 image. I tried uploading it as a 360 degree image in Storyline360 and it worked, although looked puckered. I edited the image in paint.net to add to the canvas height, darkened the top strip which would be the ceiling, and copied a thin horizontal strip of the floor that I just stretched out. It looked passable at 9000x2500 pixel resolution.

        If you look up in the 360 degree room, the ceiling is just black, which worked for this indoor space. If you tilt down, the floor looks strange and stretched out, but I felt like it does not take away from being able to tour the exhibit hall for this demo. :)

        Next I'm going to test using the Google Street View app to create a 360 degree view with my cell phone.
    • ChristinaMoo785's avatar
      ChristinaMoo785
      Community Member
      That was so cool! I didn't know you could get 360 photos on Flickr. I'm going to have to check that out.
    • JodiSansone's avatar
      JodiSansone
      Community Member
      I felt like I was walking through the mansion. The hot spots really helped to guide you through. I wish I could find some 3D photo sets like this to practice your technique.
      • Ron_Katz's avatar
        Ron_Katz
        Community Member
        It was a fluke of luck to find these. I saw our Governor on the News and thought "is there an executive residence in North Carolina?" When I did a search, the 360 degree photos in Flickr came up right away. First I wasn't sure I could download them, so I tried SnagIt. But I later found they could be downloaded, which made formatting them easy.
    • Yvonne's avatar
      Yvonne
      Community Member
      What a neat virtual tour of the Governor's executive home. I appreciate how you put the time into leading us through different rooms, rather than just one portion of the home, as well as creating the audio/visual engagement features.