How to Create an Interactive Virtual Tour

By Sarah Wendorf, Instructional Designer

Do you need to orient students to a lab, equipment, safety procedures, or other spatial elements?

With the Hub’s Insta360 camera and the H5P Virtual Tour (360) Moodle plugin, we can help you create amazing online tours of your lab space, workshop, classroom, outdoor setting, or anywhere else we can capture 360 images.

Using the 360 camera, we can capture images of your space. We then bring those images into H5P Virtual Tour (360) in Moodle and turn them into interactive tours with clickable scenes. These scenes can be layered with photos, videos, animations, illustrations, questions, links, and much more.

The possibilities are endless and there is no cost to our faculty and staff!

Try It! Dental Reprocessing Lab Virtual Tour

The H5P Virtual Tour below was created by the Hub team for the Dental Hygiene program here at Cambrian College. We worked with the faculty in the Dental program to take 360 photographs and record video of their Dental Reprocessing Lab where dental instruments are sterilized. The tour below is how students would experience it.

What You Will Need to Create a Virtual Tour

While every tour is unique, we have outlined some items to consider if you would like to create something like this for your course or program.

Before You Begin

Before you begin capturing 360 images or video, we recommend you consider the following questions:

1. Why do you want to create a tour? What benefits do you anticipate for students?
2. What are your learning outcomes? What will participants be able to do, feel, and think about after they’ve participated in your tour?
3. Where do you want to capture a tour? A lab space, classroom, outdoor setting, or other location?
4. When do you need the tour ready by? Do you have a hard deadline or is it flexible?
5. When is the space available?
6. Are there any safety precautions, PPE, or other considerations that need to be in place or demonstrated?
7. Do you want to incorporate any interactive elements like layered-on photos, videos, text, questions, or links?
8. What key elements do you want to highlight on the tour? Is it a process, equipment, tools, technology?
9. Does anyone need to be filmed or photographed in the tour? A faculty member, student, staff, or other person?
10. What kind of availability would you have as the content expert for working with the Hub team?

Prepping for Capturing the Tour

Now that the essential questions have been considered, we encourage you to:

1. Reach out to the Hub team about your project. We are always happy to support you and work with you. We can create your tour for you, with you, or lend you the camera if you wish to do it yourself.
2. If you would like assistance with your project, we will arrange a meeting with you to discuss the questions we posed in the “Before You Begin” section above. This will help us set you up for a successful photo and/or video shoot.
3. Consider how will you plan to achieve the learning outcomes of the tour?
4. Consider how you will set up your space for capturing the 360 images and/or videos. Do you need to re-arrange any equipment, tidy up, place items in specific areas, ensure that safety equipment is in the correct locations, etc.? Remember that your students will be able to see from all angles.
5. If you want to capture video, will you plan to create a script?

Capturing the Tour

The Hub team can operate and/or lend you the following equipment:

• Insta360 camera
• Tripod
• Microphones
• Additional lighting
• Digital / video cameras
• Other accessories as needed

If you are working with the Hub team, we will need from you:

• Date, time, location of when you would like to capture the tour (we can advise on how long it may take – usually a minimum of 2 hours)
• Any considerations for safety equipment and items that need to be captured in the photos or videos
• If you are capturing a procedure: the steps of the procedure, in order
• If you are showcasing equipment: the type of equipment you want included and where it is located around the room
• Other special considerations: we can help advise on these

Finalizing the Tour for Student Use

Once photos and videos are captured, we can help you put it together into a great-looking tour online. If you wish to complete this step on your own using H5P Virtual Tour, we can also train you on how to use the program so you can get up-and-running.

If the Hub team is creating the tour for you, we will use all of the information we’ve gathered from you including the areas you wish to make “clickable” and the content that will appear when clicked. We can take care of any photo and video editing along the way and will produce several drafts of the final product, with your feedback and input, until you are happy with the final tour.

We can create your tour within Moodle using the H5P plugin so you will have full access to make any edits if you want to add, change, or remove content.

Interested in Creating a Tour?

• If you would like to create a tour on your own, here is a tutorial from H5P that explains how to create an H5P Virtual Tour (360).

• If you would like assistance, the Hub team is always ready to help. From a simple one-shot tour of a space, to shooting multiple rooms that you can walk through, we are here to create your tour or get you set up. Don’t hesitate to ask anytime if you want to try something new. Our team is happy to work with you to create a great experience for your students.

Our role is to support our faculty and staff in trying new things in the classroom. We will guide you through the process and help you decide on various elements throughout the project. We can also advise on how long it could take and what’s involved. Every tour will be unique so please reach out about your specific needs. We would love to work with you!