Examples of Classroom Immersion Utilizing 360 Degree Filming
The human evolution museum exhibit was created as an instructional element for an online introductory anthropology course. This museum exhibit provided a brand-new element to the anthropology course by creating a simulated environment that allowed students to explore the area, just as if they were in a museum. When students enter the museum, they are provided with a map of the area –a map that reflects the chronological setup of the space. As they move through the museum, students can learn about eight hominin fossil skulls from different periods of human evolution. Students can see where the fossils were found, read about their significance, and even "manipulate" a model of each skull. The environment of this museum is fully virtual, meaning that it doesn’t have a physical existence in the real world.
The virtual art gallery was developed as a solution for accessing Biggin Hall Art Gallery virtually and remotely. There were two approaches to this solution. 3D simulation of the environment, and 360 photo tour.
As for the 3D simulation, we first visited the Biggin Hall art gallery and used a 3D scanner to capture the details we’d need to mimic the area. These scans became the basis for building our 3D model of the art gallery. We also scanned the 2D and 3D artwork that would be featured in the exhibition, which we added and arranged after creating the virtual gallery space. We finalized the look of the virtual space by adding elements of lighting, texture, and other details to further mimic the atmosphere of the physical art gallery. Using this solution would allow us to
The 360 photo tour, however, was created by capturing the environment along with the art pieces via a 360 camera which then became the material for creating the tour.
Using the 3D simulation approach would allow us to set up an exhibition without even needing to have that same setup in the physical gallery. However, 360 photo tours could be done faster and wouldn’t need a technical skillset to be created.
This is a virtual tour of Auburn Online’s facility located on third floor of the Foy hall.
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Photos are captured with a 360 camera in a real, physical environment.
Opportunities
- Does not require a specific skillset
- Quick setup
- Environment is real and familiar
Challenges
- Requires a 360 camera
- Limited to the physical environment
- Difficulty to control lighting
- Overall quality of photos is limited to the camera’s resolution
Photos are rendered from a 3D model of an environment
Opportunities
- The environment is customizable (layout changes, add or remove items, etc.)
- Not limited to a physical space’s properties (size, light, etc.)
- Overall image quality has the potential to be better
Challenges
- Requires 3D modeling skillset
- More time to set up
