Monthly Archives: October 2020

Online 360°-Video Workshop

2nd Learning and Teaching Training Event (held online due to pandemic)

This week (8th-10th September 2020) the partners of the SEPA360 project successfully held their second Learning and Teaching Training Event (LTTE) online, due to the ongoing pandemic crisis (Covid-19). The initial event was planned to be hosted in Thessaloniki, Greece and would have brought together over 30 digital champions from interdisciplinary backgrounds in higher education. Even though the SEPA360 team transitioned the complete workshop into an online mode more than 25 digital champions were able to join the 3-day workshop and participate in breakout sessions.

SEPA360 Virtual Group Photo (taken in July 2020).
SEPA360 Virtual Group Photo (taken in July 2020).

The three day workshop was hosted by Prof. Dr. Kevin Burden (Coordinating Partner, University of Hull) and was split into an online morning and offline afternoon session. Each morning session included presentations of results and ongoing work, breakout sessions allowing national digital champions to work remotely on 360°-video scenarios as well as interactive feedback sessions collecting valuable input and feedback from participants.

Day 1: Scoping Study and 360°-Video Scenario Development

The first day of the workshop focused on presenting first results from the scoping study led by SEPA360 partner Italy from University of Florence. A broad spectrum of research has already been done in terms of exploring the use of 360°-video in higher education providing the digital champions some inspiration of how to apply 360°-video in their own scenarios. Also, recommendations were communicated and discussed focusing on the potential of activity-oriented and explorative scenarios.

Isabella Bruni (University of Florence) presenting results from the scoping study.

Another session focused on introducing the digital champions to an initial set of templates enabling them to systematically develop new 360°-video scenarios. A template for preparing a scenario was presented as well as a conceptual model to get an overview of relations between different parameters influencing the design of a 360°-video scenario. Based on this input breakout sessions were organised motivating the digital champions to start designing their first 360°-video scenarios.

The afternoon session was an offline session aiming at giving the digital champions time and space to explore the use and application of their 360°-video cameras and scenarios.

Digital Champions from WU Vienna discussing 360°-video scenario options.
Digital Champions from WU Vienna discussing 360°-video scenario options.

Day 2: Vivista 360°-Video Editor Tutorial and Feedback

The second day focused on getting the digital champions involved with the Vivista 360°-Video Editor software developed as an open source project at the PXL Hasselt, Belgium. It enables users to enhance 360°-video with text, images or videos, as well as allowing users to integrate interactive components such as multiple choice questions, area highlights and more. In the course of the second day the features of the editor were presented giving the digital champions an idea of what kind of interactions they could integrate into a 360°-video.

Also, it was a great opportunity to collect user feedback about features they were missing or improvements they had in mind.

Simon Verbeke (PXL) presenting the Vivista 360°-Video Editor.
Simon Verbeke (PXL) presenting the Vivista 360°-Video Editor.

Apart from showing how the Vivista 360°-Video Editor worked, some digital champions already could showcase their work done so far. This was an exciting opportunity to exchange ideas on possible 360°-video scenarios and get inspired by others.

Dominic Henri (UK) presenting a 360°-video on Thorne Moors Deer Survey.
Dominic Henri (UK) presenting a 360°-video on Thorne Moors Deer Survey.
Lapo Pierguidi (Italy) presenting a 360°-video tour at a food tasting lab.
Lapo Pierguidi (Italy) presenting a 360°-video tour at a food tasting lab.
Lapo Pierguidi (Italy) presenting interactions in a 360°-video tour.
Lapo Pierguidi (Italy) presenting interactions in a 360°-video tour.

Day 3: Future Steps and some more scenarios

The last and third day focused on future steps for the SEPA360 project. Strategic concepts and thoughts on possible options for empirically evaluating 360°-video scenarios were discussed. This included break out sessions with digital champions brainstorming ideas about what is of interest to evaluate in their respective discipline. All input was collected and discussed and will prove useful for further developing scenarios and provide a concept for evaluating the effectiveness of 360°-video in terms of supporting and enhancing the learning of university students.

Finally, another scenario, which was developed in the course of the three day workshop at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) together with the digital champions was presented. The scenario focused on using a 360°-camera and was titled “How to setup your first in-class 360°-video recording”.

Follow Up

The SEPA360 team is pleased to say that the 2nd Virtual Learning Teaching and Training Event was a success. Even though everything was held in an online and virtual mode, it was a very productive environment and digital champions could discuss ideas, learn about the Vivista software project involved and further push their development of new 360°-video scenarios.

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