Contextualizing Collections: Intro to Immersive Annotated 360 Virtual Tours with Adobe Captivate
Channel: UCLA Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC)
Date: 2024-02-12

Most would agree that in terms of creating virtual experiences as part of research, more context is better. Contextual information allows for a bigger picture to be seen and can provide in situ understanding, despite being remote. With the proliferation of 360 cameras, creating immersive virtual tours has become more commonplace. Whether it is to document the layout of a hydroelectric power plant, provide archival information about historical relics, such as the HMAS OVENS submarine, or share information regarding a cultural heritage site, such as Google Arts and Culture’s Street View tours, immersive 360 capture with annotations has become a strong visual research method and product.
In addition, many fields of research look to present information or scenarios and then survey a sample of participants regarding their experience. Interactive surveys or modules can provide valuable research data for any number of disciplines.

In this workshop, participants will be introduced to Adobe Captivate, a software for building e-learning interactives and annotated 360 virtual tours. Focusing on examples that bridge UCAL’s Biomedical Library space and digital collections, participants will learn how to build a virtual tour with 360 images and video. They will also learn how to annotate their tours with collections materials and how to build some of the platforms various interactive activities, which include:

Multiple choice
True/False
Fill-in-the-blank
Short Answer
Matching
Hot Spot
Sequence
Rating scale
Random question

No prior experience with Adobe products will be needed. However, this product is not part of the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. If participants want to follow along during the workshop, they will need to purchase and download Adobe Captivate before the workshop.

This workshop is part of the Research Collections and Digital Scholarship series — a collaboration between the Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) and the UCLA Digital Library Program.