If you have noticed that a new icon has appeared in your rich content editor in Carmen, or if you have wondered at the appearance of a course navigation menu item called, "ThingLink," we are glad to be able to take this opportunity to fill you in about a great new course design tool that is available to instructors and students in the College of Arts and Sciences.

What is ThingLink? 

ThingLink is an acclaimed, user-friendly educational technology platform that allows instructors and students alike to create and explore interactive content.  Using tags, additional information provided via text, links, videos, pdf files, polling questions, etc. can be added to a variety of base media that includes standard images and videos, 360 degree media, and 3D rendered objects. In addition, the platform provides users with the ability to create and explore virtual walk-throughs, tours, and branching scenarios that can provide access to real-world environments and situations that might otherwise be inaccessible to learners.  

Example of Content Built Using ThingLink

360 media base content with added videos and images

View the accessible version of this interactive content 

Why ThingLink? 

As our mission states, the ASC Office of Distance Education is dedicated to supporting solutions in online learning communities that ensure understanding, engagement, access, and equity across the myriad of departments and fields of study that exist within the college of Arts & Sciences. We continue to seek out and identify areas where faculty and staff across the college most need additional support to continue to meet these goals. In our continuous research of evidence-based, forward-thinking solutions, ThingLink has been recognized as a comprehensive tool that can help to overcome many of the online challenges that existing college-approved tools may not currently mitigate, particularly in terms of being able to replicate environments and experiences that rely on the physical senses. Its interactive components, the variety of media it supports, and the collaborative capabilities it affords for faculty and students alike, all speak to the tool's immense potential for creating content and learning environments that are increasingly supportive, engaging, and accessible. 

What are the benefits of ThingLink? 

ThingLink has identified four "Universal Challenges" that face educators and educational content creators in the search for delivering innovative and engaging learning material that is user-friendly and intuitive at the same time. These challenges include: 

1. how to increase user engagement in the digital sphere, 
2. ensuring inclusivity and accessibility of digital materials, 
3. closing the gap requiring the acquisition of technical or specialized knowledge, and 
4. combatting the high cost of available educational technology tools currently in use. 

In other words, the experience must be exciting for learners and for those curating learning communities, and it should not come at so high a cost as to create further exclusion for educators or the learners they are serving. ThingLink has designed a tool that meets the needs of these Universal Challenges in their commitment to keeping learners or viewers engaged and being able to offer deep, transferable learning experiences remotely; being fully inclusive and meeting the needs of all learners or viewers; finding a technology tool which doesn't require coding or specific expertise; and finding a tool which is cost efficient and can scale. 

For ThingLink usage in the College of Arts and Sciences here at Ohio State, both instructors and students have the ability to build and share course content with ThingLink that can easily be integrated with Carmen. This includes lecture-style or course presentations, as well as social annotations on documents, images and videos, and creative discussion and community building exercises. In comparison to some other tools used by ASC, ThingLink has a more expansive capability and is able to be used by everyone. For instructors, assignments and module items can be created right in Carmen using ThingLink, and for students anything that is created in ThingLink can be easily accessed from within your ASC Carmen courses via the Rich Content editor. For example, it is similar to a content-building educational technology tool that we use expansively in ASC called H5P in its ability to produce content in multiple formats. But where only Instructional Designers for ASC have the ability to author H5P content, everyone has the ability to author, edit, and share content built in ThingLink. Additionally, it fills the need for multiple social annotation tools such as Hypothesis and GoReact where you can typically only interact with single digital media types. In ThingLink, you have the ability to tag and annotate a variety of media and to include multiple types of media in the same presentation format. Thus, this single tool can be used to produce well-designed, interactive media as a solution to avoid digital fatigue and provide positive, immersive learning experiences no matter the type of course content you want to include.