If you've been mesmerized by the virtual tours in Google Expeditions and have wondered about creating your own, then Google's Tour Creator is exactly what you need. Tour Creator makes it easy to build immersive 360 degree tours on the web with a Mac, PC, Chromebook or iOS device. Viewers can watch your tour on the web, on a mobile device, or in a VR headset, and if you sign in to Tour Creator with the same account you use for Google Expeditions, you can even lead your students through your VR tour via the Expeditions app!
From Consumer to Creator
When Google Expeditions first came out, it wowed us with its immersive views of locations all around the world. Well crafted tours that include multimedia elements and good probing questions help involve students in the learning, but the logical next step was to move from consuming tours to creating tours.
Tour Creator is a web-based VR tool that gives you that ability. You can access it by visiting, vr.google.com/tourcreator. Teachers can log in with their school Google accounts, however, it is not part of the core tools provided by G Suite for Education, so when creating tours with students, it is probably best used with kids aged 13 or over.
Tour Creator is a web-based VR tool that gives you that ability. You can access it by visiting, vr.google.com/tourcreator. Teachers can log in with their school Google accounts, however, it is not part of the core tools provided by G Suite for Education, so when creating tours with students, it is probably best used with kids aged 13 or over.
How to Create with Tour Creator
Once you login you can choose to create a new tour from scratch, or to build a tour from one of Google's template tours. The templates give you a better idea of what a finished tour looks like, but if you've used Google Expeditions before, you will already have a good sense of what a completed tour looks like, so don't be afraid of starting from scratch. Here's how it works.
- Upload a cover image, and add a title, description and category for your tour.
- Add a scene. Search Google Maps for a Street View image or upload a 360 image of your own. Add a title and add any notes, questions or talking points to the description box.
- Include Audio. If you want you can upload an ambient audio track to help people experience your scene as if they were there. You can also add an audio narration to help describe the scene. Both are optional, but if you are interested, simply upload an MP3 file as required.
- Points of Interest. You can add additional information to a scene with points of interest. All you do is click the points of interest button on the right-hand sidebar and then add a title and a description. You can add an image overlay and/or an audio description for each one you add.
- Publish. When you are done, hit the Publish button and choose whether you want your tour to be public on the web, or unlisted (anyone with the link can access). Tours are published to Google Poly where you can view your tour or share to social media, grab an embed code, or use in Google Expeditions.
5 Top Tips for Tour Creator
- To use a Tour Creator tour on Google Expeditions, connect your Android guide device to Wi-Fi and the tour will automatically appear in your My Tours Library on the latest version of the Expeditions app. Hopefully this feature will come to iOS too, but right now it is Android only.
- Set a starting view for each scene by clicking the button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Click and drag around the image to choose what you want students to see when they first view each scene, and think about ways to use this to your advantage!
- Use a 360 camera like the Ricoh Theta to capture your own images for use in Tour Creator. If you are a school in the Grant Wood area, you can borrow one of our cameras. Contact us!
- Joli Boucher recommends using the YouTube Audio Library to find ambient music for your tour. Grant Wood AEA schools can also use Soundzabound. You can see more royalty free music options are here.
- To edit a tour after you have published it, log in to Tour Creator and click on the tour to open it. Next, choose the scene you want to edit and click Publish to update and save your changes.
If you are interested in learning more about Tour Creator or want to explore different ways on how to involve your students in virtual or augmented reality experiences, please get in touch!
Jonathan Wylie | Digital Learning Consultant | Grant Wood AEA | @jonathanwylie
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