Introducing Study360: Build immersive lessons from 360° media—right in your browser

Made for the S.P.Q.R Project

We’re excited to launch Study360, a browser-based platform that turns 360° panoramas (and optional YouTube/360° video) into structured, interactive lessons—no installs, no plugins. If you can open a tab, you can author an immersive learning experience.

Study360 is developed for the S.P.Q.R Project, bringing creator-first tools and governance that align with the project’s standards while staying lightweight and accessible for educators and teams.

Two tightly connected pillars

The Map

A curated media library shown as pins on a world map. Upload, preview, search, and manage panoramas in your Personal collection or draw from the platform-wide Global library.

The Builder

An in-browser authoring environment where you assemble lessons from Map assets, add interactive infospots, create portals for navigation, tune scene behaviors, and define the opening view.

Publish when you’re ready and share a clean runtime view that works across desktop, mobile, and WebVR.

Why Study360?

• Authoring first. Purpose-built tools for making lessons—not just viewing media.

• Reusable media. Upload once to the Map, reuse across any number of lessons.

• Frictionless. Everything runs client-side in modern browsers.

• Scales with you. From quick prototypes to multi-scene, branching experiences.

• Built for S.P.Q.R. Aligned with the S.P.Q.R Project’s goals for accessibility, governance, and sustainable content reuse.

How it works (end-to-end)

1) Prepare media in the Map

Upload equirectangular 360° images (2:1, e.g., 4096×2048) to your Personal library, or browse Global items the community can reuse. Choose visibility on upload:

• Public: visible to everyone on the Map and reusable by any creator.

• Private: visible on the Map, but only you can add it to lessons.

Note: Even when a scene asset is Private, any published lesson using it is viewable by everyone. Privacy controls reuse during authoring, not who can watch your published lesson.

2) Create & edit in the Builder

Pick scenes from the Map via Add Scene—no re-uploads. Manage scenes from Lesson Edit; removing a scene detaches it from the lesson but keeps the Map asset intact.

• Infospots (annotations): click-to-add, drag-to-position, inline edit title/text. Embed by pasting a URL (YouTube player, Sketchfab viewer, or a webpage iframe where allowed) or display an image. Toggle subcomponents and styling with compact controls.

• Portals: drag a scene thumbnail onto the panorama to create navigational hotspots. Build linear tours or rich branching paths.

• Initial view & orientation: pan/tilt to set the starting direction, with fine-grained offsets for consistent “north.”

3) Preview & publish

Switch between Edit Mode and Preview Mode with the top-right toggle. Preview hides authoring UI so you see exactly what learners will experience—on desktop, mobile, or WebVR. Progress indicators update as you interact.

Interactivity that teaches (not distracts)

• Inline text & titles with legibility-tuned defaults.

• Rich embeds by URL: YouTube, Sketchfab, and supported webpages resolve automatically; invalid links are flagged early.

• Smart layouts: when an image or iframe is present, content cards adapt spacing and stacking for clarity.

• Open/close states keep scenes readable; Preview resets to a clean baseline.

• VR-aware design: distortion flags and backdrop-blur help annotations read clearly in WebVR.

Navigation & structure at a glance

• Portals on spatial cues (e.g., doorways) make movement feel natural.

• Gallery/slider shows all lesson scenes with seen/unseen status and inline renaming.

• Branching or linear—your call. Mix guided paths with optional exploration.

Collaboration, roles & governance

• Unregistered visitors can browse public lessons and preview the Map; creation actions prompt sign-in.

• Creators upload to the Map, build Normal or Video lessons, and manage their content.

• Administrators moderate users and media, and can delete images (public or private) to maintain catalog health.

• S.P.Q.R alignment: Role-based workflows and moderation features are designed to support S.P.Q.R Project governance needs.

Public vs. Private recap

• Public panoramas: reusable by anyone during lesson building.

• Private panoramas: reusable only by the author during lesson building.

• Published lessons (even with Private images): viewable by everyone.

Built for reliability and scale

• Autosave: most actions trigger background saves—less manual clicking, fewer lost edits.

• Consistent serialization: engine-level XML generation keeps hotspots/layers aligned with what you see.

• Local stability, production persistence: edits persist across scene switches locally; platform services store lessons in production.

Under the hood (high level)

• Backend: ASP.NET Core on .NET 8

• Data: PostgreSQL for app data; Azure Blob for media/metadata

• Realtime & pipelines: Azure Message Bus and SignalR

• Security: ASP.NET Core Identity + OAuth 2.0, JWT sessions; admin moderation; privacy & retention policies

• Project context: Delivered as part of the S.P.Q.R Project

Accessibility & reach

• Responsive UI for realistic previews across devices.

• Keyboard & contrast informed by WCAG for essential authoring tasks.

• Internationalization-ready: lesson metadata supports language tags; content panels accept localized copy.

Explore the key pages

• Homepage: motivation video, latest lessons, search, and how-to links.

• My Profile: upload panoramas, create normal/video lessons, manage projects and favorites.

• Lessons Page: search/sort by title, tags, location, content; view counts and thumbnails.

• Map Page: full-viewport Map with tag search and Global/Personal filters; Create Lesson jumps straight into the Builder.

• How It Works: quick tutorials (written or video) for Map, Builder, scenes, portals, infospots, and settings.

Ready to build your first immersive lesson?

Give Study360 a spin:

1. Browse the Map and pick a few panoramas (or upload your own).

2. Assemble a lesson in the Builder—drop portals, add infospots, set your opening view.

3. Preview and publish, then share the link with your learners or team.

https://www.study360.eu/

Create your first Study360 lesson today—turn 360° media into a guided, interactive learning journey in minutes. Study360 is made for the S.P.Q.R Project.