Abstract:

The 360° video is included in the broad spectrum of immersive technologies, ranging from Augmented Reality to Virtual Reality. Unlike Virtual Reality, which is a computer-simulated reconstruction, 360° video is characterized by a high level of realism and a sense of presence due to the shooting of the real environment with an omnidirectional camera. When compared to watching a 2D video, the viewer of a 360° video may look and explore in any direction turning the head, so that he can spatially orient himself in a place, having a real sense of scale and position. Given the peculiarities mentioned above and further conditions, including costs’ reduction of the equipment, the easier use of 360° cameras and the growing support of various social media platforms, the recent literature (Ranieri et al., 2020; Pirker et al., 2021; Shadiev et al., 2021) shows an increased interest in and use of 360° video in higher education, highlighting benefits for students in terms of engagement, enjoyment, information retention, knowledge transfer, and also some rare discomfort (cybersickness). The literature also provides a wide overview of the 360° video applications to support learning activities – from virtual tours to processes or procedures, especially as vicarious, safe, experiences in inaccessible or dangerous environments – in various disciplines, including engineering, health, science, arts & humanities, psychology, sports and physical education, and teachers’ training. In the teaching practices the development of 360° video, despite its basic “point and click” approach, requires teachers to be familiar not only with the technical devices for production and display (mobile device, notebook cardboard, headset) but also with the opportunities and challenges of a good design fitting the different pedagogical approaches: from proposing 360° video in the courses, to its co-production with the students, until its use in the classrooms and/or in home working.In this paper, we focus on the design and integration of 360° videos, with different levels of interactions, in a context of higher education in a perspective of digital well-being with a multidimensional approach encompassing: access and inclusion, student's engagement, cognitive load, and physiological discomfort.

The approach presented here is the result of an examination of related literature, multidisciplinary discussions and the practical experience of designing, implementing and evaluating educational scenarios. In particular, the production of educational scenarios took place within a research carried out, on a broader spectrum of immersive technologies, in the project EREdWeB - Enriched Reality for Education and Digital Well-Being funded by EUniWell (European University for Well-Being), promoted by the authors. Based on the well known ADDIE model, which is widely used in the field of instructional design, we present a toolkit aiming at providing guidance for the whole realization of a 360° video in consideration of the digital well-being (Chambers et al., 2018; Burr et al., 2020). More specifically, the toolkit includes the guidelines on digital well-being for the entire workflow of the 360° video production and, according to these guidelines, a template for the design of the learning scenarios and a storyboard taking into account the technological, ethical and digital wellbeing aspects of shooting and post-production of a 360° video.

Keywords:

360° video, digital well-being, design, guidelines, toolkit, higher education.