This session looks at case studies from colleagues using gamification in their work, among other innovative technologies. Stephen Davie and Greg Stewart (Careers) will demonstrate a suite of interactive material to engage students in the career planning process. Jessica Keen and Amy Mollekin (301: Student Skills and Development Centre) show how innovative technology has is being used to engage students with skills development opportunities, including a skills audit tool, and the pilot of the ‘Join Up Your Skills’ scavenger hunt-style app that will be launched in 2017/18. Olaf Scroth, Paul Buck and Thom White (Landscape) will demonstrate the use of 360 degree cameras and drones to create walk-throughs of landscape sites, and the online “treasure hunt” app Actionbound, to further enhance understanding.

1. S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E
TECHNOLOGY
ENHANCED
FIELDWORK
• 360º Photography
• Google Street View
• Drone Video Footage
• Actionbound (GPS Treasure Hunt App)

2. • 360º Photography and Google Street View
– Paul Buck
• Drone Video Footage – Olaf Schroth
• Actionbound (GPS Treasure Hunt App)
– Thom White
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E
PROGRAMME

3. THE APPLICATION
OF 360 CAMERAS
AND GOOGLE
STREET VIEW
IN LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURE
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

4. WHAT IS 360º PHOTOGRAPHY?
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E
360 photography allows us to take 360
panoramic images of landscapes. A viewer
can choose the direction, which means a
landscape can be ‘experienced’ and is much
more immersive than a still image.

5. LOXLEY VALLEY VIRTUAL SITE SURVEY
• Took 360 camera to Loxley Valley area and
photographed a series of routes through
the site.
• Imported photos into Google Street View
and linked routes together.
• Created a click-able map showing routes
(Digimap, Illustrator, image-maps.com)
and uploaded to MOLE for students
to access.
• 10,000+ hits on Google Maps
• Feedback from students so far but has
been positive.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

6. ADVANTAGES OF A VIRTUAL SITE SURVEY
• Virtually explore the landscape
• Allows limitless ‘visits’ to the site for
the student
• Sites can be explored by students that are
a health and saftey risk
• View landscape at eye level and scale
• Student can experience the landscape in
any season
• Students can virtually visit sites anywhere
in the world
• Immersive VR experience using
Google Cardboard
• Photos are editable in Photoshop S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

7. ADVANTAGES OF GOOGLE STREET VIEW
• Adds level of direction and orientation
for user
• Create specific routes through the
landscape
• Images more up to date than current
Google Street View data
• Publicly shared with everyone
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

8. S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E
360 PHOTO DISADVANTAGES
• Students might rely on virtual visit instead
of actually going
(Actionbound app helps deal with this
issue)
• Not experiential in terms of movement,
sound etc.

9. STUDENT SURVEY AND COMMENTS
88% used it a resource for their project
80% of students on module found virtual
site survey useful
“They are useful as a way to revisit the site
and check things. I’ve used them to check
elevations and views.”
“Familiarised myself with the site. Could
see vegetation, built areas, managed/
unmanaged areas.”
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

10. CURRENT AND FUTURE PROJECTS USING
360 IN TEACHING
• Experiment with higher quality video and
sound to make more experiential ‘virtual’
site visits
• Expand 360 database to include important
Landscape Architecture sites across the
world for students to access
• Record sites for seasonal change
• Document historic landscapes
• Experiment with 360 visualisations
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

11. DRONES –
EXPLORING
LANDSCAPES
FROM ABOVE

12. DEPARTMENTAL DRONE (UAV)
• Flexible low-cost platform for near-range imagery
and photogrammetry
• Possible applications:
a) site survey (including terrain models through
photogrammetry)
b) documentation, construction monitoring
c) plant identification (seasonality, near-range)
• Growing interest in the use of drones in professional
practice leading to collaborations with industry and
professional bodies

13. DEPARTMENTAL DRONE (UAV)
• Further information: Wilder, P. (2016). Welcome to
the drones club. Landscape Institute, 35–38.
• Changing legal context presents challenges and
opportunities for universities
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

14. ACTIONBOUND –
GAMIFICATION OF
THE SITE SURVEY
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

15. WHAT IS ACTIONBOUND?
• It’s a mobile app - free to use by
non-commercial users and at a reduced
price to educational establishments like
ourselves.
• In it you can create “Bounds” which are
site-based activities for students.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

16. WHAT IS BOUND?
To use the software company’s description,
A Bound is an interactive smartphone rally.
With the Actionbound app one can play
exciting, fun or informative Bounds. The
principle is similar to a classical scavenger
hunt or geocaching but it also includes
media files, internet and players can
contribute content as well.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

17. After being introduced to the idea of
Actionbound by Paul and discussing the
possiblilites with Simon Warwick from CICS,
I could see there was potential in using it
with 1st year students on a design project
based in the Loxley Valley.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

18. WHY USE IT?
An essential part of any landscape design
is an accurate and detailed survey of a site.
This is often not “fun” and students can
miss key elements whilst on site.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

19. WITH ACTIONBOUND WE HOPED TO:
• use a more ‘modern’ and, hopefully, fun
way of getting students to interact with
the process of site survey and analysis
• encourage students to look at aspects
of the site they may ordinarily
have overlooked.
• use the technology as a means of
giving information, on site where it is
more relevant.
• encourage interaction between students
of different nationality and personality
especially through developing small group
cohesion through a group task. S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

20. HOW DOES IT WORK?
• We were given permission via the
University’s Actionbound account and then
created our own Landscape Dep’t account.

21. THINGS THAT WORKED WELL:
A ‘Bound’ can be broken down into stages
to save everybody being crowded around
the same element.
Uploading photos was easy as it uploads to
the app on the phone not to the internet.
It was also made more fun with the use of
‘selfies’ in particular locations.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

22. THINGS THAT WORKED WELL:
Setting drawing tasks which they then
uploaded worked well though this was the
least popular activity
There are different ways of asking and
answering questions to maintain variety.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

23. THINGS THAT WORKED WELL:
You can use the activity to pass on useful
information eg history, biology etc.
QR codes which they have to scan at certain
points or when ‘hidden’ elements were
found worked well. You can do them at the
beginning and end of each stage (without
points possibly) in order to keep a ‘register’.
Obviously there is a chance that the codes
would disappear or be removed so we had
all the QR codes printed out for staff to
carry in case of emergency. Later I also put
these up on MOLE.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

24. THINGS THAT WORKED WELL:
Feedback is available from the users.
You can get students to upload pictures
that you need/ want eg ours uploaded
picture of each other using the app on site
which we will be able to use in department
publicity and at occasions like TELFEST.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

25. ADDITIONAL NOTES POST UPLOAD.
Everything is available after upload and
answers / results of each task are grouped
together. However…
…. It is not currently possible to ‘block
download’ their work though …
… we need to keep an eye on the upgrades
as some of these glitches are being
addressed by the software company.
S H E F F I E L D
L A N D S C A P E
A R C H I T E C T U R E

26. Missions are not scored so
a] it means a manual search of the uploaded work to
see if the task has actually been completed properly
b] it makes it hard to ‘mark’ the tasks when complete
eg assessing the quality of what was done eg quality of
cross sections in my ‘bound’. We need a way to assess
their work post – bound but planning needs to be done
to set scores for these elements outside the bound.
Set a pass mark in advance.
More work to be done in the presence of staff to
avoid ‘cheating’?

27. THERE WERE A NUMBER OF
“TEETHING” ISSUES.
The ‘bound’ needs to be downloaded in a place of
good wifi access before going on site (especially a site
like ours where the signal was, at best, intermittent).
Some people had no data left to do the download on
site even when there was a signal.
We should have done this in advance with the
department iPads too as a few people had phones on
which the Actionbound app didn’t work at all or died
unexpectedly and we needed back-ups.

28. Students without data plans on their phones, or who
couldn’t afford to buy more data, were restricted in
accessing the app on site.
They need to be reminded that their phones need to be
fully charged though even then there is no guarantee
that their charge will last. Several people ran out of
battery after 2 of the 3 stages. Portable chargers would
be useful ( their own or department versions)

29. GPS points – you are supposed to be able to build
specific locations into the ‘Bound’ for the participants
to find using direction arrows. The direction arrows
vaguely worked but none of the points were precise
enough on site due to the poor signal strength. Usually
finding these spots wins points but we had to make
finding the spot non-scoring. Different phones worked
with different levels of accuracy. In the other Bound we
created this worked fine as it was in an Urban Setting.

30. The app auto-corrected the spellings of botanical
names of plants… though the situation wasn’t helped
by my mis-spelling of a plant – small letter i inserted
where it wasn’t needed!! We need to test this properly.
The font size was difficult to read on the phones –
much better on iPads. Similar with maps and plans. I
used printed versions to back up the digital form.
3 ‘Bounds’ was perhaps too much and definitely
could not be achieved in 1 session. Maybe try a ‘time
trial’ beforehand.

31. STUDENT FEEDBACK
5th Year student Sophie Entwisle said: ‘Actionbound
was a lot of fun and allowed us to get familiar with a
site without really realising it. It focussed us on certain,
potentially important aspects of the site that helped
later on in the project, when coming up with the vision.
It also put our map reading and teamwork skills to the
test. (Not to mention our selfie-taking abilities!)’‘The
app was also a great ice breaker; we only had two days
to complete this project and nobody knew any of the
students from the other departments. This app allowed
us to not only get to know the site quickly but also
each other and to do both simultaneously in a relatively
short space of time.’