FAQ Schools and Academic Institutions (K12 & Higher Education)

General info

What does ThingLink do? ThingLink helps anyone easily create interactive content to drive student engagement and learning.  

What kind of content can I create with ThingLink? You can use ThingLink tags in images and videos, as well as 360° images and 360° videos! These may be used to enhance your infographics and maps,  create narrated 360° tours and more.  ThingLink Scenario Builder empowers you to build learning simulations with branching, condition (question) building, timers and more. 

Where can I use ThingLink? ThingLinks are fully responsive and work excellent on all devices, from small phones to large touch screens. Phones, tablets, desktops, touch screens, big screen TVs, mobile VR headsets, WebVR.  ThingLinks work on all major web browsers and meets WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standards.

Do students need an account to view ThingLinks? No, ThingLinks do not require an account to be viewed as an embed or on our website.  Please note that if the content privacy/visibility is set to "My Organization", it requires the viewer to log into ThingLink to view the content. 

Can you download ThingLinks for offline use? ThingLink content can be downloaded for offline use on desktop as a part of our offline viewing application.  ThingLinks can't be downloaded as offline files. 

Do you support SSO and LTI integrations? Yes, we support Azure Active Directory for Microsoft SSO and Workspaces for Google SSO.   Yes, we support LTI 1.1 for onboarding users and LTI 1.3 for deep linking.  Canvas, Moodle and Blackboard LTI integrations are currently supported. 

Do you offer training and professional development opportunities? Yes, we have a self-paced Certified Creator Course that any user can access within the Learning Center of the interface.  Please reference our support help center for documentation on all aspects of ThingLink.  Our support team is always here to help answer questions that aren't resolved in the help center.  Large School and Academic license purchases come with a live professional development training for your staff from a ThingLink expert. 

Paid plans & free 30-Day trial accounts

Please know that these licenses are intended for the usage of teachers adding students to ThingLink. Students are creating content for classwork, presentations, projects and more. Contact us if you want to purchase a license for a larger group of teachers or learning designers creating content for student learning in the LMS.

What is the difference between the Schools and Academic licenses (K12 & Higher Education) and the eLearning licenses?  eLearning accounts are best-suited for business organizations and governments training employees and organizing online courses, while School & Academic licenses are oriented at educational organizations for using ThingLink in the classroom or LMS, creating content for learning experiences and student projects.

What happens when my 30-day trial ends? When the free 30-day trial ends you will be prompted to upgrade the Professional Teacher license. You will still be able to access your content and create new content, but with no sharing enabled.  The privacy/visibility of previously created content will convert to My Organization from public. Upgrading the Professional Teacher unlocks sharing to your classroom and LMS. 

How do I upgrade my ThingLink account? You can upgrade to the Professional Teacher license by clicking the upgrade button in the top right of your account and submitting your billing information.  If you wish to connect multiple teachers at once, we ask you to request a quote for a School or Academic license from our sales team. 

How can I use ThingLink as a FREE teacher? Free trial teacher accounts have access to test creating and sharing interactive content with a ThingLink scene link (no embedding) for 30 days. There is no student management under the free trial teacher account.  You will be able to create content after the 30 day trial but with no sharing. 

Do you have monthly plans and do I have to pay with card? We don’t have monthly plans at this time, but if you have a special reason or case please don’t hesitate to contact us. We can send invoices starting with the School license and individual Professional teacher purchases must be processed with a card.  Download a generic quote for the Professional teacher license here. 

Can I pay with a purchase order? We only accept purchase orders (POs) for School and Academic license purchases. Individual Professional teacher upgrades must be purchased through the end user’s account with a credit card.

What is the difference between student and teacher accounts? Students can only be added to ThingLink by their teachers and we don’t provide free student accounts. Only group School and Academic licenses can add and manage students where students are creating their own interactive content.  Request a quote for a School or Academic license from our sales team. 

Can I measure my ThingLinks' efficiency? Yes! You can track your students' overall engagement using our in-built statistics tool. We also have a product called Scenario Builder that allows you to track individual student proficiency and performance through learning simulations. 

I did not intend to purchase a subscription, where can I request a refund? You can request a refund by contacting our support. You can read more about refunds here.

360 content

Does ThingLink work with virtual reality headsets? Currently ThingLink 360° content works through a mobile VR headset like Google Cardboard as well as through WebVR supported devices like Microsoft Mixed Reality headsets and Oculus. You can find a list of headsets tested by our team along with more information about viewing ThingLink content in VR here. 

Miscellaneous

How does ThingLink handle student privacy? Please refer to our privacy and compliance FAQ.  We also encourage you to read ThingLink's Privacy Policy and a blog post regarding GDPR.

What if I am using ThingLink for eLearning or training purposes?  We have group accounts designed for teams of instructional technologists to create interactive content for student learning in the LMS.  Request a quote from our sale team here. 

What browsers does ThingLink work with? ThingLink is compatible with all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Edge). However, we strongly recommend keeping your browser updated as using old versions of browsers will likely result in technical issues. 

Where is ThingLink hosted? Images, 360° images as well as VR experiences are hosted on AWS (Amazon Web Services), while videos and 360° videos are hosted and streamed on Microsoft Azure. 

Can I change language in ThingLink? Yes, you can change the language of the ThingLink to select languages. Click here to learn more about changing the interface language.

Is ThingLink available in China? Yes, ThingLink works in China.

Contacting us

My question is not answered here, where can I get more help? Let our sales team answer your questions and you can message sales@thinglink.com or, submit a support request. 

Can I request a demo? Yes! You can schedule a live demo with our team here if your school is interested a School or Academic license.  We don't provide demos for the single Professional teacher license. 

I’m not sure about your licenses, can we get custom terms? Yes, if you have a special case request a custom quote and we can help you figure out the best license and price for your usage. 

Where can I submit feature requests? At the moment, you can submit feature requests by messaging us at support@thinglink.com.