Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators

Is the Tour Better in Person?

After you take a virtual tour of a place on the Internet, answer the following questions to see if the tour met your expectations.

Your name: Theresa Conlon

Date: April 21, 2013

Name of tour site: Vatican Museums Collections Online

URL of tour site: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Visite.html

  1. When you were on the tour, could you tell where you were at all times? Yes
  2. Throughout the tour, could you always get back to the beginning? Yes
  3. During the tour, could you go to any area that you wanted to, or did you have to visit places in a certain order? Yes
  4. Was there a map of the virtual tour site available for you to use for navigation? Yes
  5. While you were on the tour, could you use any type of virtual reality to view places in 3-D? Yes
  6. If there were photographs on the tour, were they easy to see? Yes
  7. When you first entered the tour, could you choose from different options or paths to take? Yes
  8. Was there a virtual guide to help you along the virtual tour? Yes
  9. Were there any links to other Internet resources that would better help you understand the subject matter of the tour? No
  10. Was there a place to ask questions or leave feedback about the tour? No
  11. Did the tour make you want to learn more about the topic? Yes
  12. Did the tour allow you to visit a place that you would never be able to visit in real life? No

In your own words, describe taking a virtual tour and compare it with a real tour you have taken.

Having visited the Vatican Museums, I have to say it is one of the most impressive sites I have seen in my life. The Vatican Museums virtual tour was underwhelming. While there is a large amount of information on the site, it was difficult to view specific pieces of artwork, and the videos were hard to use as well. The images and videos are in Java, which took a long time to load, and I got some security warnings because of this. You can zoom in on artwork and really see some of the details, but the amount of space showing the artwork is relatively small. This site could definitely use some improvements.