How Bradford College Uses ThingLink to Create and Scale Interactive Learning

Kyla Ball January 9, 2026

With more than 7,000 learners but only two dedicated digital learning designers, Bradford College faces a challenge familiar to many Further Education institutions: how to deliver essential, engaging, and accessible immersive learning experiences at scale – without over-stretching staff or compromising quality.

To meet this challenge, the college’s Digital Experience Design Lead Clark Mitton and Learning Innovation Lead Monika Worthington use ThingLink to build both mandatory safeguarding modules and a hybrid digital/physical escape room designed to train staff and students to use the College’s new Innovation Room. The results demonstrate how a single, easy-to-use platform can transform capacity, enable creativity, and support consistent learning across diverse groups. 

Use Case 1: A Hybrid Escape Room to Unlock Innovation Skills

The Challenge

The College had invested in dedicated Innovation Rooms equipped with immersive learning technology, but many staff lacked confidence in using the equipment or integrating it into teaching. Without a scalable support model, the rooms weren’t being used to their full potential. The digital team needed a way to:

• Make hands-on training accessible without requiring constant in-person guidance
• Give staff a safe, self-paced way to build confidence with new tech
• Create a fun, immersive learning environment that modelled the very technologies the rooms were designed for
• Ensure that everyone – staff and students – could fully benefit from the investment
  

The Solution: A ThingLink-Powered Hybrid Escape Room

The team created “Group Intelligence”, a self-guided, fully AI-generated gamified escape-room experience blending the physical Innovation Room equipment with ThingLink’s interactive digital layers.

The focus on AI in the escape room to support students’ understanding of its potential:

• Video was created through Sora and Kling AI
• Audio and 2D visuals created through Vision Story
• AI generated tasks created using Replit and Lovable
• Students also need to create an AI generated image of their destination.
• Students also need to use Canva code for tutor to create a cypher for the alien language

Participants work in teams under time pressure, solving puzzles across:

• Three digital screens displaying different ThingLink experiences
• VR headsets with AI generated activities
• Physical lockboxes and hidden codes
• 360° environments created in Skybox and enhanced with ThingLink annotations in hotspots
• AI-generated 2D imagery created with Vision Story and converted into interactive images and infographics in ThingLink

This hybrid setup trains users to operate the room’s technology naturally and playfully – removing the fear factor and building confidence through discovery.

You can explore the escape room for yourself below.

The Benefits

Benefits For the College

• Massive time savings: Staff and students can learn independently without relying on digital team availability.
• Better utilisation of costly facilities: The Innovation Room now has higher, more consistent use.
• One build, unlimited reuse: The escape room can run repeatedly for staff inductions, student sessions, tutorials, or enrichment activities. Any new features can be added as necessary, and the content will update immediately, everywhere – no need to create a new ThingLink.

Benefits For Staff and Students

• Hands-on learning with real equipment, but without pressure
• Increased confidence using immersive tech, interactive content and AI tools
• Increased student engagement, which in turn leads to increased retention of the points learnt
• Opportunities to practice soft skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making
• A real-world demonstration of how immersive content can transform teaching

Use Case 2: Scaling Mandatory Safeguarding Training With ThingLink

The Challenge

Every student at Bradford College – including apprentices and remote learners – must complete essential safeguarding modules such as PREVENT. This creates several logistical difficulties:

• Apprentices start year-round, so synchronous, trainer-led delivery isn’t possible
• Students are spread across locations and often use personal devices
• Materials must be engaging enough to complete independently, with straightforward functionality
• The digital team must build 15+ modules on the essential subjects with limited time

The first course developed was the PREVENT module, which needed to be interactive, mobile-friendly, highly accessible, and easy to deliver at scale.

The Solution: Interactive, Self-Guided ThingLink Modules

Using ThingLink, the team created an interactive PREVENT training module, enriched with resources built in Canva and AI tools. The experience can be:

• Self-guided on any device for remote, asynchronous online learning
• Delivered in live teaching sessions
• Shared instantly via QR code, bypassing access or login problems

So far, 500 learners have completed the module with an impressive average score of 90%, demonstrating strong comprehension and successful independent learning.

The Benefits

Benefits For the College

• Scalable safeguarding delivery regardless of when apprentices start
• No system-access barriers thanks to QR-based delivery
• Ability to rapidly develop a full suite of 15+ safeguarding courses using the same platform
• Consistent content quality – interactive, impactful and memorable course materials with minimal staff resource

Benefits For Students

• Clear, intuitive and engaging learning materials they can complete independently
• Flexibility to learn anywhere, on any device – no need for virtual reality headsets for example
• Increased digital confidence through self-guided exploration of the multimedia learning resources and realistic scenario simulations

Conclusion: One Platform, Unlimited Applications

With only two digital learning specialists, Bradford College needed a platform that could multiply their impact. ThingLink delivered the versatility, scalability, and creative freedom required to build both immersive on-site experiences and essential self-guided courses from the same toolkit.

Thanks to ThingLink, the College can now:

• Deliver interactive learning at scale, both remotely and in hybrid formats
• Support consistent training across thousands of learners year-round
• Maximise the use and value of the College’s Innovation Rooms and their edtech tools 
• Increase learner motivation, confidence, and digital literacy
• Produce high-quality content despite extremely limited staffing

In short, ThingLink enabled Bradford College to do far more with far less – and create a blueprint for future-ready interactive content creation and digital learning across Further Education.

ThingLink for Vocational Training and Further Education