Craven College x Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Digital Innovation Project 2025

Just prior to the Christmas break the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Craven College embarked on an innovative and unique digital project using the state-of-the-art technology available in Space, Craven College’s new immersive facility.

Taking place over two days, this collaboration between our Countryside department, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Yorkshire Peat Partnership gave students the opportunity to present findings from their project whilst day two took the format of a corporate showcase.

This was the first time the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Yorkshire Peat Partnership had the opportunity to showcase their work in such an innovative way, and the Trust CEO Rachel Bice delivered the welcome presentation to gathered delegates, our students, and guests.

Level 2 and Level 3 students created fascinating presentations to be presented in the Immersive Room as part of their Environmental Interpretation module and Heathland Habitat Management module, whilst connecting with the digital side of the learning process.

Students invited their own guests to present to, whilst offering a range of different platforms for the audience to experience including using VR headsets.

In tandem with the Yorkshire Peat Partnership, Rebecca Holt created 360° content as part of the partnership. With assistance on occasions from tutors and students, Rebecca visited the sites, gathering the content they needed, training staff on the equipment and banking the content for students to use as part of their project. Students used drones, 360° cameras, 3D modelling, Map GIS and methods of accurately monitoring data to supplement the content they needed to create their projects.

This was a fantastic opportunity to get students and tutors on board with the ThingLink programme, which is a unique experience and helps provide vital digital skills.

The second day began with a welcome from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust CEO Rachel Bice before invited delegates took part in a range of engagement activities and immersive, digital and tech sessions in the Immersive Space.

This collaboration is a key component of Craven College’s Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) digital innovation project strategy, aligning current technologies with real-world industry needs and driving the development of future digital workflows across priority sectors such as Agriculture, Green Skills and Sustainability, and Construction.

Rebecca Holt, Innovation and Digital Learning Technologist said, “The collaborative project was designed around 360 workflows, 3D modelling, and ThingLink (for the student platform), enabling effective staff training, shared content creation, and curriculum-aligned learner showcases with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.”

Tom Midgley, Deputy Head of Department – Land-based & Engineering added, “This work demonstrated how immersive technology can enhance teaching and learning by supporting applied, curriculum-aligned learning using real industry data and tools.”