A 360 perspective: virtual tours in the COVID-19 era
The background
Heading into the 2020-2021 academic year, we knew fall and spring wouldn’t look like semesters past. Without the tools of our traditional recruitment arsenal, engaging the Class of 2025, and likely the Class of 2026, will require some extra creativity. We’ve written before about how content has always been king when it comes to the admissions cycle, but in the COVID-19 era, it’s reigning supreme.
Recruitment has never been just about selling a degree, it’s about selling an experience. In-person campus tours and events won’t be an option for most schools for the foreseeable future, and as enrollment for first-year students has already declined by 16% due to COVID-19, translating your campus experience virtually is more important than ever.
The solution? A new 360 perspective, powered completely by images and video all captured at 360 degrees. Here’s how we did it for Southeastern Community College.
The challenge
As part of our work for SCC’s Centennial celebration and newly expanded health science programming, we developed a concept inspired by the college’s mission of 100 years of service, centered around: “Here is the Way.” While SCC’s in-person campus tours have been very start and stop due to COVID-19, the timeframe to recruit and build the class for the next year hasn’t. We sought to create a new virtual tour experience, where prospective students would be able to visit the campus from the comfort of their homes.
Our challenge was to do so in a way that not only looked as real as possible, but felt it, too. Like you could reach out and touch it, just like if you were standing in West Burlington or Keokuk.
The approach
Using state-of-the-art 360 VR cameras, we filmed all of SCC’s common areas to mirror the look and feel of campus as much as possible. The tour includes access to the school’s sports facilities, café, student lounges, dorms, courtyards, art labs – everywhere a prospective student may be interested in visiting. Eight guided, unique pathways were also developed to cater to students of all types, from high school to career advancement. In this augmented reality, visitors can even hold up their phone or tablet and as they walk around, allowing them to feel like they are inside of any building or on the campus quad.
This virtual experience gives students a chance to personalize their tour in a way that isn’t always possible in-person, while providing access to students who live farther away, as on-campus visits are often limited to those who live within a short driving distance.
The results
The results are as expected, tours are up, applications are up, and the next class is forming as quickly as expected. Unexpectedly the number of visitors from previously untapped markets outside of Iowa including a surge in Asia.
The takeaway
“Students may not be able to visit campus, but with the use of 360 technology, we can still show them here is the way. You can take a look at SCC’s virtual tour experience here.