Dive Brief:
- Columbia College Chicago has partnered with local startup Georama to offer interactive, live-streamed virtual tours in HD for students who want to see the campus remotely.
- Columbia is the first college to offer the service, and Robert Morris University is soon to follow.
- Georama lets students watch a livestream from the point of view of an on-campus guide and also interact in real-time, getting their questions answered in the same way they would if they were actually present.
Dive Insight:
The Savannah College of Art and Design sent 10,000 pairs of virtual reality goggles to prospective students earlier this year, in hopes that a virtual look at campus would spark their interest in attending one of SCAD’s four locations in the U.S., China, and France. The goggles were made of cardboard and worked with a smartphone’s gyroscope to create unique displays for users. Columbia College tours are not virtual reality. They represent another way colleges and universities are responding to the highly competitive admissions environment.
The most promising students are always in high demand. Schools that cannot afford high-tech outreach have tried other methods, including sending handwritten notes to accepted applicants.