Dive Brief:
- The Savannah College of Art and Design is sending 10,000 pairs of virtual reality goggles to prospective students, hoping to help make their enrollment decision easier without a trip to campus, Campus Technology reports.
- The goggles work with students’ smartphones to give them virtual tours through SCAD campuses in Savannah, Atlanta, Hong Kong, and Lacoste, France, Campus Technology reports.
- As its partnership with virtual reality company YouVisit expands, SCAD reportedly plans to offer students the opportunity to use the virtual reality goggles to participate in events at its campuses.
Dive Insight:
The Savannah College of Art and Design’s use of virtual reality goggles is something of a "second generation" of similar campus tours, following on the technology in Oculus Rift. SCAD’s goggles are made cardboard and work with a smartphone’s gyroscope to create a unique display in the user’s right and left eyes. The question for other institutions is whether the use of cardboard for the goggles and the further development of the technology brings virtual reality tours any closer to affordability on a large scale. It is a question that, so far, remains to be seen.