How Can You Give The University Campus Tour Experience At Home To Students?
After more than a year of lockdown, it seems that things might return to something that looks normal soon. But few things that the pandemic taught the world will remain the same. One of them is the concept of a university campus tour for prospective students. These tours are the best way for the students to decide which college they wish to study in. These tours also save students travel and stay costs. From the point of the university, it allows more students to get a view of the university. The universities can offer a good campus tour experience to these students from the comfort of their homes by-
The colleges can deliver the best experience to the prospective students by touching both sides of the campus tour- the practical and the emotional with the help of the digital mediums. By harnessing the digital advancements the colleges can even touch the emotional aspect of college life. These tours can be tailored according to the needs of the students.
When a student looks for the university or the college he wants to study in, he looks for everything like the classroom size, auditorium size, kinds of dorms, and extra curriculum activities. On the basis of what the students get to see via the tour, the student decides the best fit option. So, the university should try to include all the aspects possible in the virtual tour, with the help of which the students can actually live the experience of the campus life along with the tour.
There is a growing trend of offering a 360-degree tour of the campus. The university campus tour opens the access of the students out of state and internationally. The universities can invest in technology and reap the benefits. But the universities cannot only rely on the 360 tours alone as they don’t deliver the full experience of the tour. They lack the capacity to develop the relationship between the current students and the prospective students. A 360-degree tour gives the prospective students a sense of the place but fails to develop a connection with the people.
Many universities are allowing the current students to deliver the content and share their experiences that guide prospective students towards the university. This gives a more personalized touch to the virtual tour. It also builds a sense of confidence in the prospects. The student-led approach is the new normal. Colleges have allowed students to create accounts on social platforms that showcase the campus and student life. These aren’t campus tours in the real sense but are the ways to offer prospects what they exactly want. It is believed that giving the authentic look at college life is far more valuable for the prospects than just showing them the facilities the university has to offer.
One of the ways to let the prospects get a peep into university life is by offering them summer programs. This is an excellent way to get a feel for the college. The universities offer online summer programs at a cheaper fee so that these students can enroll in the yearly programs as well.
Along with the virtual tours, universities are coming up with live sessions and pre-recorded sessions so that the prospects can get a chance to speak with the current students and lecturers. Some colleges have produced their own webinar series that clarifies issues that might concern prospective students like the application process, financial support, careers advice, extracurricular activities, course details, long-term career opportunities, and teaching methods.
The virtual tours should be tailored to meet the needs of the students. In some cases, the campus tours are followed by a zoom call with the students, lecturers, and career advisors. Also, in some tours, there is a feature wherein the prospects can book a hang-out session with other prospects and current students so that the students can connect with each other. This strategy allows the universities to attract a group of students as a whole because once they became friends; the entire group will join the university.
Schools, universities, and colleges can modify their campus tours so that they can give the best experience to prospective students. There is a vast scope to design the best university campus tour because this is an excellent way for the colleges to attract as many students as possible. Money spent on designing these tours is an investment as the students will rely on these tours to decide the college they wish to join, even after the pandemic will be over.
