Southwestern College campus tours are now available from anywhere in the world with the use of a computer or smart phone.
In May the college rolled out a Virtual College Tour, where prospective and current students can walk through the main Chula Vista campus, the Higher Education Centers in National City, Otay Mesa San Ysidro and the Crown Cove Aquatic
Center without visiting the actual campuses.
“We are always looking for ways to encourage more students to enroll at the college,” said SWC spokeswoman Lillian Leopold. “We are trying to use some methods that are more in-line with the way students look for things. They look at the website, they look through social media, and so here was a way to invite students who in our area, students who are from outside of our area, to really get a good idea of what the campus looks like and they don’t even have to come here…”
As of the morning of Aug.1 the site has had 1,796 visitors since its May launch. Of that, the college has received 138 student inquires, meaning they wanted to schedule an on-campus tour or have requested more information about the college, Leopold said.
When a user takes a virtual tour, they are guided by an avatar that provides them with information about each of the 20 tour stops in English or Spanish. An option to take the tour in Tagalog is available, however, an avatar will not be available, just an audio of a Tagalog speaker. Leopold said the virtual tours can be used by users who are blind who can hear the audio, and those who are deaf can read the transcription.
Leopold said the virtual tours are still in its infancy, but there are big plans as for its evolution. Those plans include launching a Virtual Reality part where a user can wear Virtual Reality goggles and plug their smart phone into the goggles to experience the tour in 3-D.
“What ideally we want to do is when our peer advisors go to the high schools when we do parent nights is that they put their phones in these goggles and then they’ll be taking the tours while they are in the gym that they are doing their parent night or the cafeteria,” Leopold said. “It’s like they’ll be standing in the cafeteria but they’ll feel like they are standing on campus of Southwestern College.”
The system also allows the capability for the college to upload informational videos and photos about certain programs and upload them for a more comprehensive tour into certain departments and programs.
The college entered a three-year $62,756 contract with YouVisit, the company behind virtual college tours throughout America.
“We have such a beautiful campus and I think the way that they (YouVisit) presented our campus really shows how beautiful our campuses are,” she said.
