3D Virtual Campus Tours Features & Benefits

Benefits of Virtual Campus Tours

• Self-Guided Online Tours
  • A self-guided tour gives users the freedom to roam the campus at their own pace, discovering what the University has to offer that is of interest to them.
  • Self-guided tours run themselves, promoting your college or university while freeing-up recruiters and marketers for other tasks requiring their attention.
  • Properly set-up on your website, a self-guided online tour can happen at any time day or night – enabling students in different time zones or countries to experience your campus regardless of the time of day.
• Interactive Online Tours
  • Interactive virtual tours allow users to experience an automated campus visit where they are free to stop and start at any time.
  • Pre-programmed prompts & text on the computer monitor will help visitors discover and learn about key aspects of the campus.
  • The online tour experience can ensure that nothing relevant is missed in regards to the history or value of the campus, while still providing the user with the freedom to explore at their own pace and time table.
• Guided Online Virtual Tours
  • Live admissions reps can give scheduled virtual guided tours of your campus, sharing all of the information that would normally be covered in an on-ground tour. Tours can be with large or small groups of interested potential students.
  • Guided tours can take place in the same virtual space with those on a self-guided tour, or in a duplicate campus where there are no distractions from users who are not part of the guided tour.
  • Virtual online tours never run out of space for interested students, and there’s no worry about interrupting classes with the tours either. Recruiters have complete & total control of the time and access to the tours.
  • Guided tours can be scheduled with just the click of a button.

Virtual campus tours leverage time and space for both users and campus staff in unprecedented, highly practical ways.

Fully Custom Features

• Custom Interface
  • Designing user interfaces of virtual worlds is one of the most important features for users. The interface features need to be intuitive and easy to use. We provide fully customized branding, the use of features with the click of a button, easy camera controls including first to third person views, and more.
• 3D Content Development
  • Each virtual college campus tour is developed to showcase a specific campus and the unique features it has to offer. Buildings, walkways, and terrain are all replicated to allow the user to experience the campus as they would in on on ground setting.
• 3D Animations and Simulations
  • Custom animations and simulations allow each campus to truly shine. Personalized animations and simulations give each campus the opportunity to show students their most unique offerings. Examples include a beautiful fountain, an interactive laser lab, and a flight simulator. The possibilities are endless.

Interactivity and User Engagement Features with Online Virtual Tours

• Games
  • Mini games can be added to the virtual campus to attract users to specific areas you wish to highlight.
  • Full games can be developed that allow users to earn points, challenge their friends or try to beat a high score - keeping them coming back for more exposure to your campus.
• Trivia and Clues
  • Information about the campus can be shared through clues spread throughout the virtual campus in a scavenger hunt-type of challenge.
  • Visitors can test their knowledge of the university (as well as their scavenger hunt skills) by playing trivia games.
• Points, Rewards and Virtual Stores
  • A customized point structure can be created to fit customized games and trivia.
  • Users can utilize points to purchase goods in a virtual store and customize their avatars with items as small as a pin to items as large as a wearable mascot uniform.
  • Achievements and rewards can be set based on individual games, areas visited, clues found, trivia answered, and more.
• Kiosks
  • Kiosks placed around the campus can be used to allow users to quickly and easily fill-out an application and other forms, make payments, purchase books, and more.
• Non-playing Characters and Bots
  • Users can interact with non-playing characters or bots within the virtual world in order to learn more about the campus in an interactive and engaging fashion.
• Media Integration and Collaboration
  • Making your virtual campus as useful and conducive to collaboration as possible is an aspect of virtual worlds development that our team of designers never overlooks. We can implement streaming video, interactive web pages, document and application sharing, whiteboard system, and more.

User engagement via games, earned points, kiosks and programmed characters helps expose potential students to the history & diversity of your college campus.

Chat

• Text Chat
  • Text chat gives user the ability to have private or group discussions through an instant messaging system.
  • Text chat can be controlled by an admin with the ability to turn on and off chat at anytime.
  • Specific users can be muted so that they are unable to chat with others.
• Voice Chat
  • Each users avatar can voice chat with another person just as they would in real life.
  • Voice chat can be held with large groups or in individual spaces.
  • Voice chat can be customized to fit the needs of specific areas or events. For example, it may be turned off for self-guided tours, but turned on for guided tours.

Visitor Personalization with Online College Tours

• High Quality Avatars
  • Avatars of campus visitors have the ability to walk, run, dance, wave, shake hands, raise hands and more. In addition to these abilities, custom and pre-made clothing and accessories are available so that potential students can change their avatars’ appearance and make it their own. Further personalization includes hair style and color, eye color, skin color, and much more.
• Profiles
  • Profiles allow visitors to share information with other users. The type of information that can be seen may be restricted by user type. For example, only general information can be seen by other users, but admins can see personal information such as email addresses and home phone numbers.

Personalization options enable visitors to have a more realistic, personalized campus tour experience that will be memorable and speaks well about the modernity of your campus and school.

Administrative Features of Virtual Online Tours from 3DVCT

• Database Integration
  • Internal databases including Oracle, MYSQL, MSSQL, as well as CRM software can be integrated into the virtual campus tour - allowing for streamlined user account creation and tracking.
• Web-based administration
  • Users can be created, edited, temporarily blocked, and deleted.
  • Scheduled events can be created, edited, deleted, as well as assigned to specific admissions representatives or other admin users.
  • User logs allow admins to view where each user is visiting and how long they are remaining in each area.
  • Chat logs allow admins to see exactly what is being said within the virtual space.
• LMS integration with SCORM 2004 and AICC programming
• Hosted Deployment
  • Options include hosting your virtual campus on Designing Digitally, Inc.’s dedicated servers or on your own server.
  • We can host behind your firewall to ensure security and each hosting option is expandable to allow usage by thousands of users at the same time.
• Social Network Integration
  • Additional developments can be created to host your virtual campus tour on Facebook and your website. In the future, look for the ability take your virtual campus to the next level and deploy it on the iPhone.

Administrative capabilities with 3DVCT allow for visitor information analysis, hosting freedom and strong future deployment options.