University of Richmond Wins Campus Tours' Four-Star Award for Student-Initiated Online Campus Tour
April 3, 2002
The University of Richmond has won the Four-Star Virtual Tour Award for April from CampusTours.com, an online directory of virtual college tours.
Richmond's virtual tour, launched in mid-January, replaced the previous online tour, a 20-shot photo gallery.
The project was the brainchild of students Tom Lawrence, a senior from Richmond; and Greg Hofbauer, a sophomore from Pittsburgh. The tour is based on their prototype, and they did the programming.
"Tom and Greg set up a meeting with me," Bill Flowers, the university's Web manager recalled. "They said the University Web site lacked a virtual tour that was honest and compelling and that gave a sense of what it is like to live and work on this campus. They showed me the solution: a prototype virtual tour that frankly blew me away."
It also impressed CampusTours. "Richmond's Flash-based panoramas contain a wealth of university information and navigation capabilities," the company said.
"Gliding the cursor over the panorama pans the photo and identifies 'hot spots' within the image," the company added. "Clicking the '?' icon on one of these hot spots launches a popup window with information about the particular building or location.
"Clicking the arrow icon takes the visitor into the next panoramic image in that direction. The interactive map keeps track of what's happening in the panoramic window and provides instant access to any location on the tour."
The university's online tour "encourages the in-depth exploration and investigation of the university, its programs, facilities, campus and community," according to the company.
In addition to the virtual tour, the company notes the university offers a user-controllable campus Web camera. Both can be seen at the "Visitors' Center" link at www.richmond.edu.
Others colleges and universities to have won the award include Princeton, Harvard and Duke.
CampusTours.com has been working with colleges and universities to build and promote virtual college tours since 1996. It says an online tour is not a substitute for a live campus visit, but should be as close to a real campus tour as possible.
Last year, more than two million prospective students used CampusTours.com to view the virtual tours of more than 800 colleges and universities.