Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Cardboard Goggles Help Potential Students Visit Campus Virtually

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 03/06/15

Using smartphones and virtual reality headsets, thousands of students worldwide are getting a virtual feel for a Georgia-based school. The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is in the process of shipping out 10,000 pairs of the specially designed cardboard goggles to recruit and engage potential and current students. Eventually, the college hopes to use the technology to pull its multiple locations and online learning program closer together by allowing users to participate virtually in events at campuses other than their own.

The college has developed a microsite that takes students through virtual tours of its locations in Savannah, Atlanta, Hong Kong and Lacoste, France. Users are able to move through the facilities to view each program.

Eventually SCAD expects to create "spherical videos" that capture the experience of attending events, galleries and exhibitions in 360-degree immersion. That content will work with internal sensors in the smartphone to create a unique view for each person. The college is working with virtual reality company YouVisit on the project.

The first batch of people to receive the headsets are students already admitted for study at SCAD who may not have made up their minds yet about which school to attend. However, anyone with access to a virtual reality headset, including those from Oculus and Samsung, can view the content.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • abstract AI technology with glowing digital interfaces

    AI Leads 2027 Educause Top 10

    While artificial intelligence has long factored into the trends and issues within Educause's annual Top 10, the technology has officially risen to the No. 1 spot for 2027.

  • man viewing holographic display of data and code

    Why Cross-Skilling Is the Smartest Investment a Campus IT Team Can Make

    Higher education IT teams are being asked to keep pace with AI, cloud, and cybersecurity on flat budgets, and hiring a specialist for every new need can no longer keep up. Building adjacent skills across the people already on staff creates more agile, resilient teams that move faster and retain talent without adding headcount. Pluralsight makes the strategy work through skill assessments, tailored learning paths, hands-on labs and sandboxes, and microlearning that fits into the flow of work.

  • Futuristic metallic block with pixelated digital erosion effect

    Report: AI May Be Eroding the Very Skills Employers Need Most

    AI is changing which human capabilities matter most at work, yet employees are reporting that some of those same capabilities are being eroded, according to a new IBM study.

  • A glowing digital brain with neural connections and light trails

    AI Giants Warn It May Be Time to Slow Down

    For years, leaders in the artificial intelligence industry have warned that increasingly capable AI systems could eventually become dangerous, all the while continuing to race to build them. Now, their sentiments have changed.