{"id":3254,"date":"2020-04-14T20:43:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T00:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tlsrv.net\/virtual-campus-tours\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T02:28:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T09:28:03","slug":"virtual-campus-tours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/virtual-campus-tours\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Tours: 10 Examples of How to Visit Colleges or Universities remotely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wherever <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">high school<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> students plan to study, most would ideally like to do an <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on-campus visit<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the schools that they are considering. But the covid pandemic made us all ask: how can <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prospective students<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tour colleges when campuses are closed for any reason? <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Virtual campus tours<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are the answer!&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Universities and Colleges crate virtual campus tours<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The covid pandemic made it hard for students and parents to visit a new school in person. Consequently, increasing numbers of colleges and universities created virtual tours to embed in their websites or admissions pages. These self-guided tours can help students and their parents make better informed choices about where to study, or where to follow up with an in-person campus tour. For a real inside peek at college life, why not include videos and introductions from student ambassadors and current undergrads?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"tl-cta-block\"><h3>Create your first virtual tour!<\/h3><p>Get started with ThingLink today and create a virtual tour from scratch. <\/p><button class=\"tl-button tl-button--white tl-button--small tl-cta-block__button\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\">get started<\/button><\/section>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Benefits of virtual campus tours<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As well as the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">academic programs<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on offer at your college or university, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prospective students<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and their families want to see <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">residence halls<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, sports and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">athletics<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> facilities that <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">undergraduate students<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">access<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Providing a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">virtual tour<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that gives an immersive experience of the campus and teaching facilities helps increase enquiries and applications from overseas students or those who otherwise might face challenges in attending <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in person<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Examples of virtual campus visits from the US, UK and Australia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Keele University creates a virtual campus tour<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The University of Keele is a public research university in Keele in England. They created an interactive <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">campus map<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for their <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">virtual experience<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The map uses<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.keele.ac.uk\/gge\/ggeofferholderday\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an aerial photo <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that connects to points of information. However there are also 360 videos from different parts of the campus area. In addition, they included reports from international field trips in the tour.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.keele.ac.uk\/gge\/ggeofferholderday\/\" rel=\" noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/603436\/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-13%20at%202.25.50%20PM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2020-04-13 at 2.25.50 PM\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Loyola Marymount University&#8217;s virtual campus tour&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Loyola Marymount University is a private research university in Los Angeles. Ray Andrade is a librarian and is a member of the Library\u2019s outreach department. Ray coordinates library visits, student programs and tours. In 2019 Ray began to develop a virtual library tour that could serve all students. Above all, he wanted to create a standard tour in English. However, firstly he worked with faculty staff, and students to create a tour to support LMU\u2019s international community. As a result, he created the tour in different languages. His tour includes eighteen 360 degree images. These contain over 65 interactive tags, 17 original videos and 4 \u201cHow To\u201d videos. <a href=\"https:\/\/librarynews.lmu.edu\/2020\/02\/high-impact-practices-creating-a-360-library-tour-in-chinese\/\" rel=\" noopener\">You can read the full project description here. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0px auto; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/mediacard\/1245529788400009217\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-original-width=\"640\" data-original-height=\"360\" data-service=\"cdn.thinglink\">&lt;br>&lt;\/strong>&lt;\/p><\/iframe><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do you make a virtual campus tour? Creating a virtual visit is easy with ThingLink!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can add a huge variety of types of content in tags to your <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">virtual tour<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Here\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/same-page\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">handy guide to what you can add in tags<\/a>. You could also add:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recorded videos of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">information sessions<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with Admissions regarding entry requirements, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">financial aid<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> etc.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sample timetables&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sample menus from the canteen<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Introduction videos from clubs, societies or members of the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">student panel<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember your tour can link to images or infographics as well as photos or 360 images. An infographic or timeline would be super helpful as a guide to the undergraduate admissions process.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>NEW!<\/strong> <strong>The easy way to create 360 images: Pano to 360<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Creating virtual tours, exhibitions, escape rooms and other immersive content just got even easier! ThingLink has now launched <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/en-us\/pano-to-360\" target=\"_blank\">Pano to 360 by ThingLink<\/a>: an easy way to create a 360 photosphere from a panoramic image using any smartphone. For more information, including step-by-step instructions <a href=\"https:\/\/support.thinglink.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/15786957878039-New-feature-convert-panoramas-to-360-images\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">see this helpful support article.&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"tl-cta-block\"><h3>Try the free Pano to 360 converter <\/h3><p>The Pano to 360 photosphere converter is free to use for anyone, no ThingLink account required! Upload a panoramic image to see it in action. <\/p><button class=\"tl-button tl-button--white tl-button--small tl-cta-block__button\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/en-us\/pano-to-360\">Try pano to 360 by thinglink<\/button><\/section>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Easy and instant to edit and update your virtual tour<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If any of your content needs to be changed or updated, it\u2019s instant with ThingLink. Swap out the background of any scene and keep the tags in place, or update the tags themselves, and wherever your virtual tour is embedded will update in real time too.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More examples of virtual campus tours to inspire you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Virtual campus tour from <strong>Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The Peabody Institute\u00a0of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Johns_Hopkins_University\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Johns Hopkins University<\/a> is a music and dance college and university-preparatory school in Baltimore. In 2017, it created <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/mediacard\/1017868778563698691\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a virtual campus tour<\/a> of its facilities. Now, students can now virtually visit the school and its various spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/603436\/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-13%20at%203.59.19%20PM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2020-04-13 at 3.59.19 PM\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Virtual Campus Tour at Charles Darwin University&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Charles Darwin University used ThingLink to introduce their Casuarina campus. It is the largest study location at CDU, and the hub for Higher Education, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Research. The tour features various buildings, landmarks as well as links to more information and resources about the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0px auto; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/mediacard\/1144811197518839809\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-original-width=\"640\" data-original-height=\"360\" data-service=\"cdn.thinglink\"><\/strong><\/p><\/iframe><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Washington University Center at Olympic College Poulsbo&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Olympic College Poulsbo is a collaboration between Olympic College and Western. Above all, it serves the community and businesses on the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas. So that new applicants could visit the university online, the college used ThingLink <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwu.edu\/poulsbo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to create a virtual campus tour of the college<\/a>. The tour is available for all visitors to their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwu.edu\/poulsbo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/603436\/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-13%20at%203.53.03%20PM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2020-04-13 at 3.53.03 PM\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Virtual tour of <strong>College of Design at the <\/strong><strong>University of Oregon<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The College created an interactive map with custom icons. These provide shortcuts for exploring different parts of the campus, with tags that contain both video and text. As a result, viewers can read and translate the text to over 80 language using Immersive Reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/603436\/8BDvjj.gif\" alt=\"8BDvjj\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Take a virtual campus tour of <strong>Brevard College&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Brevard College already had a numbered map with a list of locations, but they turned it into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/scene\/1305240851332464641\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an interactive virtual campus tour. \u00a0<\/a>They did this by adding descriptions to each of the numbered spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/scene\/1305240851332464641\" rel=\" noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/603436\/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-13%20at%203.16.50%20PM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2020-04-13 at 3.16.50 PM\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FAMU Law School&#8217;s virtual campus tour<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Florida A&amp;M University is a public, historically black university in Tallahassee in Florida. Their VR lead L. Michelle Salvant and Dr. Kelley Bailey are ThingLink Certified Educators. They started exploring the use of Virtual Campus Tours in 2016. This tour starts from the atrium in the College Of Law, and gives the visitor quick links to the lecture room and library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/603436\/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-14%20at%2012.34.12%20PM.png\" alt=\"FAMU Law School\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinhttps:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/mediacard\/1169986066619301889\" rel=\" noopener\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">California State University Virtual Tour&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>CSUF<\/strong> is a\u00a0public university\u00a0in\u00a0Fullerton in California. With about 40,400 students, it is one of the largest in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/California_State_University\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">California State University<\/a> (CSU) system. This brief tour shows the locations of the Admissions and Records Office, the College of Education, and the School of Business and Economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"margin: 0px auto; display: block;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/mediacard\/1199077916953018373\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-original-width=\"640\" data-original-height=\"360\" data-service=\"cdn.thinglink\"><\/iframe><br><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/cdn.thinglink.me\/jse\/responsive.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A virtual campus tour around the <strong>University of Southampton&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The University of Southampton sits in the city of Southampton, on the south coast of England. The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valley Gardens<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, houses rare plant and animal species.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/mediacard\/791638231232806912\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This beautiful campus tour of the Valley Gardens<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was created by Dr. Sarah Fielding, who is a Specialist in Learning Design. Enjoy the birds!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/mediacard\/791638231232806912\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/603436\/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-14%20at%201.34.40%20PM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2020-04-14 at 1.34.40 PM\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Check out some of these other university virtual tour case studies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University of Calgary create an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/thinglink-calgary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">orientation guide for <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">first-year<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> students<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Student-led<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tours: On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/campus-visit-experience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rochester Medical School tour<\/a>, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">current students<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are your <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tour guides<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to give a flavour of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">student life<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Connect and get inspired!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why not connect with us and our communities on social media? <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/ThingLinkEducation\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook Education Group<\/a> is a great place for tips, examples, support and advice.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"tl-cta-block\"><h3>Meet a product expert<\/h3><p>If you\u2019d like to learn more about what ThingLink can offer to your college or university, you can schedule an online meeting with one of our product experts below.<\/p><button class=\"tl-button tl-button--white tl-button--small tl-cta-block__button\" data-link=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/andrew-6\/thinglinkdemo\">Meet an Expert<\/button><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wherever high school students plan to study, most would ideally like to do an on-campus visit to the schools that they are considering. But the covid pandemic made&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[477,491,566,568],"tags":[156,547,209,545,486,527,210,158,216],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3254"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12252,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3254\/revisions\/12252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}