Union has launched a new edition of its online virtual tour, one of the most popular parts of the Union web site. The tour, which is available at www.union.edu/Tour, has been redesigned to be more user-friendly and to take advantage of some eye-catching new technologies. A number of new locations have also been added, including Seward Place, the Kenney Community Center, and Grant Admissions
Center.
The tour, which received a prestigious “4 Star Campus Tour Award” from www.campustours.com when it was initially launched more than two years ago, will be a strong contender to repeat as an award-winner this year, according to Tom Smith, Union's Web Site Director. “We've added a lot of great material and some exciting new features that make this one of the best virtual campus tours on the web” Smith said.
There are more than forty stops on the tour in all; each location contains at least one image and many contain interactive, 360-degree virtual tours of the buildings.
Perhaps the most fun part of the new tour is the new campus map. Users of Internet Explorer can drag a “magnifying glass” over a map of the campus to see areas of the campus enlarged in more detail.
Some of the other new features include:
Striking panoramic aerial views of campus, in both large and small versions, are now included in the tour. The shots were taken from a small plane flying over campus.
A guided tour option leads the visitor around campus exactly as if he or she were walking through it. A drop-down menu allows visitors to jump to a specific destination ay any point.
A section on Union's Residence Halls (initially created by the Office of Residence Life and Shaker Choudhury '02) includes information, including floor plans, for eight residence halls.
With the new virtual tour so engaging and informative, will people still need to come to campus to take a “real” tour?
“The virtual tour is certainly not meant to replace the traditional on-campus tour,” Smith explains. “In fact, I think the new virtual tour will cause more people than ever to visit campus. It's really just a taste of our beautiful campus, designed to whet people's appetite to visit us in person.”