virtual-campus-tour

Institution first to offer live, interactive campus tours with Georama


Columbia College will use Georama’s platform to facilitate live-streamed virtual tours in HD for prospective students.

virtual-campus-tour

Georama, the real-time travel platform, announced its partnership with Columbia College Chicago to provide live, interactive campus tours for prospective students who can’t make an in-person visit.

Columbia College is the first educational institution in the world to use this technology to enhance their digital marketing efforts. The college has already completed several tours with the new technology and has over 15 tours scheduled for the rest of the summer.

The college broadcasts tours for students who cannot make a physical trip for an on-site visit due to financial or logistical reasons. Viewers include out-of-state students who can’t afford to make a trip to all the universities they are considering, or international students who don’t have a visa to make a trip prior to college admission, and more. By leveraging Georama’s technology, Columbia College is able to give prospective students and their parents the ability to experience a campus tour similar to what they would have received if they had made an in-person visit.

(Next page: GoPros, HD streams, and other features of the tours)

Columbia College’s tour guides are equipped with a GoPro camera and Georama’s specialized technology that combines multiple cellular and Wi-Fi networks, enabling them to live stream their point of view in a stable HD stream.

In addition to watching live, viewers can interact with the guides in real-time to ask questions and make suggestions, thereby seeing what they want to see and getting their questions answered in a personalized way. Since the technology allows guides to be completely mobile, they are able to showcase the different parts of campus, including departments, classrooms, facilities, dorms and more – giving viewers an authentic perspective of what campus life is like.

“Many students aren’t able to make the initial visit to multiple colleges,” said Nihal Advani, Founder & CEO of Georama. “Our technology provides the next best option to an in-person visit via live, high-quality video. And beyond streaming live, tours with our technology allow for two-way interaction in real-time, thereby making them highly personalized.”

The virtual campus tours are not meant to replace on-site visits, rather, they are intended to further entice interested students to make an official trip to campus when possible. This allows more prospective students to experience the campus virtually before making the investment to visit in-person.

“With the use of Georama’s platform, we’ve made it feasible for anyone to take a tour of our campus from anywhere in the world, at any time,” said Ania Greiner, Director of Admissions Events and Services at Columbia College. “From the comfort of their homes, students and parents can participate in a campus visit and learn first-hand what our college offers, all thanks to Georama’s state-of-the-art technology.”

To view all upcoming tour opportunities and watch past live tours, visit: www.colum.edu/admissions/visit-us/live-tour.html.

Georama is continuing to partner with other educational institutions; it recently closed a deal with Robert Morris University and is in talks with a few other universities across the coasts.

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