Case Study: ACU Virtual Reality 360 Open Day

Case Study: ACU Virtual Reality 360 Open Day

“Helping international students participate virtually in an Open Day during Covid travel restrictions”

A project to help a university to keep their doors open for international prospective students

The Challenge

The Australian Catholic University (ACU) was challenged to engage with prospective international students who couldn’t physically attend ACU’s Open Day during the lockdown and travel restrictions of October 2020.

Our Approach

We developed an immersive VR/360-degree solution with the ACU media team between lockdowns. The solution included AR/VR360 walkthroughs of Melbourne streets and landmarks and the ACU campus, along with videos, learning activities, quizzes and interactive tours addressing topics such as Melbourne’s café culture, some of ACU’s iconic buildings, and even a brief overview of iconic Australian foods. Prospective students could tour the ACU campus virtually and learn about student life in Australia.

Watch a summary here: https://bit.ly/ACU_VR360_OpenDay

Outcomes

As a result of the impact of this VR360 Open Day solution, ACU has since again partnered with Liberate to develop and launch the ‘Gateway to ACU’ project. This follow-on project gives international students a taste of campus life to reduce culture shock during university onboarding.

“Almost all international students go through a period of adjusting to life in a new environment. Gateway to ACU supports students through this process by helping them unpack their cultural expectations about life in Australia and navigate the world of studying in an Australian setting at their own pace.” – Chris Riley, ACU pro-vice-chancellor global and education pathways.