May 19,2000 UNT Inhouse publication: UNT virtual tour among top sites

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UNT virtual tour among top sites

UNT premiered an interactive virtual campus tour on the Internet last month, and already it's earning distinction as one of the best on the 'Net. CampusTours.com selected UNT's site as its "4-Star Virtual College Tour" for May. UNT's virtual tour can be found at www.unt.edu/virtualtour.

CampusTours.com reaches thousands of students each day. Recently, students participating in a survey by Time magazine and The Princeton Review voted CampusTours.com one of the "Top Ten Internet College Resources." Visitors to CampusTours.com have taken more than 10 million virtual tours from schools like UNT.

UNT's interactive tour is unique because of its computer-generated tour guides, or "avatars." Most campus tours simply offer a panoramic view or a traditional slideshow. The UNT site uses the capabilities of newer browsers so that potential students viewing the UNT site can use these tour guides to get information on various buildings without needing to download software.

The avatars also create a more interactive experience for students because they "conduct" the tour and point out facts about UNT during the different stops.

In the first month of operation, UNT's virtual tour site received 93,000 hits.

A study of 10,000 college students by Lipman Hearn, a Chicago-based research group, has determined that the web has become the No. 1 tool for potential students choosing a college. Information presented on web sites is replacing traditional items such as viewbooks, guidebooks and letters from college representatives as the surest way to deliver information to potential students.

UNT also offers a traditional slideshow version of the tour for students with slower Internet connections and older browsers.