Walk through Pierce with a 360 virtual tour 

With only a few weeks left in the semester, routine schedules are ending and the stress of searching for new classes begins. Navigating campus should be the least of a student’s worries.

Pierce’s Library / Learning Crossroads not only has a general layout of the floor, it also has a slideshow and video tour explaining many things, from where certain shelfs or desks are to what students can do or find in the library.

However, nothing of the sort can be found for the college.

While a map of the campus and Village area shows where each building is, there is not an accurate visual representation of what Pierce actually looks like.

Pierce College should create an online 360-degree virtual tour of the campus.

Whether a student is at home a week before the semester begins or they’re walking to class, with the swipe of a finger, returning or new students would be able to visit the Center for Sciences building or walk down the Mall through their screens.

With a site such as YouVisit, which has more than 600 virtual tours of different colleges, students from any state could view campuses including California State University, Northridge, University of California, Los Angeles or even Harvard University.

Having this tour would help with increasing enrollment because students looking for colleges need to not only have the best degree programs and professors but also an attractive campus. According to YouVisit’s site, students who are planning to enroll at a college are looking for more than simply an application.“A recent study deep dived into how digital engagement influences the way high school seniors choose a college. About 76 percent of high school seniors said they have watched a video on a college website and 55 percent said they want to see videos that portrayed the sounds, sights and environment of the campus.”

Pierce can work with sites CampusTours.com or YouVisit to create these interactive tours. According to a Forbes article on the virtual tours, the price to have a virtual tour done isn’t that high.“Developing a YouVisit tour can run schools as little as $3,000, though prices vary based on how extensive a tour the school desires.”

Although not as elaborate, having updated pictures of the buildings on campus in a slideshow like the library currently has would be a helpful alternative for new and returning students.

The virtual tour could be found in the same place as the map and phone directory tab is and have a link to YouVisit where all the other campus virtual tours are as well.

Finding faculty with ease; a physical directory 

A directory gives you information to help guide you when your lost or have questionsto help guide you when your lost or have questions.

Pierce College should offer a physical directory in every faculty department with the professors picture, that includes the professors photograph, class schedules, email address, phone number and office hours.

Students are able to look up a professor on the people search on the Pierce college website. Yet, relying on technology is not always a good thing, sometimes the pages are not up to date.  Yet, this can be difficult because not all professor have their office hours on the faculty page.

Some professors do not have available information to help look for them. The emails provided can be incorrect at times.

This can make it difficult for students to find a professor when they need to the most. The Pierce website almost always has maintenance issues, which brings this systems down.

The physical directory should be placed outside of faculty offices in a glass container. This can help a student out that may not know how to navigate the Pierce website.

A student will be able to better naviatage who the professor is and what they teach and  in which buildings they are located. This can also be beneficial for students on their first day of class in case they forget the professors room number they can run to a directory, which will also have a photo of them making it easier for them to find their class and put a face to the name.

The directories should also be made available at the student services with each counselors name and email along with convenient times to reach them.

These information should be made available in all departments because it will help students find a professor’s or a counselors information in a faster way more informative way. This is also helpful because they can identify who the person is making it easier for them to talk to them.

This can also be beneficial to incoming students who need help with navigating through campus.

The directory should be made available on the outside of the faculty buildings in a glass box, each professor should give their general information.

This can benefit students because they can find the professor easier, and they also know what they look like.