Getting Started With VR in Higher Ed Marketing

Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Shane Kehl: It's Friday. Energy is high, and we're ready to dive in. I'm Shane Keel, chief Entertainment Officer at Enroll Fi, and every other week, Mickey Baes and I will discuss how institutions can take high level strategies and tactics and implement them into their enrollment marketing strategy in a practical way, grab your coffee, open your notes.

[00:00:18] It's time for Fanatical Fridays.

[00:00:34] Hello. We are back. I believe this is episode 60 of Fanatical Fridays. Mickey, as we're recording this, we're coming off our break. I know we're a week in, but how was your extended holiday vacation? 

[00:00:46] Mickey Baines: I wouldn't call it vacation. I take time off and I take vacations. And those are two different things.

[00:00:52] Holidays, there's a lot of work that goes into preparing for it. a lot of work that goes into cleaning it up. Yeah. Enough that I'm not gonna call it a [00:01:00] vacation. Especially when you have multiple kids. celebrating the holidays family events. Yeah. For, so for me it was time off yeah.

[00:01:07] Of work. It was not all that relaxing. It's a slow pace. I always say my favorite week of the year from a work standpoint is that week between Christmas and New Year's it's not full days of work. , it's not calls all day with clients. I've already done most of my planning, especially this year, probably done more planning for 2023 well before the holiday period this year than I've done in the past.

[00:01:31] But there's still some nuanced components to the planning and it's preparing to execute on the plan and I like to plan and I like to know how we're gonna execute. And getting that together is really refreshing to me. And invigorating. Yeah. From that perspective, I. that week. Yeah. So that when you come back, you're ready to go.

[00:01:51] And it's really not just coming back from a standard vacation or standard time off. You're coming back to start a new, there's a new thing happening and and it's a little different when [00:02:00] you're in higher ed because higher ed's a new is in the fall. . But for us, we still consider January to be our new period.

[00:02:08] And so I'm ready to go into that with a great level of excitement. Yeah. So that's always fun for 

[00:02:13] Shane Kehl: me. Yeah. That's awesome. As somebody who doesn't need to host others it's a vacation for me, , and I enjoy it. Good time to enjoy. Cause at some 

[00:02:21] Mickey Baines: point it'll probably not be that way for you.

[00:02:22] Yeah, exactly. And the point it becomes not that way for you is generally the start of about an 18 year period or longer, where it won't be that way for you. So enjoy it as, as much as you can. Yeah, 

[00:02:35] Shane Kehl: I will. And I am I think one of the things, just thinking about the holiday break, no matter, what you celebrate, if you're getting.

[00:02:42] Gifts. I think one of the more popular gifts, which for those of you on the video podcast, Flex my little VR headset. Yeah. I shoulda brought mine into 

[00:02:52] Mickey Baines: the office. , I shoulda have brought mine into the office. And I say mine, they're not mine. They're my youngest. As a, 

[00:02:56] Shane Kehl: yeah. Yeah. I got mine a little while ago and then a bunch of my [00:03:00] friends got it for, they tried it out.

[00:03:01] So I, I got one. I actually tried my friends. I was like, this is awesome. I tried it out, had to get one, and then a bunch of my friends tried it out, and then I think they put it all on their Christmas list. They were like, I don't want anything else. Mom and dad gimme this one thing. And so it's becoming a super popular, the VR headset, obviously it's becoming a super popular gift.

[00:03:22] Just like system, whether you use it for professional gaming, I think is, obviously the, probably the most popular use of it right now, but there's so many potentials. For how we could use these headsets and the immersive nature of them and how it's just so unique and different than what people are used to in both the professional and meeting space community and the gaming community.

[00:03:43] And so I think it might be worth some of our time today chatting a little bit more about how people can use these VR headsets, for. Scalability in higher ed and incorporating more people into a more interactive community built environment. And so I think, starting [00:04:00] there thinking about what you need to get rolling with vr, cuz I know some people probably hear vr, ar, all of those things and just think that's 2050.

[00:04:11] I'm not worried about that right now, but unfortunately it is here and you have to be ready for it. I think one of the things when I was doing a little research into what it takes to get started with vr, , it was actually a little easier than I thought it was, meaning it's certainly sophisticated, but it's not a one year build out process.

[00:04:29] I was looking up, so one of the things that a lot of people are using is Matterport, which is this tool that allows you to basically capture. Three dimensional images of rooms, of, outdoor spaces, all these other things. And I think they've been using it a lot in the real estate industry for a while and allowing, I'm sure everybody's done the thing where you click to the circle and view a room, and then you click to another circle and you're walking around and seeing what the house actually looks like.

[00:04:54] But doing that in the VR space is much different where it's not still images pieced together where you're [00:05:00] just seeing one thing than the next and doing a little bit of that. It's full on 360, turn your. Can see every component of an area and walk through that virtual space.

[00:05:10] And then really using, that to enable things like, campus tours are probably the most obvious one. Some schools are already out there doing that, and that's, way cooler than some of the virtual maps that you see and things like that. But there's so much more that you could do with it.

[00:05:24] And, I was looking into, A few other schools in what they're doing, and there are a lot of apps already pre-built that give you some really cool insight into the actual career field of, X, y, and Z jobs. So there's schools, NASA has their own app and it allows you to see.

[00:05:42] Wild stuff. And actually look at people building things like rockets and engines and all these other things where, you know, if that's your career field you're there in the room with them looking around at, all the people helping support this project and could dig in a little bit more.

[00:05:55] You can, in the arts and sciences, I think YouTube VR launched, somewhat recently [00:06:00] and it really puts you kind. in an atmosphere that is, that can be a professional setting where people are doing their job and you're just shadowing them without actually having to be there, which gives you, a wild exposure to tons of opportunities, which seems incredibly cool.

[00:06:17] So I'll pause my rant here on getting you up and running, but curious as you think about, VR maybe from, Let's take some baby steps first and then branch into, even cooler things. What do you think schools could do to get set up on VR and and use it in a way that is beyond maybe just the campus tour, which is a little bit more, basic level VR at this point.

[00:06:40] Mickey Baines: So I have a several thoughts. So the, I think the campus tours, I think the basic idea, but probably one of the most intensive efforts. , because you gotta think if it's, if your campus is a building, that's one thing. But if your campus spans acres and acres, and you've got 20 different buildings that are five to [00:07:00] 10 stories, that's, obviously you're not gonna put everything on there.

[00:07:03] But that takes a little bit more time to do. Not necessarily the technology, but the time to get all of that mapped out. Is there, I think the other, I think really, I don't wanna. Basic idea, but I think the other area, academically there are a lot of different types of courses that could use this.

[00:07:23] natively in the work they do, especially if you're think about online courses that we've been more hesitant to offer online because of the hands-on component. Yeah. And putting that into a vr. It could be some healthcare, like nursing types of courses, could be some engineering types of courses. Those that allow you to immerse yourself more into a a 3D space versus a 2D space.

[00:07:46] I I think there's a lot of opportunity. . The thing that I get a little concerned about it from a campus tour or even this type of idea, is what's the likelihood that your students or perspective students already have the equipment? , especially from the campus [00:08:00] tour piece, because if it's in a curriculum that might be instead of a textbook, right?

[00:08:04] You're getting these goggles, right? For respect to students. If you're spinning a lot of effort there and you are a very high first. Student attraction. So you bring in a lot of your students, first generation students that still relate. What's the likelihood that those students have access to it? And you wanna balance that out.

[00:08:24] For me, I don't wanna see it as your new primary channel. I think it's a new channel for an experience that you offer. Yeah. So you've got virtual reality, you might have Zoom, you may have on campus, you might have fully remote and asynchronous. Like you've got all these different channels through which you're engaging, whether it's a student or a prospective student.

[00:08:45] And I look at it as that type of component. I had this thought and opinion 15 years. As I would listen to colleagues on my campus this is when I was still a practitioner. Colleagues on my campus, colleagues on different college campuses that worked [00:09:00] at other institutions talking about the hesitancy for online.

[00:09:03] And while I understood that I had the belief then that even every traditional program should require all of their students to take at least one online course. Because back then I felt. Why I'm saying this making me sound like I'm . But I did believe back then that yeah, we would all work this way more regularly.

[00:09:22] Not necessarily that we'd have a pandemic and we'd be exclusively right remote, but I felt like there were more interactions and work that would take place this way. And so I thought requiring that undergraduates is just a part of the career preparation of how do you learn, how do you interact and how do you engage this way?

[00:09:41] And I bring that up now to say, I would say in the next five years, it's pretty important that you think about how do we use vr Yeah. To prepare our students for what's in the future. I think that just behooves you and I think adding that in and adding that to the mix. Is [00:10:00] important because it is a step further from this dynamic of virtual communication.

[00:10:06] Being online. It's another dynamic and it changes. Yeah. And it changes but also creates more opportunity to do things differently. And if you try to say, oh, we got virtual reality now we're just gonna do it the same as we. Online with Zoom or whatever. No. You right. It's not the same.

[00:10:21] It's the same as getting a CRM and having manual processes still in place. Yeah. Yeah. , no, you don't do that. So I wanna, I think now's the time to start thinking about it and dabbling. Dabbling, is that the right word? Getting into it a little bit tiptoeing in and expending, I think if you go in that route, other ideas to use.

[00:10:40] I like the idea of using it as an engagement and relationship building tool for those who are not with you. So can you also offer one-to-one meetings through that versus being in Zoom? It's different as it will make you stand out. Yeah. Doesn't require the same effort of the Matterport, all that.

[00:10:57] I It's got a little bit maybe cuz you might want to get someone's [00:11:00] office in there so you get a sense of it. But, . But I think that gives you a whole different dimension to, to connect and engage with someone. And I think there, then I might even expand it to say, okay, what can we do for c building community?

[00:11:14] But I, aside from that, could we offer some type of VR based orientation? Versus online orientation. What if it is VR based? Not dramatically far away from a campus tour. And an just an online option for an orientation. It's, it's not that. And I think that, and that might give students a, the ability to kind Move around and connecting and build community in their own way and in a different way.

[00:11:37] , those are the kinds of areas where I'd like to see schools test out. I would love to have an opportunity to test work with the school to test this out. How do we build this out? How do we replicate? Because I do believe, one of the things I know one of the things I hear from schools is when we did this online, we lose an element to our orientation if we try to do it.

[00:11:56] . I'm not suggesting virtuality is gonna get you the fully in person [00:12:00] ability back or that experience back, but you can get closer to that with that than you can with this. And so I think that is just one area where I'd like to see folks push the limits a little bit, where you can start to see how can or start to test and identify and define for yourselves, how do we replicate this online experience in an or.

[00:12:22] on in person or on campus experience. Yeah, online. You can get closer now with virtual reality than you could with Zoom or whatever tool you're using. And so that's really where I'd like to see school's test. 

[00:12:32] Shane Kehl: Yeah, and I think one of the things too is just thinking about the per the perspective student being able to potentially.

[00:12:38] Go to some type of orientation or something. Let's say it's the first time on campus and they don't know anybody. Going anywhere by yourself that you've never been before can be pretty intimidating, especially when you're, 17, 18, 19 years old, where if you're going with three of your friends, it's a little bit more of like, all right, cool.

[00:12:56] Like we're all gonna have fun together. This. , what are we [00:13:00] worried about? And so I think being able to do that type of orientation where you're trying to build community, you're, having people almost bucket themselves into interests and then being able to split them up. They're building friends and then when they show up on campus the first day, they already feel like, oh, where's, Jim and Sally, I was chatting with them in the group wanna meet up with 'em in person.

[00:13:17] This is super cool. Like you're building this buy-in to your university that's just built on these other, per these people building friendships in that space prior to, it's, for some people it's also tough. Even if we get there, it's oh, I don't know. Okay, we're in this room, we have to do this game, or we get to know each other, and it's.

[00:13:33] You're not a, you're a pretty shy person and it's hard to interact with people, whereas some people may have that comfort of being in their own home, having kind of their VR headset on. It's like almost a little mask you're wearing and then you meet these people and then can take off the mask and you get there and then it really, blossoms into a good friendship where you're feeling much more confident and comfortable, at the university.

[00:13:51] And I 

[00:13:52] Mickey Baines: agree if, I dunno, I'm in Pennsylvania, but let's say my new students are in. Or elsewhere. They can't all just get to campus. For [00:14:00] orientation. We want them to participate in orientation. Imagine if you offered that to students who live beyond a certain area, especially if you're a small private school, they're not gonna be able to do that.

[00:14:09] I remember, gosh many years ago when I was an undergraduate student , we had maybe 5,000 new students enroll in a given year, and maybe 40% of them came through orientation, at least in the summer. Yeah. I worked in that office as a student and they didn't get an orientation or they might have got some type of abbreviated thing that, the first couple days of of this right before the semester starts.

[00:14:29] But that was a separate orientation of itself. You couldn't do a summer and a fall orientation at one. And so there are things that you're missing relationships you aren't able to build. And this allows you to let everyone participate. , if they have the equipment, if they have the equipment, let's be sure we're putting that out.

[00:14:41] But I think that's just, really. , it's a new way again, to begin to engage those students and to begin to provide an experience much deeper than this one. 

[00:14:54] Shane Kehl: Yeah. So let's maybe move a little bit beyond the student [00:15:00] recruitment. Realm for a second and maybe talk more about the value of VR in the classroom.

[00:15:06] I don't know if you have any specific examples lined up, but one of the ones, this is funny, I was actually just chatting with the University of San Diego, their school of nursing, and they have a whole. VR component built into some of their courses to, experience real world situations and, doing injections and all these other things that, you can practice on a dummy as much as you want.

[00:15:27] It's just a little different. You've done it three times, you're of just used to it and you're going through the motions, whereas in a VR atmosphere where it's, you have what looks to be a real patient and they're moving and acting like a patient. And then you need to go through variety of situations because people are so different.

[00:15:41] Calming somebody down or dealing with a kid versus dealing with, an elderly person is wildly different. And how are you gonna handle those situations? And being able to react in real time and of go through the motions like that, I think gives you exposure into one, not only the career fear, but okay, am I.

[00:15:56] Excited about this. Is this fun for me? Do I enjoy this type of work? You're getting real [00:16:00] experience rather than in the classroom. Sometimes it might feel like, yeah, I love this, and then you actually do it and it might not be everything you thought it was gonna be. And that's disappointing for everybody, obviously.

[00:16:09] And so I think what's cool about that is it's valuable for the student, but it's so easy to then also turn that right back around to the perspective student and. You wanna be a nurse come try this headset on where, they come to campus, try this headset on and do this thing. And it's you can use it in so many different ways and really getting, your bang for your buck and what you invested in, but curious, what else you think in the classroom that could be helpful for both students and prospective students. Just students, faculty, anybody 

[00:16:36] Mickey Baines: to your institutions.

[00:16:37] Two-year institutions have some very specialized trade programs around. automation, machinery production machinery, those types of things. Yeah, those programs are always limited. and the number of students that they can enroll because of the space in that lab and the available of some of those machines.

[00:16:59] I [00:17:00] wonder what we can do now. You can't replicate all of that, but I wonder what you can do with it to spread out the learning so that some learning, if it doesn't have to be your hand touching the machine, but seeing how it functions, how much you might go to, to add to that, I don't know enough about those machinery programs, the curriculum in there and mechanical engineering, those.

[00:17:18] hesitate to act like I'm to talk to it in depth to make it seem like I know what I'm doing when I don't. I don't know if much about the Dunning Kruger Effect. Effect, you how the less you know, the more confident you may be. Yeah. Same thing. So I, but I wonder where you can find opportunities to increase some program size.

[00:17:35] There, I also, like you, you mentioned nursing. I think that's a good one. I think geological programs or astronomy programs, those types of, those things where you get different types of experiences that go beyond I, even though I so my favorite undergraduate. That I took as a student was US History two, which was 1865 to the present [00:18:00] ironically, was taught by a Brit young guy. He still teaches there. And I actually, one of, I was on campus they're a client and I was on campus and I went stop business, said hi, and just introduce myself. You taught me 20 something years ago. Favorite course, and he would get up in the front of the room. This is when we had real chalkboards, not a whiteboard, , real chalkboards.

[00:18:19] And it was, there were 80 people in this class. The whiteboard went acro, or the chalkboard went across the entire room. And he would get there, he would be waiting at the door for the class before us to end and for a 15 minute window before his began. And he would fill the board with terms, it could be 40 to 50 terms or more on that board.

[00:18:36] Yeah. And over the course of an hour and 15, he'd cover 'em all and he just, he would walk back and forth and just, so with such great animation, no textbook involved in that. Yeah. Everything there, he presented. I even think about, what, how could we replicate that? You can't do that online in this experience.

[00:18:53] , you can't deliver that. But virtual, you could see that. I I can, because I've watched my daughter as she's had her goggles on, that was one [00:19:00] of her Christmas, Gibson, and as action moves, you're not, you're turning your head. It's watching a TV or this, it's framed in here, but she's turning her head and seeing that what type, how could you replicate that experience?

[00:19:11] And I. , you could bring a lot to it that way. So even in traditional. Liberal arts, humanities based courses. You could bring that in. Yeah. I think about, we talk about community. Imagine having an English course, a literature course where we might, Shakespeare course where you bring students together and they're reading Shakespeare together.

[00:19:31] And that, that 3D type of environment that you have, I think of those types of opportunities Yeah. Which aren't necessarily traditional, but in an online if I'm trying to do a reading of a play, that's very hard to do. You can't stage it. I can't necessarily even decide what order I want people to appear on my screen.

[00:19:47] Yeah. You can do much more of that. So I'm thinking of those types of things. We already talked about sciences a bit and those curriculum, I'm definitely thinking of those things. I'll pause there, but Yeah. Mean, that's definitely what I'm thinking 

[00:19:57] Shane Kehl: about. Yeah. I think, and that's what I was, somewhat alluding [00:20:00] to with the comment about how it can be helpful for professors.

[00:20:02] I feel like they're a lot, my favorite professors were the ones that would walk around the class. They they talk with their hands. Yes. They're just very emotive yes, they're the ones, yeah. , it's partially cuz you just feel the passion is like coming outta them and that's why they do it. Yes.

[00:20:15] But you don't feel that just seeing, a head in a square for an hour and a half just talking and they probably feel limited when they're talking. They're not as inspired because they're just sitting there like they're not, I don't think many teachers became a teacher and are excited by the fact that they get to sit behind their computer and teach.

[00:20:31] Yeah. While that might be slightly easier it's nowhere near as enjoyable or fun. I can't imagine. And. I think really, this would enable them to express that emotion and that passion, which I think is then what ignites students to have a similar, yeah. Position towards a particular course or program even as a whole.

[00:20:49] It just, that doesn't come through in a Zoom meeting. And I think being able to leverage that technology for, certain types of professors courses in particular, it would be, 

[00:20:57] Mickey Baines: That would definitely be my if I'm in their situation. I do a lot of [00:21:00] conference presentations.

[00:21:01] . And one of the things I will say when I'm walking into the room is please do not have me at a podium with a fixed microphone if it's a large room. Yeah. Yeah. Because I, I am, I'm not a good standing behind the podium, presenter. That's just not me. And it's really this, the same here.

[00:21:16] And this is you, like you said, it's this little box and I used to, before the pandemic I had some webinars about how do you present online webinars. And one of the comments I would say is, you should stand. because if you're giving a real presentation, you don't sit right at a desk to talk to you stand if you want that energy to cover carry you stand now three years after the pandemic here.

[00:21:40] I haven't stood for a presentation in a really long time. I've shifted and changed. If I can move around. I get more passionate probably. I'm sure more animated. I don't know that you can be more animated than I am on this camera cause I'm always ready. But I get that way and I think that carries over cuz that is exactly why [00:22:00] I got so much outta that course.

[00:22:01] Yeah. That was so that I wanted to go to that class and I wanted to learn that material more than I had of any non-major related course. Yeah. I don't, and he very much impacted me that way. And yeah I just think with virtuality you can embrace that more. You can get that 

[00:22:17] Shane Kehl: energy across.

[00:22:18] Yeah. And I think, one of the final kind of takeaways here, and we touched on it a little bit earlier too, is a lot of the stuff that you're using for current students, for faculty, like we just talked about, can be pre like repackaged and used for prospective students. You can show a prospective student, Hey, go, virtually sit in on this classroom and watch this professor.

[00:22:37] Yes. And if they're one of those profess. They're doing VR because they're they, they're animated and they're all over the place. Student. Generally, I think appreciate teachers like that a bit more. They're more exciting. It makes the class less, like I'm just sitting here taking notes.

[00:22:51] , those are the classes you want prospective students to see. So getting them in that atmosphere is just, it's gonna do wonders for your recruitment strategy as a whole, because they're [00:23:00] gonna feel. part of your university before they're even, submitting their application, for example.

[00:23:05] And yeah, I think being able to leverage, a lot of those things, repackage them. It's just this cyclical nature of a VR that I think people can and should get used to is how do we make these things and then augment these things. Even campus, your VR campus tours of having people be able to hop around in an admissions meeting and go, okay, great.

[00:23:23] Oh, you, oh, you love the, That we have here. Great. Let me show you a couple of the facilities in the, stadium, whatever. And you can bounce around in 15 seconds at three different things and not need to walk across campus or through a city or like you're saying with all these different types of schools.

[00:23:36] . And so I think being able to, Really think about, again, getting the bang for your buck with VR because it is a new thing. There's gonna be, testing and optimization throughout the way, it's definitely something worth investing heavily into now so that when that five year curve hits, you're not just starting out and then, falling behind it right away.

[00:23:52] Mickey Baines: Yep. I totally agree. I think these are some good ideas. I would love to hear [00:24:00] from anyone. Listen, watching. Yeah. More about their experience if they're doing it or what they're planning on. I'm really curious to see where this goes. I think there's just great opportunity here. And again, something that should be done more, especially from the academic side in the next five years.

[00:24:14] So yeah, testing and experimenting. Now is a great time to do that. 

[00:24:18] Shane Kehl: Awesome. Alrighty. Thank you everybody for listening. This concludes another episode of Fanatical Fridays. We will hopefully see you again in two weeks. Bye-bye.

[00:24:42] Zach Busekrus: Hey all, Zach from Enrollify here. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Fanatical Fridays with Mickey Baines. If you like this episode, do us a huge favor and hit that follow and subscribe button below. Furthermore, if you've got just two minutes to spare, we would greatly appreciate you leaving a rating and a review of this show on Apple Podcast.[00:25:00] 

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