While Semester One demanded additional staff efforts in the full transition to online learning, many were also busy creating Open Days content – with an enormous amount of material needed well in advance to populate a new virtual platform for this year’s online showcase.

As a result, e-visitors to Flinders University next week can choose from 83 individual video presentations on study areas, careers and university life in a fully customisable experience that’s set to raise the bar on what to expect from university open events.

From the comfort of school or home, prospective students and peers or family members will be able to ask questions of study area experts, hear from current students and alumni, and take a virtual campus tour, in a full week of Flinders’ virtual Open Days that feature 15 unique sessions running from 9am to 6pm over 10 to 14 August.

Based on social distancing guidelines, Universities Australia made a decision in June which required all university open days this year shift online in the midst of COVID-19 uncertainty.

What followed was an urgent challenge to find the best way to accommodate hundreds of users at the same time and deliver engaging, informative and tailored experiences.

At Flinders, the need for specialised technology soon became clear and a global search commenced with one strong contender identified – the iVent platform. Planning quickly ramped up as staff worked from their homes, liaising at all hours with the UK-based web development team.

Chantel Crossman, Partnerships and Event Manager in the Office of Communication, Engagement, Marketing and Engagement, was tasked with overseeing the enormous project. “We had to create a lot of videos really quickly, which put pressure on academic staff and was also more than our internal resources could cope with, so an external video producer was contracted.”

She says collaboration between professional staff and academics was outstanding, with academics prioritising content creation amidst intense workloads as they adapted and innovated to the fully online teaching environment.

Enthusiastically delivering talks in front of a camera was also very different to connecting with a room full of attentive people.

“They have done such a great job, as have the college marketing and communications partners, who helped with a lot of preparation including coaching and building presentations,” Ms Crossman says.

The professional videos needed university footage to bring Flinders learning to life and to engage viewers used to short videos and dynamic online experiences. This was a challenge given the vacated campus, necessitating much searching for existing materials.

In a year framed by collaboration, innovation and employees going above and beyond, Open Days is another example of efforts paying off with online registrations tracking well.

A great benefit of the videos is they can be used again, and the Open Day site itself will remain live for a full year, allowing for additional, targeted recruitment activities.

The extended five-day interactive campaign provides great flexibility and convenience for prospective high school, adult entrants and postgraduate students, with the ability to save information in a virtual satchel (without having to visit the main Flinders website). And the analytics collected provides each user with a customised experience including recommendations to consider related programs or services based on what they have already viewed or registered for.

“For school students in particular there can be overwhelming choice in study areas and attractive options might be missed, so this is really valuable,” Ms Crossman says.

One clear disadvantage of a virtual event is the inability to impress students with Flinders’ breathtaking views, impressive facilities, and unique natural surroundings.

This has been mitigated with the option to attend in-person tours of Flinders University on Saturday 15 August, to be hosted in small groups. In addition, tours of Tonsley and Sturt have been scheduled for the following weekends.

While South Australia’s public universities will all be holding virtual open days, each has tackled it differently. The University of Adelaide is opting for just the one Open Day on Sunday August 16, while the University of South Australia will hold two shorter days over Sunday 9 and Monday 10 August. Only Flinders and the University of South Australia have scheduled on-campus tours.

Find out more about Flinders University’s 2020 Open Day event.