Earlham College | News from Public Affairs

RICHMOND, Ind. — Earlham College's online virtual campus tour has been recognized in two prestigious interactive media awards competitions, including the so-called "Oscars^® of the Internet."

Built by the creative minds at 361 Studios in Columbus, Ohio, Earlham's highly interactive tour uses advanced computer modeling, graphics and flash streaming technology allowing site visitors an exceptional online experience.

The Earlham virtual tour has received "Official Honoree" distinction for the 12th Annual Webby Awards. Hailed as the "Oscars® of the Internet" by The New York Times, the Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video and mobile Web sites. The Webby Awards were founded in 1996 in the Web's infancy and are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, visionaries and creative celebrities.

"The Webby Awards honors the outstanding work that is setting the standard for the Internet," said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the awards. "Earlham College's Official Honoree selection is a testament to the skill, ingenuity and vision of its creators."

According to information released by the Webby Awards, nearly 10,000 entries from more than 60 countries and all 50 states were up for consideration. Fewer than 15 percent received this honor and have been deemed an Official Honoree.

The virtual tour also has received a Silver Award in the 2008 Horizon Interactive Awards, another prestigious global competition designed to recognize the "best of the best" in interactive media production.

"The 2008 contest was the most competitive to date," said Mike Sauce, founder of the Horizon Interactive Awards. "The work in this year's competition is at such a high level that the judges really had their work cut out for them."

The seventh annual Horizons competition included more than 1,000 entries from 20 countries. The judging process involved an awards advisory panel, an end user evaluation and a worldwide panel of judges consisting of industry professionals.

The interface for the online tour, designed to look like a student desk covered with Earlham promotional materials, has a number of built-in features in addition to the tour.

"From our point of view, the most outstanding feature of the Earlham tour is the 3-D interactive map of campus," said Phil Wilson, president and CEO of 361 Studios. "The interactive map allows visitors to view the campus from four different perspectives, zoom in and out and navigate through the campus by clicking and dragging the map with a mouse. Nearly every area of campus can be clicked-on to view streaming video presentations, many of which are narrated by Earlham students."

The crowning part of the tour project is the interactive campus map. "The map was a huge undertaking, requiring that every building — nearly 100 of them — be drawn from all four directions," said Wilson. Each building was then added to a database along with corresponding files for still photos and audio and video clips. As the audio is delivered, a head shot of the tour guide speaking pops up. Visitors can access campus locations from the legend or by clicking on each structure on the map, and the map itself can be viewed from different perspectives.

Virtual tour guide Kate Ünver '08 commented in an e-mail message, "The site looks AMAZING — I'm so proud to be a part of it!"

"I think the best thing about the virtual tour is that you can fly around and visit campus like you were walking there — except you can be in your living room," said Adam Putnam '07, a virtual tour guide who is now assistant to the president.

"Developing an attractive online recruiting tool was an important goal of the virtual tour project," said Jeff Rickey, dean of admissions and financial aid. "An actual campus tour is very meaningful to prospective students. We wanted to extend that to the virtual tour as much as we could."

"We are very proud of the tour," said Karen Roeper, associate vice president for public affairs, who oversaw the development of the tour project. "361 Studios created an innovative piece that's truly interactive. It's exciting to have such a wonderful feature on our site."

Roeper also hopes the virtual tour will be embraced by Earlham's large international prospect base. "Many international students are unable to visit a campus before they enroll. We hope that our tour will give these students and their families a better idea of what to expect as members of the Earlham community."

The virtual tour has been one of the most-visited portions of the Earlham Web site since the tour was launched in December 2007.

Contact:
Mark Blackmon, director of media relations
765/983-1256 — E-Mail Mark