'Crisis prompts creativity' as Ohio universities adapt campus visits to COVID-19 pandemic

COLUMBUS — Autumn Westbrook didn't have much time to practice walking backward last year. The Capital University sophomore had just landed a job as a campus tour guide at the beginning of the year when COVID-19 shuttered colleges statewide in March 2020, pushing everything online — including college visits for prospective students. Now, a year later, the 19-year-old from Mentor is back on the job guiding high schoolers and their families across Capital's campus in Bexley, sharing insights and her love for her university along the way. On a recent warm March afternoon, Westbrook led 16-year-old Kess Cline and her parents, James and Kathy, on a tour through the private university's campus. Kess, a junior at Teays Valley High School in Pickaway County, is interested in studying music education. They strolled through the campus' tree-lined sidewalks, talking about meal plans, popping into the library and passing by students practicing instruments on the lawn. In many ways, it felt like a typical campus visit. But some aspects of these tours look a little different these days. At the beginning of the tour, Westbrook played a video featuring the freshman residence halls for the Clines, since they can't physically enter the buildings right now because of the coronavirus. What normally would've been a large group walking tour was a more personalized visit just for the Clines. Everyone wore masks and walked roughly 6 feet apart. These are just some of the ways in which Capital and other Ohio colleges and universities are adapting campus visits to a new season of the pandemic as they try to keep current students healthy while still opening their schools to potential future classmates. Emily Ragland, Capital University's director of admissions, said the announcement last spring to close college campuses challenged her team with a new mission: How do we create an online experience for prospective students that gives them a true feel of our campus? Capital had long offered some virtual options for international and out-of-state students who couldn't easily visit campus, but they weren't used by most prospective students. Within a few days of working from home, the admissions team introduced CapTour. CapTour is a virtual, self-guided tour of Capital's campus. It highlights all of the usual spots tour guides would take families on a walking tour in both video and audio formats. You can take the tour in the suggested order or bounce around to locations that interest you most. Ragland said the university also is offering virtual appointments with admissions counselors to answer questions for students during the application process. Students can either "walk" through the virtual tour themselves or sign up for a virtual visit with a Capital guide. These virtual visits are where prospective students can meet one-on-one with a current Capital student. Students also can schedule in-person visits now with masks and other health and safety guidelines in place. Ragland said that the transition from in-person to online visits was certainly different, but finding a way to make that experience meaningful for students and families was crucial during such an uncertain time. "With the campus visit experience, we know that's one of the most important things in a student making a college decision," Ragland said. "Admissions is a competition, so we really had to be confident and flexible with our experience." At Ohio State University, in-person visits still are on hold until officials feel it's safe to fully reopen campus, but Beth Wiser, OSU executive director of undergraduate admissions, said her team has tried to tailor virtual visits to what each student needs. When campuses closed last spring, Wiser said it came at a time when many students had previously visited or had been admitted to the university. Those visits, during what's called the "yield season," usually are more geared toward a student's individual interests, like what they want to major in or be involved with on campus. As with Capital, Ohio State also had some virtual tour experiences in place for students too far away to visit, but the pandemic pushed them to enhance those options for all prospective students, Wiser said. The university created a 360-degree tour experience, where visitors can click through a map and look around as if they were in person. The admissions team also put together a Buckeye Bound playlist of YouTube videos that range in topics from practical information about the first-year experience and counseling services to hearing from current students about why they chose to attend Ohio State. While virtual options will never fully replace in-person visits, Wiser said the pandemic has had its silver linings. It made her team rethink how it offers virtual experiences for prospective students and how it could improve on-demand information about being a Buckeye. At Ohio University, Candace Boeninger, vice president of enrollment management, said their team also reinvented how it's doing in-person tours. Starting this month, OU will offer what it calls the "Ohio Pawprint Tour." Boeninger likened the experience to that of a living history museum. Instead of a single student ambassador guiding a tour of a dozen or so people through campus, those families will navigate a guided tour by themselves and stop at stations manned by ambassadors along the way. Visitors can pace themselves through the tour, taking their time to experience campus on foot, while also getting the practical information they need to make an informed decision. Small group and individualized tours are still available for prospective students should they prefer those, but Boeninger said the pandemic gave them the option to try new things. Plus, the university's virtual options have expanded access to students in Ohio's more rural counties to learn about OU. Now, instead of making time to go to campus, families can huddle around a laptop in the dining room and learn together, she said. "Crisis prompts creativity," Boeninger said. "It made us think, 'How can we use our human capital in new ways?'" ___ (c)2021 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at www.dispatch.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.