New Video, Virtual Tour Invite Visitors to See Campus Online

A campus tour no longer requires an actual trip to the campus.

Pennsylvania College of Technology offers prospective students and the general public an opportunity to take a "virtual tour" of campus online. A new online tour, accessible via the Internet, was launched just in time for the winter holidays.

Web designer Carlos Ramos, a member of the College Information and Community Relations Office staff, conceived and developed the self-directed, easy-to-use tour. Other employees and students collected photographs, video and text to support the tour.

A unique tour feature is an invitation for viewers to submit campus images that could be added to the tour in the future; this gives students, alumni, employees and campus visitors the opportunity to contribute their own photos and video to the tour.

A similar invitation is offered on the college's website homepage, which features photographs of campus, including those submitted by students, employees and alumni. A call to "Share Your Creativity" on the website provides details on how to submit photos for consideration.

The creativity of College Information and Community Relations staff members also enhances a video production available for viewing on the college website and through YouTube. In addition to images of academic programs and campus life, the video features a "sonic logo" composed and arranged by Deborah K. Peters, graphic designer, and remixed by Christopher J. Leigh, video production coordinator, with support from Ramos, Thomas F. Speicher, writer/video editor, and Park Williams, coordinator of digital publishing.

The sonic logo is a short melody based on the Morse code for "dtw," which is an abbreviation for the college's marketing theme, "degrees that work." Featured in various multimedia projects, including a television commercial that aired during the 2011 Little League World Series broadcast, the logo is named "PennChime," and the full name of the composition it is based upon is "Fuscion 1.0."

Director of College Information and Community Relations Elaine J. Lambert said: "Penn College is fortunate to have among its employees very creative individuals who are able to envision and produce messages and materials to help bring the campus to life for prospective students and other online visitors. We hope that what they see on their computers and mobile devices encourages them to come for a real visit."

The video, virtual tour and invitation to submit photo and video images of the campus are accessible to the public through the Penn College website .