Quick Navigation

Northern Illinois University

NIU Office of Public Affairs


News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

March 21, 2005

NIU’s ‘virtual tour’ expands,
will change hands to Public Affairs

DeKalb — In 1999, Dan Turner dipped his toe in the online revolution to transform the walking campus tour into a virtual experience for Internet users.

Turner, assistant director of Orientation at Northern Illinois University, and a graduate student developed the “Virtual Campus Tour” with 360 QuickTime images. Potential students and the parents could get an initial idea of what NIU had to offer without driving to DeKalb.

Now, as Turner prepares for a new job at the Academic Advising Center, he has launched a new-and-improved version of the Virtual Tour and is handing off future control of the project to the Office of Public Affairs.

Public Affairs webmaster Jennice O’Brien will manage the tour after May 1.

“A tour like this – as well as what you can do with a walking tour – helps to create an identity for the institution and set a tone for the institution. It does a lot to talk about the programs we have and the traditions we have,” Turner said. “Over the years, of course, things have to change and evolve.”

Turner shaped the new tour with the help of his wife, Rachel, who began the project a year ago as an employee of Media Services. Rachel Turner now works in NIU Outreach.

“We now have a campus tour that focuses on programs, on buildings and what’s in the buildings, and that follows what could be a potential walking tour, although a walking tour of that magnitude would take about three hours,” he said. “The second part is a ‘traditions’ tour. It really focuses on history, legends, traditions, stories.”

Among Rachel Turner’s additions were easier navigation, a drop-down menu, a printable campus map and an interactive campus map: Drag the mouse across a building on the interactive map and its name appears. Click on the building, and the tour launches there.

The tour includes 42 sites – “fairly inclusive, although I wouldn’t say we have every single thing on campus in there,” Dan Turner said – and a number of the sites feature multiple images while other still boast the 360 QuickTime shots.

Turner said he believes the tour’s May 1 move to Public Affairs makes sense.

“It’s really a public relations piece, and Jennice will do a wonderful job keeping it up-to-date and keeping it in sync with the overall feel of the homepage,” he said. “More and more students and family members are going online for their initial visit to campus to see what is out there and what services universities offer. The virtual tour is a very important piece of that.”

# # #