{"id":5481,"date":"2020-11-03T16:14:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T21:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/?p=5481"},"modified":"2021-08-04T16:58:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T20:58:28","slug":"dawsons-first-virtual-open-house-a-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/dawsons-first-virtual-open-house-a-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawson\u2019s first Virtual Open House a success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<style>\n\t\t\t.buttons-group {\n\t\t\t\tdisplay: flex;\n\t\t\t\tflex-flow: row wrap;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.buttons-group>div {\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t\t\talign-items: stretch;\n\t\t\t\tdisplay: flex;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.buttons-group.columns-2>div {\n\n\t\t\t\twidth: 49%;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.buttons-group.columns-3>div {\n\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33.3%;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.buttons-group.columns-4>div {\n\n\t\t\t\twidth: 25%;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.buttons-group .dc_btn {\n\n\t\t\t\tjustify-content: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t\t\tflex-direction: initial;\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 20% 10%;\n\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn {\n\t\t\t\tcursor: pointer;\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 10px 20px;\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 1rem 2rem;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #000;\n\t\t\t\ttext-decoration: none !important;\n\t\t\t\tdisplay: inline-block;\n\t\t\t\tmargin: 2px 2px 0px 0px;\n\t\t\t\tfont-weight: normal !important;\n\t\t\t\t\/*display: flex;\n\t\t\t\talign-items: center;*\/\n\t\t\t\t\/*flex-direction: row-reverse;*\/\n\t\t\t\tfont-family: \"Open Sans\", Arial, sans-serif;\n\t\t\t\t\/**  Oswald,  *\/\n\t\t\t\tletter-spacing: 0.6px;\n\t\t\t\t\/* text-transform: uppercase; *\/\n\t\t\t\tborder-radius: 30px;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.buttons-group .dc_btn {\n\t\t\t\tdisplay: flex;\n\t\t\t\talign-items: center;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.content a.dc_btn::before {\n\t\t\t\tcontent: \"\";\n\t\t\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn i.fa {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: -5px;\n\t\t\t\tfont-size: 2rem;\n\t\t\t\tdisplay: inline-block;\n\t\t\t\t\/* vertical-align: middle; *\/\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.dcmc_btn i.fa {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-right: -2px;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.blue {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #548ec4;\n\t\t\t\tbackground-color: #3D77AE;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.red {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #bd5276;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.green {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #41a849;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.orange {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #e6882a;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.purple {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #7248ae;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.black {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #000000;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t\tborder: 1px solid #000;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\ta.dc_btn.black:hover {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #fff;\n\t\t\t\tborder: 1px solid #000;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #000 !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.clear-both {\n\t\t\t\tclear: both;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\ta.dc_btn:hover {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #000;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\ta.dc_btn:visited {\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\ta.dc_btn:active {\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.big,\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.large {\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\tfont-size: 30px;\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 15px 20px;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.icon_only {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: transparent;\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 5px 10px;\n\t\t\t\tmargin: 0 auto;\n\t\t\t\tborder-radius: 10px;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn.icon_only i.fa {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dc_btn i {}\n\n\t\t\t.icon_only i {\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 0;\n\t\t\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\t\t\tcolor: inherit;\n\t\t\t\tfont-size: 32px;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t.dcmc_btn {\n\t\t\t\tcursor: auto;\n\t\t\t\tline-height: 30px;\n\t\t\t\tdisplay: block;\n\t\t\t\tdisplay: flex;\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #222;\n\t\t\t\tbox-shadow: -10px 0 0 rgb(47, 146, 56), -20px 0 0 rgb(93, 40, 128), -30px 0 0 rgb(218, 129, 25), -40px 0 0 rgb(24, 131, 199);\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 40px;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-bottom: 20px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-decoration: none !important;\n\t\t\t\tcursor: pointer;\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t\/*a.dcmc_btn[href$=pdf]{ display: block; display: flex; }*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_title{ font-size:30px; line-height: 35px; font-family:Oswald, \"Open Sans\", Arial, sans-serif; display:block; letter-spacing:1px; text-transform: uppercase;}*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_desc{ font-size:16px; letter-spacing:0.7px; font-family:Oswald, \"Open Sans\", Arial, sans-serif; display:block; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 0 1rem;}*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn i{ float: right; font-size: 3em; }*\/\n\t\t\t\/*a.dcmc_btn::before{ content: \"\"; display: none;}*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.small{ padding: 20px 20px 15px 20px; line-height: 22px; box-shadow: -10px 0 0 #2f9238,-20px 0 0 #5d2880,-30px 0 0 #da8119,-40px 0 0 #1883c7; margin-left:40px; margin-bottom: 10px;}*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.small .dcmc_title{ font-size: 20px; line-height: 22px; font-weight: 400;}*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.small .dcmc_desc{ font-size: 13px;}*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.small i{ font-size: 2em;}*\/\n\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.light{ !* Permalink - use to edit and share this gradient: http:\/\/colorzilla.com\/gradient-editor\/#ffffff+0,dddddd+100 *!*\/\n\t\t\t\/*background: #ffffff; !* Old browsers *!*\/\n\t\t\t\/*background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #ffffff 0%, #dddddd 100%); !* FF3.6-15 *!*\/\n\t\t\t\/*background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  #ffffff 0%,#dddddd 100%); !* Chrome10-25,Safari5.1-6 *!*\/\n\t\t\t\/*background: linear-gradient(to bottom,  #ffffff 0%,#dddddd 100%); !* W3C, IE10+, FF16+, Chrome26+, Opera12+, Safari7+ *!*\/\n\t\t\t\/*filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#ffffff', endColorstr='#dddddd',GradientType=0 ); !* IE6-9 *!*\/\n\t\t\t\/*border: 1px solid #C7C7C7;*\/\n\t\t\t\/*border-left: none;*\/\n\t\t\t\/*color: #000;*\/\n\t\t\t\/*}*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn i{ float: right; font-size: 3em; }*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.light i{ }*\/\n\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.round20{ border-radius: 20px; }*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.round10{ border-radius: 10px; }*\/\n\t\t\t\/*.dcmc_btn.round5{ border-radius: 5px; }*\/\n\n\n\n\t\t\t@media only screen and (max-width: 740px) {\n\t\t\t\t.dcmc_btn {\n\t\t\t\t\tline-height: 22px;\n\t\t\t\t\tbox-shadow: -12px 0 0 rgb(47, 146, 56), -24px 0 0 rgb(93, 40, 128), -36px 0 0 rgb(218, 129, 25), -48px 0 0 rgb(24, 131, 199);\n\t\t\t\t\tpadding: 15px 15px 12px;\n\t\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 48px;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t\t.dcmc_title {\n\t\t\t\t\tfont-size: 22px;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t\t.dcmc_desc {\n\t\t\t\t\tfont-size: 12px;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t@media only screen and (max-width: 500px) {\n\t\t\t\t.dcmc_btn {\n\t\t\t\t\tbox-shadow: -8px 0 0 rgb(47, 146, 56), -16px 0 0 rgb(93, 40, 128), -24px 0 0 rgb(218, 129, 25), -32px 0 0 rgb(24, 131, 199);\n\t\t\t\t\tpadding: 10px 10px;\n\t\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 32px;\n\t\t\t\t\tline-height: 16px;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t\t.dcmc_title {\n\t\t\t\t\tfont-size: 15px;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\n\t\t\t\t.dcmc_desc {\n\t\t\t\t\tfont-size: 10px;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t<\/style>\n\n<div class=\"dc_btn_wrap \" style=\"text-align:left; display:block\"><a  style=\"  font-size:1.8rem; \" class=\"dc_btn blue  \" href=\"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/events\/une-premiere-journee-de-portes-ouvertes-reussie\/\"><span style=\"font-size:1.8rem;; padding: 0 10px; display:inline-block; vertical-align:top;\">Lire la version fran\u00e7aise<\/span><i style=\"padding:0 0 0 10px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"fa fa fa-file-text-o\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<p>A Dawson College team worked for months to transform Open House into a virtual event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was an amazing community effort during extremely isolating times,\u201d said lead organizer Lucy Segal of the Communications Office. \u201cIt was an enormous challenge to pitch something completely new, but everyone was receptive and despite new measures and limitations, I think we put our best foot forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Based on the number of printed handouts distributed, it is estimated that about 14,000 people attend in-person Open House. Virtual Open House was an experiment for all CEGEPs this year.<\/p>\n<h2>The numbers<\/h2>\n<p>The numbers demonstrate that Dawson\u2019s Virtual Open House was successful. The event, which was Oct. 20-25, mostly took place on the Dawson College website. Traffic to the website was up by 62%, compared to the usual web traffic this semester.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 11,720 unique visitors stopped by the Open House landing page. \u201cYou have to imagine a student and their parents gathered together in front of a screen so we probably have a higher number of participants,\u201d Lucy said.<\/p>\n<p>About 3,000 potential students viewed the program and profile videos an estimated 10,000 times. In addition, 950 potential students took advantage of the opportunity to chat live one-on-one and ask specific questions during scheduled chat events. The average wait time to chat was only 29 seconds!<\/p>\n<h2>No challenge will stop Dawson<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWe have shown once again that no challenge is big enough to stop us from moving forward for the sake of our students,\u201d said Director General Richard Filion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to extend a warm thank you to the more than 200 teachers, employees and students who contributed to the event.\u00a0 I would like to acknowledge the staff of the Communications Office who spearheaded this event and showed a lot of creativity and imagination to overcome the obstacles.\u00a0 Kudos also to the Information Systems and Technology team and the many employees from other teams who put their shoulder to the wheel,\u201d said the Director General.<\/p>\n<h2>Science still popular<\/h2>\n<p>Science Program Coordinator Jonathon Sumner is usually the busiest person at Open House and this year, he was the teacher with the most chats. He appreciated the virtual experience: \u201cIt ran exceedingly smoothly and the one-on-one chat format seems to decrease the overall level of stress associated with our traditional event without compromising its goal of informing potential applicants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathon believes that they spoke to less students than at the live event but that the quality of the interactions was better. \u201cApplicants had time to ask their questions without the pressure of those waiting in line behind them.\u00a0 I also have the impression that everyone asked <em>all<\/em> of their questions, which is not always possible in-person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In the future, he could imagine offering both online and in-person meetings.<\/p>\n<h2>Student experiences<\/h2>\n<p>CRLT student Justine Poulin also would like to keep the Virtual Open House elements when it is possible to hold an in-person event. She especially liked focusing on one person at a time and the efficiency of quickly transferring chats to other people when a different topic came up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would still make all of the videos and information online available as they provide a lot of useful details and answers to the most frequently asked questions,\u201d Justine said.<\/p>\n<p>Mechanical Engineering Technology student Nicholas Farinha appreciated that Virtual Open House could reach more people who are far away and liked using the video chat option. However, he felt that potential students would not get the wow factor of the program like he did when he visited the learning spaces.<\/p>\n<h2>A really good impression<\/h2>\n<p>Commerce Profile Coordinator Phil Ghayad felt that Virtual Open House was a better experience. \u201cI think we gave a really good impression of the school by doing it this way,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is more efficient since we were able to cut down on wait times for potential students.\u00a0 Usually, they wait about 20 minutes at our table.\u00a0The longest wait time I saw was seven seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Phil suggests that Open House be virtual in the future and when possible promote the Student for a Day experience for those who want to visit the campus and get a feel for the College.<\/p>\n<h2>Academic Advising reactions<\/h2>\n<p>The only people more popular than the Science team are the Academic Advisors. They are always highly sought out by students with many questions.<\/p>\n<p>Academic Advisor Diane Wong did not miss the crowds that are usually a big part of Dawson Open House. \u201cI thought that the team did a great job redesigning the program pages.\u00a0 The videos with the FAQ&#8217;s were very informative and well done,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we should incorporate a few days of Virtual Open House for our next event.\u00a0 We should hold the virtual days first so that people have a chance to ask their questions before an in-person visit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Diane, the common questions were related to why a student should choose Dawson. She was happy to have students on her chat team to reply to these sorts of questions.<\/p>\n<h2>Fantastic videos and engaging content<\/h2>\n<p>Julie Pellegrino, also an academic advisor, fielded many questions about admissions. \u201cI think Communications, IST, the Deans, committee members\u00a0and all other members involved did a fantastic job putting together this event,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Dawson community came together to once again provide the best experience to potential applicants. The videos created for this event were fantastic. Content was informative and engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Julie feels that she made good connections on the chat and felt that \u201cstudents and parents genuinely seemed happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Raymon Fong from the 3D Animation and Computer Generated Imagery Program did not miss \u201crepeating the same information over and over\u201d and found Virtual Open House quite pleasant.<\/p>\n<p>In the future, he would like to see both virtual and in-person elements part of the Open House experience.<\/p>\n<h2>Next recruitment activities in early winter<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/open-house\/\">Open House landing page<\/a> and videos will remain accessible on the Dawson website until Nov. 30.<\/p>\n<p>In February, the videos will be promoted again and new chat events will be scheduled in the lead up to March 1, the Dawson College application deadline for Fall 2021 admission.<\/p>\n<h3>Virtual Open House in numbers<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>186,000 page views of the Dawson website<\/li>\n<li>62% increase in traffic to Dawson website<\/li>\n<li>11,720 unique visitors to the Open House landing page<\/li>\n<li>An estimated 10,000 Open House video views<\/li>\n<li>950 live one-on-one chats<\/li>\n<li>29-second average wait time for the chat<\/li>\n<li>Participants from 17 countries<\/li>\n<li>Average video viewer watched 70% of video<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Dawson College team worked for months to transform Open House into a virtual event. \u201cIt was an amazing community effort during extremely isolating times,\u201d said lead organizer Lucy Segal of the Communications Office. \u201cIt was an enormous challenge to pitch something completely new, but everyone was receptive and despite new measures and limitations, I&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5481"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5529,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions\/5529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-chris.dawsoncollege.qc.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}