It was a stroke of luck that the Graduate School Event for prospective master's students was scheduled when it was. Held in early March it took place as a physical event mere days before the start of the intelligent lockdown. Shortly afterward, like the rest of the country, TU/e shut down for a prolonged period. And all physical information activities and events were suspended until further notice, explains Maarten van den Dungen, head of Education Marketing and Communication at TU/e.

The university has a long history of working with what is called a recruitment funnel: a succession of activities, each one more in-depth than the last, designed to assist students in the process of choosing higher education. “This year we had to completely redesign the funnel.” In March, the 'shadow days', the first event on the agenda during the lockdown period, were rejigged in the space of three weeks to suit a virtual environment.

Similarly, the open day for prospective bachelor's students in the fall (with a follow-up in February 2021) was soon high on the agenda, Van den Dungen tells us. A large public event that attracts some 5500 visitors each year, “it could not be held in its traditional format this year. That was immediately obvious.”

Essence

The main question, he believed was “What is the essence of this open day and what must we do to keep that intact? Some of the nuggets we learn from evaluations are that school pupils value having direct contact with our students, that they like being able to ask questions and to sample the atmosphere. The first two we can offer digitally quite easily, but conveying the atmosphere digitally, that is more difficult.”

Nonetheless, with a view to recreating this experience as closely as possible, an online event has been dressed with the look and feel of TU/e's Atlas building. A great deal of - moving - visual material contributes to the overall effect. “It shows this environment as you would see it 'in the flesh'.” Visitors will be welcomed in a virtual lobby, the jumping-off point for more than two hundred elements within the online experience. For example, an exhibition hall is filled with virtual stands. “Here, school pupils can take away information and flyers and watch videos and, among other activities, chat to the students present.”

Visitors can also - having first registered on Mystart@TU/e - attend various presentations given live on MS Teams. “Many other universities choose to use pre-recorded presentations. That is more efficient and far less complicated in terms of organization, but we have made the deliberate choice to offer ours live. Computer Sciences, for example, has six rounds so they really do give their presentation six times. To our mind, this offers a truer, more authentic experience, and creates more scope for connection between presenter and audience.”

A small added benefit of an online open day, says Van den Dungen tentatively, is that the boundaries and limitations that go hand in hand with a physical environment fall by the wayside. “This year we can facilitate more rounds and more visitors, for the simple reason that the digital event can be scaled up.” At present, more than a thousand interested people have signed up for the open day on October 10th, but from experience Van den Dungen knows to count on plenty of last-minute registrations. “I'd be really pleased with three thousand participants.”

Two versions

He continues, “The real campus experience is, I believe, very important. Without a shadow of a doubt. So I hope that we can return to a physical open day as soon as possible, but I'm certainly keen to look at how we can preserve the best features of the upcoming online event.”

Van den Dungen mentions, by way of example, meeting the needs of international students for whom a visit to the physical open day would not normally be an option due to distance. “We can anticipate their attendance. In future, I can imagine we will run two versions of the open day, online and physical.” But, as he emphasizes, “First of all, we will properly evaluate this first edition, to find out what went well, how visitors experienced the event and whether it is, in fact, a reasonable alternative.”