University of Aberdeen: Self-service Virtual Open Days for University Student Recruitment
While looking for new ways to share information and interact with prospective postgraduate students, the University of Aberdeen saw potential in virtual open days to reach its target audience and instil confidence into their prospective students to continue their studies with the university. With a mixture of live and on-demand webinars, combined with engaging subject matter chat rooms, attendees could interact directly with University staff.
2700+
Total registrations across two virtual open days in 6months
90%
90% of Attendees More Likely to Apply or Accept an Offer After Attending the Open Day
55%
Registration to Attendance Conversion Rate Across Two Virtual Open Days
The Challenge
There were a few challenges the University of Aberdeen faced when considering running a virtual open day.
Firstly, they needed a webinar platform that would put the attendee experience at the heart of the virtual open day.
Secondly, being able to recreate the same levels of engagement you would normally expect from a physical open day was key. Open days influence high-value decisions, so the ability for students to interact with faculty members and easily access live and on-demand webinar content in a virtual environment was a must.
Finally, they had the challenge of ensuring that they could make their virtual open day user-friendly and easy to navigate.
The Goal
Providing additional information to prospective students and allowing them to ask any questions they have prior to making their decision was the main goal. The University of Aberdeen wanted to make sure prospective students had everything they needed to feel confident about their future at their university.
Their second goal was to meet attendance targets, with the aim of continuing to improve their registration to attendance turnouts.
Full control of their virtual open day was also an important factor so they could make updates as and when they needed to.
How WorkCast Helped
Self-Service Virtual Event Platform
The University of Aberdeen utilized WorkCast’s self-service option which gave them the freedom to make regular updates as and when required throughout the event set-up period. This meant they had autonomy over the details of their virtual open day and could go at their own pace.
Customized Virtual Event Platform Training
To ensure the University of Aberdeen was confident using the platform independently, WorkCast provided virtual event platform training to their team. To help them get started with the platform, WorkCast built the skeleton of the virtual open day which meant the university could focus on creating and planning engaging content.
User-Friendly Interface
WorkCast provided optimized virtual event templates that the University of Aberdeen could apply their branding to and make their own. The templates ensured easy navigation and a user-friendly interface while maintaining consistent branding throughout the virtual open day.
Effective Virtual Open Day Engagement Tools
With engagement and information sharing being a number one priority, the University of Aberdeen utilized WorkCast’s built-in tools including live attendee chat, video hosting, exhibition lobbies, and on-demand content. In total they had 120+ presenters engaging with attendees throughout their virtual open day.
Multi-Sessions for Live & On-demand Webinars
To showcase the range of opportunities at the university, they hosted over 50 sessions at their latest virtual open day so that they could provide in-depth, relevant information.
Extensive Virtual Open Day Reporting Dashboards
WorkCast’s reporting dashboards allowed the University of Aberdeen to track key event metrics including registration and attendance rates, engagement with content, and dwell time on sessions.
The Result
In the space of six months, the University of Aberdeen has now run two successful self-service virtual open days and has seen a 14% increase in attendance for their postgraduate events since using WorkCast, compared to previous years.
Attendee feedback echoes their success with an estimated 90% of attendees stating that after attending their postgraduate virtual open day they were more likely to accept their offer or submit an application to the university.
The University of Aberdeen
Ranked in the top 20 universities in the UK, the University of Aberdeen has a proud history of excellence dating back to 1495. Now with a total of 12 schools, students have the opportunity to study a broad range of disciplines from experts active in their field.
“On meeting WorkCast for the first time, it was clear that they are a company that puts their clients first, and this has been proved to be the case while working with them for the past 6 months. Their solution met all of our requirements for a virtual event platform and the user interface is clear and attractive to visitors."