Move-in day is often stressful for students, parents, and other people in the student’s life as it is. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this stress can skyrocket. The logistics of making sure that everything remains safe for students, staff, employees, and anyone else during move-in day can also often be enhanced through interactive digital maps. Here’s some information on how interactive maps can be of serious help during this important day.
Introduction to Interactive Maps During COVID-19 Move-in Days
A proper Interactive Map of a university can initially help make move-ins more smooth during the time of COVID in the following ways-
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Reduce Confusion for Students Seeking Dorms-The last thing you want during Move-in day is for returning students to forget where their dorm from last year was. The summer can be a long time for students and it may be easy for them to forget. It can be even more difficult during situations where a student is moving into a different dorm from the previous year. Confused students could end up in the wrong place, multiplying the possibility of infecting other students if they aren’t where they are supposed to be.
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Guide Students Through Medical Safety Procedures-A map can be an excellent way to guide students who are checking in during move-in day when you want them to move through a certain checklist of activities in a certain order that has them moving across campus. For example, if you’ve instituted procedures where you want them to go first to a medical clinic on campus to be tested, than this can be specified on your map, along with other digital materials to serve as a guide. You may then want them to go to a waiting area until they can be given further instructions, or you might want them to head towards their dorm along a specific path in order to avoid high-concentrations of other people. This is all doable with the right digital map.
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Indicate Areas to Employees and Staff-Move-in days during COVID are likely going to be different than other times of the year, and certainly different than any other moving day pre-COVID. Digital interactive maps will allow you to update new layers with whatever information you need. Perhaps you want cleaning staff to avoid certain areas while parents and others are dropping off their children. You can add this to a specific map for staff easily.
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Points of Interest-Just about anything can be indicated on a high-quality interactive map. This could include parking lots, all types of campus buildings from the cafeteria to the library to medical facilities, dorms, laundry facilities, or anything else. Plus, it’s completely doable to make these points of interest interactive, so people can click on them and get more information about laundry rules during COVID, for example. This could also be the case for any other building that the public may want to know about. For example, you could have options for informing the public about safety procedures for COVID in medical clinics, or even in dorm rooms. These are things that many people may be looking for specifically during move-in day so it could be a more effective way to disseminate the information.
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Other Useful Info-It’s easy to quickly update information about which study spaces are open, how traffic is flowing or tends to flow around campus, which lots which people are supposed to use, and other data during a move-in. If campus students know this information, they can make things easier and safer for themselves as well as for everyone around them by not getting confused about lots for visitors, by spreading out on the roads, and in innumerable other ways as well.
General Interactive Map Benefits During Move-in Day
The customizability and flexibility of the best companies providing maps and support mean that there are numerous advantages that you can use to make life easier during days where students move into their dorms. Here are some examples-
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Mobile, Kiosk and Other Options-The best interactive map companies have support for multiple different methods of disseminating information in a university environment. This could include mobile options that can even be different between staff versions and student or visitor versions. They can work on kiosks so that visitors can learn where they should go, where they shouldn’t go, and other information for avoiding infection during Move-in day as they move around campus. It can be used for digital signs as well.
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Widgets for Staff Interaction-If staff need to quickly indicate a problem with cleaning or something else that needs to be relayed up the chain speedily during Move-in day, there are options for interactive widgets on some interactive maps. Widgets can also be used for universal updates to information, like a change of closing hours, a change of status on campus due to a compromising event related to COVID, and so on.
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Integrated Apps for Following Quarantines- These maps can also have integration with other apps. As a result, you have a lot of flexibility for how interactive interactive maps are used. They can have messaging apps on them to indicate specific places of interest and what needs to be done there on a map. So, for example, if there is a group of people who are lost and going somewhere that could violate a quarantine or create another problem, then app integrations could help staff communicate in order to solve this particular problem, for example.
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Live Data Feeds for Cleaning Supplies and More-Data can be connected live to these interactive maps. This could mean that cleaning staff could see how much they have of certain supplies and where to go in order to find them if needed. It could be used for any information that might be useful for staff or students to know about in order to stay safe during Move-in day. For example, maybe new information is updated about staying away from a certain building for a certain reason.
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Live Tracking-Students could keep track of where they are supposed to go, they could keep track of where medical staff are if they need to find them for whatever reason, for example. Any resource the college has such as transportation, specific staff, or anything else can be followed in this way for only those authorized to read the information on the map.
Other Things to Consider During COVID Move-ins
In addition to just maps, there can often be other options that help during move-in days for universities in the era of COVID. These might include-
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Virtual Tours-Those who are going to be moving in may want to refresh their memories about where they are going, or else take a look at their new dorm. This is obviously much safer for everyone if it’s done through a virtual tour rather than trying to get it done before move-in day. The digital possibilities of giving people a real impression of the space remotely are getting better and better with every passing day.
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Extensive interactive Mapping for Would-be Visitors-Sometimes, move-in day becomes an excuse for friends and family to visit a dorm to see what it’s like and where that person will be throughout the year. However, Move-in day this year makes this a terrible idea due to COVID. So, instead, having an in-depth 360-degree representation of dorms could persuade people to not come and risk exposure, instead of getting a full feel for what their relative or friend’s dorm might be like completely from afar. This also cuts down on the number of people that are coming during Move-in and makes it easier for college administrators to justify just banning anyone besides students and one other person to help, for example, from coming to the university while moving in.
Case Study – Colorado State University (CSU)
CSU has used a move-in category on their campus map for over 5 years to make move-in a seamless as possible.
When move-in is over they turn the category to private then when fall comes around again they update it with current information. This year this update includes all the check-in then testing tents and lastly the residence hall with the best way to move between them all to maintain social distance.
This webinar will help you understand fully how interactive maps can enhance everyone’s safety during the pandemic. This includes giving people a sense of entrances and exits for buildings, which can be invaluable when it comes to ensuring safety since that will mean less wandering around and potentially getting lost.
