By: Krisna Poznik

La Roche College may be a small school in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, but our students have dreams that far exceed the size of the school we hope they'll attend. For many of them, the road to success starts with a visit to one of our open house events. This is where they decide if La Roche is the right place to experience the next four years of their lives. As a school we want to make a great first impression, and SCVNGR is one of the tools we use to do so.

We've used SCVNGR as a supplement to our tours for the last few open house events. Our student tour guides lead groups of prospective students and families throughout a tour of campus. Everyone is given an instruction card on how to play. Participation isn't required, but it is encouraged. Each stop on the tour is complemented with a corresponding SCVNGR challenge.

Each challenge answered earns the player points. Those who participate are eligible to win prizes. A small swag piece is offered to anyone who earns at least one point. Additional prizes are handed out to the top 10 point earners. Prizes have ranged from sunglasses to t-shirts, bookstore gift cards to iPod Shuffles.

Each time we've used SCVNGR we've refined our approach slightly to make sure participants get the most out of their experience. Our challenge questions correspond directly to the talking points that our tour guides follow. We want SCVNGR to enhance and reinforce what they're already learning on the tour.

We've also found that creating open-ended challenges helps us acquire more insights to our prospective students' interests. For instance, when visiting our Registrar's Office on the tour, they learn about the various forms that are available here, including those to apply to one of our many study abroad trips. Our challenge here asks players, "Where would you most love to study abroad?" We then can use the answers we receive to identify the places that students most want to visit and make sure that those correspond with the destinations we offer.

Those using SCVNGR have actually used it as an icebreaker to further engage with those at the college--even the college president, who was asked to help answer a challenge as they met her on the tour at our last event.

SCVNGR is only one part of our overall approach, but we've found that it is one that is engaging and fun. Seeing our students invested with the game is exciting--not just for them, but for us as well. There's an element of metaphorical similarity between a SCVNGR trek and one's journey through college. One of excitement, fun, challenges and rewards.