December 2008

Here’s an article from the MN Sun about a recent project I worked on with a little interview that I thought I would share.

Eden Prairie: Home of Rastopia; Rasmussen College recruiting goes high-tech: By CHRIS OLWELL – Sun Newspapers

A dozen Eden Prairie college students had the opportunity to be stars for the day last summer, and some are now being featured on a new Rasmussen College website.

It’s not really a website. Rasmussen already has a website.

“This is a web module, which is meant to be a standalone experience to drive people to want to contact Rasmussen,” said Patrick Seagrist, the executive producer of the Rastopia project for DreamWorld Studios, the Eden Prairie company that designed and built the site … or module.

It was a big project. DreamWorld interviewed 80 students from four Rasmussen campuses to represent their academic programs on the site, which is designed like a city. Someone interested in a degree in the medical field goes to the hospital. Want to be a paralegal? Check out the courthouse.

Charles Rice is a pharmacy technician student at the Eden Prairie Rasmussen campus, and he’s featured in the pharmacy of the hospital building in Rastopia. He volunteered to be filmed for the site when he saw a flyer offering numerous perks.

“It was something like, be a star for the day,” Rice said. He said he had a good time, but he was heavily medicated that day and he thinks it shows in his performance.

“Be a star for the day” was the theme of the ad campaign, and that meant DreamWorld had to put on a show for volunteers. They picked up all the students from their campuses and drove them in limos to their studio, where they were treated to food and drinks and makeup for the ladies.

“[The flyer] said free lunch, so I was like I’ll do it,” said business management student Brian Olson, who appears on the site in the board room of the business center. “It was really fun. Everybody was a blast to work with.”

The students weren’t sure when they finished shooting if they would actually appear on the site. Those who appear were notified with an email containing a link to their visages on the site.

“It blew my mind when they sent me an email saying, hey click here,” Olson said.

Kurt Schmidt works at DreamWorld and built the Rastopia site.

“Our goal was to make it appealing to a younger generation and make it sticky,” Schmidt said. “Sticky” is an industry term that means visitors to the site will find enough interesting content to stick around for a while.

DreamWorld and Rasmussen can use an analysis tool to find out all kinds of information about the people who visit the site. They can find out which rooms are most popular and update the site so only the most effective content stays on the site.

“It’s kind of in perpetual beta. You’re never finished,” Schmidt said. “If you look at a site like foodtv.com, that site’s changed every six to eight months.

“[Rastopia] is all modular. We can take pieces and swap them out whenever we want. It’s kind of like Legos.”

While working with the Rasmussen representatives, Schmidt found out they were looking for digital media instructors. Now he teaches a night class at Rasmussen.

Visit www.rastopia.com.

DreamWorld and Rasmussen can use an analysis tool to find out all kinds of information about the people who visit the site. They can find out which rooms are most popular and update the site so only the most effective content stays on the site.

“It’s kind of in perpetual beta. You’re never finished,” Schmidt said. “If you look at a site like foodtv.com, that site’s changed every six to eight months.

“[Rastopia] is all modular. We can take pieces and swap them out whenever we want. It’s kind of like Legos.”

While working with the Rasmussen representatives, Schmidt found out they were looking for digital media instructors. Now he teaches a night class at Rasmussen.

Visit www.rastopia.com.

Visit DreamWorld Studios