With an audience raised on digital communication, digital signage is an ideal way to engage today’s students and future generations of students. By taking advantage of the capabilities the latest digital signage technologies deliver, universities are empowered to communicate quickly and effectively with students, faculty and visitors. With 73% of educational institutions seeing digital signage as crucial for the future of communication, what are the remaining 27% missing out on? Below are our top five picks.

Streamlined communications

Rapidly replacing static notice boards and posters, digital screens allow campuses to streamline communications with students, faculty and visitors. News announcements and campus events can be displayed alongside class schedules in real-time to keep students and faculty up-to-date. Even more importantly, the use of a secure and collaborative, cloud-based content management system simplifies the management of communications. This enables control of the entire network of screens whilst at the same time allowing for tailored content on specific screens. For example, an advertisement for an upcoming law student networking event can be scheduled to only appear in digital screens within the law faculty area.

For universities with multiple campuses, this provides a cost effective and flexible solution which can be implemented across multiple locations to communicate with any number of students, faculty and visitors quickly and efficiently. Digital signage can also be paired with other technology platforms to enable content to be pushed directly to student or faculty phones.

Increased engagement

Placing digital screens throughout campus common areas can assist in driving interest and boosting student engagement. Utilize screens to welcome new staff and students, share event highlight videos, or recognize student achievements. These forms of messages, which can be tailored to different locations of a multi-campus university, create a feeling of warmth and belonging.

Alternatively, add a personal touch to your universities’ communications through social media. Social media itself is a great platform for fresh, fun and highly visual content. Marketing departments can avoid reinventing the content wheel by simply displaying the universities own social media posts. By creating a hashtag for student or faculty to use on their own social media, you can incentivize with the instant gratification of seeing their posts appear on the screens which in turn builds a sense of community.

Improved guidance

University campuses are constantly evolving and expanding. By offering a digital wayfinding solution, universities can assist new visitors in navigating their way around the grounds and avoid the risk of getting lost. Current students will also benefit from digital wayfinding as locating a new classroom or facility will be easier than ever. Interactive digital kiosks located throughout campuses are an excellent means of wayfinding, with the dynamic capability of digital allowing content to be updated anywhere, anytime. The ability to customize the exterior design of a kiosk also ensures that the digital wayfinding will fit seamlessly within the campus environment and complement any existing static wayfinding signage.

Simplified room management

Room management is a huge challenge for many universities. Linked to a calendar system, digital meeting room signs make reserving spaces simple avoiding confusion and double ups. To avoid unused rooms due to no-shows, universities can utilize a “check in” functionality which allows the central system to set a time when the meeting should be cancelled if not checked in, and the room becomes available to others. Room timetables can also be displayed on common room digital screens, so students and faculty can quickly check which room has availability.

Safety for the masses

Insuring the safety of everyone on a campus is a top priority for universities. In the event of an emergency, a digital signage network is a very effective tool to deliver critical information and necessary directions without delay. For example, if a fire starts, emergency alerts and guidance to the closest emergency exits and fire evacuation assembly points can appear on the digital screens in the affected and nearby buildings.

With people consuming content more frequently than ever, digital signage is fast becoming the norm for universities. And why not? Replacing static posters and flyers by deploying the latest digital signage technology not only streamlines communications and critical information delivery but also reduces ongoing costs and can easily be scaled across multiple campuses.

As featured on Digital Signage Today.