October 18, 2024
Because digital signage is more eye-catching, it can be a powerful marketing tool for a wide variety of businesses. But most schools are going to have tighter budgets and an entirely different focus, so the usual list of features and benefits doesn’t apply. So, would they be a worthwhile investment?
It depends on what you’re hoping to do with your digital signage, but when done well and for a specific purpose, digital signage can help enhance communication, engagement, and the overall learning environment. That’s quite a lot of ROI from something as simple as a sign!
What Digital Signage Solutions Are Out There?
Good news! You’ve got a wide variety of digital signage solutions today, and they’re much more efficient and user-friendly than they used to be.
Here are the types of terms you’ll hear when we talk about digital signage:
- Cloud-based signs where you can update their content remotely through special software
- Hardware-software combos that offer an all-in-one solution
- Interactive touchscreen displays
- Video wall systems
- LED displays
- Digital menu boards
- Classroom management displays
Benefits of Digital Signage in Education
Depending on which signs you choose and the type of content you display, here are the benefits you’ll receive.
1. Share School Announcements Quickly
Digital signage allows administrators to quickly post important news and information over the school’s network infrastructure without interrupting classroom activity and other important events. This allows students and teachers to see these updated messages in near-real time, creating a more informed campus.
Want to remind students about a big test coming up or remind them of an important policy change? Digital signage makes it easy.
2. Boost Student Engagement
Student engagement refers to more than just classroom participation. It also includes involvement in extracurricular activities and clubs. But digital signage can actually help with both.
You might use your digital signage to share important information about a new club or an upcoming match. But you can also use digital signage to offer fun quizzes, games, and content that might invite them to be curious about the subject matter they’re currently learning. You could also create a digital yearbook that constantly offers an updated slideshow of student activities and achievements.
Incidentally, there’s real data to suggest that anything that increases student engagement can help increase student GPAs and make them more optimistic about their future success:
- Engaged students are 2.5X more likely to say they do well in school
- Engaged students are 4.5X more likely to be hopeful about the future
3. Attract More Community Participation
Not only can digital signage encourage more student participation, but it can also reach a broader audience in the community to help you sell tickets to bigger events, like concerts, sporting events, and school plays. Digital signage software makes it exceptionally easy to display dates, times, and locations.
4. Save Time
Rather than running around campus to staple flyers to message boards or emailing newsletters to various departments, digital signage can be controlled and shared from a centralized location.
You can compose, edit, and update a message from a single location and share it with all digital signage locations with just a few mouse clicks.
5. Reward Student Creativity
How about featuring a poem of the month or a rotating student art gallery? The sky is the limit! You could even let your students produce video content to be shared with the entire student body.
6. Go Green
Want to meet green initiatives? Digital signage solutions offer a green solution that can help your institution save money, conserve resources, and reduce paper signage waste — all in one go.
7. Simplify Campus Navigation
Navigating new relationships is hard enough without also having to navigate a new campus. If your school has more than one building, navigation kiosks can simplify orientation and make new students feel welcome.
When we talk with school districts and higher education institutions about adding digital signage, one example we like to talk about is a project we did for the University of St. Thomas. Their needs were somewhat unique as Minnesota’s largest private university. But here are a few highlights of how they used digital signage to their advantage…
Digital Signage in Action
When the school opened its new Anderson Student Center, they came to us to design and implement an effective AV technology system for the building. Okay, yes, we believe our competitive pricing and experienced technical engineers probably had something to do with it.
Their Goals
They wanted something that would benefit students, teachers, and administrators on campus — specifically interactive signage that could communicate dining facility information (hours, menus, locations), local area news (weather status and updates), and promotional content. They also wanted guests to be greeted by digital signage displays that would make it easy for current and prospective students, guests on campus, and teachers to quickly locate an office, meeting room, or restaurant without feeling lost or overwhelmed.
Our Solution
We got to work installing 90 professional-grade Sharp television displays, with the centerpiece digital signage display consisting of a 9 ft. x 6 ft. display wall that could either display nine separate messages or one large message. Additional installations include a recreation center with multiple video game platforms, conference rooms with full AV systems and controls, and private dining areas with digital signage.
The Result
At the end of the day, the University of St. Thomas wanted to create a friendlier campus experience for everyone. And they got it! From menus with meal pictures and clear pricing to advertisements for the school’s bowling alley, the digital signage solution at the University of St. Thomas created a welcoming atmosphere with effective communication methods that could keep all viewers updated.
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