Colleges and universities have to meet the expectations of students to offer them the best learning experience. The population of students between 18 to 25 years who enroll for higher education is so much conversant and comfortable in digital communication that they set their expectations accordingly. The social media is the favorite choice of millennials who throng the higher educational institutes that accommodate thousands of young adults. Therefore, to live up to the expectations of students, educational institutes have to adopt the digital technology to communicate intelligently with students, employees, and guardians on real-time basis.
For sharing information on time, universities and colleges are using digital signages and other digital tools to achieve the communication goals by sharing vital information.For improving the experience of students, visitors and employees, higher education institutes are using digital technology to their advantage. When you visit any campus today, you will come across several digital communication tools that have become almost a standard for keeping in touch with the student community. It will be a mistake to think that digital communication boards have merely replaced notice boards because the digital tools are capable of doing much more in student engagement. Universities and colleges can make use of digital signages in many ways, a few of which you would find in the following paragraphs.
- The right information at the right time
The management of universities and colleges has realized how important it is to use digital communication tools to provide a better experience for students in the campus. Students are keen to receive information on the go and enjoy the liberty of accessing information anytime they want. Since students are too much busy and find it hard to balance several activities, from attending school, doing a part-time job, taking care of their health, participating in sporting activities to enjoying a social life, they want to stay updated with information that helps them to save time.
- Developing Mobile apps for intra-college transport
Students usually avail bus services for attending colleges located on the University campus. They usually face the problem of buses arriving late at the designated place of boarding and often have to wait for 15-20 minutes. The wait hits them hard as they already face a paucity of time. They would be happy to have a mobile app that tells them about the bus routes and travel time updates so that they can arrive at the bus stop on time and need not have to wait. Universities and colleges can evaluate the student needs and create suitable apps or put up digital signages to display transport information that students would welcome with open arms.
- Putting an end to physical searching for a study spot
Looking for a seat at the school library is another exercise for which students have to spend at least 10 to 30 minutes walking all around. The troublesome and frustrating experience often deters students from going to the library, and they would prefer to look for some other places to study. Moving around with loaded bags of textbooks in search for a place to study results is too much tiresome. Since studying in a library is the most basic expectation of students when they go for post-secondary studies the universities and colleges need to address this issue.
To solve the problem of seat hunting by physically moving around, setting up digital signage at the library entrance can help students to know the availability of seats on a real-time basis. By using IOT sensors that are now easily available, it is possible to keep track of seats real time so that the vacant seats show up on the digital screen.
- Time-saving in cafeterias
The cafeterias are places where students might sometimes idle away their time, but the majority of students want to spend the minimum time at these places. However, going through the menu and physically checking the availability of selected items takes some time that extends the time spent at cafeterias, which many students find unproductive. Use of restaurant menu board is an ideal solution as the scrolling messages convey all useful information in a few seconds that helps students to decide quickly. Depending on the time of the day, they can have different kinds of menu items.
- Emergency notification
Digital signages have good use in informing about emergencies and alerting people so that they can stay safe. Although sirens are useful in campuses for alerting people it does not give the opportunity of making well-informed decisions. By communicating with the help of digital signages, people would know exactly what the emergency is all about and can decide what would be the most appropriate way to react to the situation. Digital signages can also carry the message about how to act in the situation while remaining completely safe.
Author Bio: Karen is a Business Tech Analyst. She is very responsible towards her job. She loves to share her knowledge and experience with her friends and colleagues.
