Engage your campus community anywhere: Using digital signage to gain mindshare of digital generation.

It’s no secret that Gen Z and Millennials are the first generations to primarily grow up in a digitally dependent world, and that’s caused a shift in how they communicate compared to previous generations.

With Millennials now re-entering campuses as faculty members, and Gen Z heading off to college, it only makes sense for higher education to shift to digital communication experiences.

Studies have found that students connect with each other digitally 74% of the time, and they expect the same from those communicating with them. With a generation of digital-native students entering their college years, effective on-campus digital communication strategies have never been more critical for establishing engagement.

Whether a member of the staff, faculty, or student body, communication is the key to getting the most out of any time spent on campus. There are events to announce, achievements to celebrate, and helpful directions to campus locations, but how do you communicate with such a dynamic and diverse community?

It takes a plan and a content management solution that empowers you to reach an audience right where they are – on site or on their mobile devices. Digital signage can help take control of messaging and keep the information flowing across campus. Mobile and desktop options even allow you to stay in contact with remote learners.

Enterprise digital signage solutions for educational institutions allow for centralization of content management and device control, yet empower contributors from across the organization to participate via role-based permissions. Students, faculty, and staff can all be enabled to contribute moderated content through built-in review and approval workflows.

Once you determine what you need to communicate and where that message needs to be delivered, the next most important step is choosing the correct hardware to install (from weatherproof outdoor kiosks to menu boards in the cafeteria).

Frankly, this is where many digital communication plans come unraveled. The sign is installed, but no plan is made for HOW/WHEN to update content, and even more importantly WHO will own this task. A good partner will help you think through this process to ensure your signage does its job.

Toshiba’s digital signage provides capabilities to communicate and engage in various ways, with endless useful options:

• Publish playlists and messaging to on-campus signage, internet/intranet destinations, and to mobile devices

• On-campus wayfinding – helping students, staff, and visitors navigate campus with an interactive touchscreen experience

• Institutional news and announcements

• Department information and office hours

• Work study job boards

• Club announcements and signups

• Athletic updates

• Emergency alerts

• Donor recognition

• Food service menu boards

• Data integration into event management and calendar platforms

• Publishing and approval workflows

• Robust scheduling tools for programming content in advance

Digital signage can improve the on-campus, and even remote, experiences. From designing and managing content to training users, each campus is unique and therefore deserves a unique approach. That’s where Toshiba shines, and it’s our support team that is most impressive. And that support doesn’t disappear once we’ve installed your digital signage solutions. You may work in education, but that doesn’t mean we expect you to know everything.

Reach out to a Toshiba representative and find out how we can help enhance engagement and communication across campus with our digital signage options.