Digital signage in higher education

Digital signage offers colleges and universities opportunities to communicate better across campus and within the lecture room

Education is all about communication and so it is no wonder that dynamic digital signage, in many ways the communication channel of the current age, is fast gaining ground in universities, colleges and other higher educational establishments around the world.

A dynamic digital signage network installed across multiple sites is able to provide cross campus communication to students, delivering information that has impact and that can be targeted in terms of content, location and scheduling. Add to these benefits considerable cost advantages compared with many other alternatives, and the case for digital signage becomes compelling.

Cross campus communications

How to communicate with thousands of students in numerous buildings, often dispersed across multiple sites is a major challenge for higher education administrators. Historically this has been achieved up to a point using posters. The problem with posters is that they are time consuming to update and wasteful in terms of human and paper resources. Whats more they are static.

A digital signage network is the perfect answer. Such a network is controlled at a central location and then data in the form of messages, images, video etc is streamed to remote locations. Individual end-points can display different data, concurrently. For example the main reception area may be showing a welcome message whereas the student dining refectories may be showing menu options and class change details.



The Impact of digital signage

It is true of many media that impact is limited only by the designers creativity but digital signage has an intrinsic advantage over many of its rivals. It is dynamic. This can refer to the way data is generated and displayed but it also refers to the actual display seen by an audience. Images and messages can move. No poster, however well designed, can attract the attention by movement; and it is movement that catches the eye.

The millennium generation has been brought up on electronic imagery, from simple television to sophisticated computer games, so it is hardly surprising that there is a strong tendency for students to relate and respond better to digital signage than to more traditional means of communication, such as posters and whiteboards.

Relevant targeted content

At the heart of our need to communicate is a message, and that message is almost always time sensitive. A message may have a long lifetime, perhaps as much as a term, but many if not most will be relevant only for a day or even an hour. And in emergency situations, the message may be time critical in terms of minutes.

Digital signage is finding near universal application in emergency planning procedures but it is especially well suited to the needs of universities and college campuses. With large numbers of young people constantly moving between classes, lectures and other meetings, and between buildings and sites, the ability of a dynamic digital signage network to communicate an emergency message can be literally life saving. Whether it is a fire, a chemical spillage or criminal activity, digital signage can instantaneously deliver up-to-the-minute instructions and information such as directions on how to evacuate the area safely.

In many other situations too, the way in which dynamic digital signage can deliver real time data offers many advantages to higher education providers. Simply the nightmare of keeping students informed of changes to class venues or times is suddenly little more onerous than sending an email. Announcing the appearance of guest speakers is easy and effective. Promoting student music and drama performances becomes inexpensive.

Digital signage networks offer considerable versatility. Not only can information data be changed instantly if necessary, different information can be delivered to multiple locations. If, for example, various refectories are serving different menus, then the relevant information can be displayed in the correct location. Handling of the data can be either controlled centrally or, depending upon the set up of the network, input at each location.

Versatility also extends to time. Messages can be scheduled to be displayed at specific times, so if a building is used by disparate groups during the day and evening then both the message and even the design of the digital message can be changed to meet the individual groups needs.

Data can be generated in a wide range of formats, and student content is hugely popular amongst alumni. Photographs and videos of student events are all easily generated and when these are broadcast across a campus, inevitably there is an increase in student interest and engagement.

Cost benefits of a digital signage network

One aspect of dynamic digital signage that is sometimes overlooked, is the cost savings that it can bring.

Whatever medium is used to convey the message, there is an up front design cost and this is essentially similar whatever the medium. The design costs for a poster may be similar to those of a digital format message. However, once beyond the design stage, the situation is very different. Paper based graphics inevitably require high resolution images especially when purchasing library images. The cost of 72dpi resolution images used by digital signage is significantly lower than that of the 300dpi standard used for print.

There is also the cost benefit associated with reusing digital media, such as on a website or in presentations.

However, the biggest benefit is in the way digital signage is distributed; electronically rather than on foot or by vehicle. Consider the situation in which a guest speaker is addressing a student audience and the event needs to be promoted across the campus.

With a poster campaign, the poster must be designed and then printed; attracting a significant cost, especially for high quality, large format colour posters. The finished posters must then be distributed throughout the campus, costly in both manpower and transport. Posters need to be displayed on some form of display structure and this too, has a cost associated with it. Display boards are relatively inexpensive but are limited in their appeal. More creative free-standing display structures are likely to be more attractive but also more costly.

After the event, the posters must be collected. Long out of date posters do nothing to inspire an exciting, dynamic atmosphere on any campus. The cost of collection may be counted in with that of distributing the next campaign material but only if there are regular campaigns being run which in turns implies a high budget marketing effort. And finally, the posters must be disposed of, there is some chance of recycling but that is dependent on the facilities available locally and the current market for recycled paper.

In comparison, the digital signage solution requires an initial investment in both hardware and software. This is likely to be higher than the display options required for posters, but does have the advantage of being a valuable resource investment, relevant to other applications. However, once this investment has been made, the costs of running the system mainly consist of design work (similar to that with any other media) and maintenance of the system. Compared with the costs of poster communication, the cost argument is compelling.

Digital signage in higher education - summary

Colleges, universities and other higher education institutions are fast adopting dynamic digital signage as the medium of choice for cross campus communications with their students. With large numbers of people moving between numerous buildings on multiple sites, digital signage offers the ability to broadcast relevant, real time messages and information in a high impact and attractive way.

Cost comparisons with other media, especially the use of posters, make dynamic digital signage an attractive solution by reducing and removing print costs, the costs associated with distribution of materials across the campus and disposal costs.

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