Recruiting for Higher Education: The Clear Benefits of Digital Signage

Are you finding it difficult to recruit students for higher education? Certainly, COVID has changed how students expect to engage with their learning, moving more and more lectures and seminars online.

But there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that students are becoming weary of online classes. They want to move back into classrooms, while reinforcing the experience with the convenience of online learning.

So, how do you give your higher education facility the leading edge when it comes to recruitment? How do you prepare classrooms to meet the needs of hybrid teaching and learning?

From personalized wayfinding for student recruitment days to innovative approaches to collaboration, a cutting-edge digital signage solution can transform the student experience and turbo-charge your recruitment drive.

This article explores the benefits of digital signage in higher education settings and how they make university campuses (and college campuses) much more attractive for prospective students.

How do I boost recruitment in higher education?

On average, universities now spend around $2,300 (on average) to recruit a single undergraduate student. So, while more Americans are getting their high-school diplomas, fewer are enrolling in higher education, meaning that recruiting has become more challenging and expensive.

This makes recruitment days all the more important; so, it’s time to showcase how technology enhances the student experience.

When prospective students visit your campus, make use of digital signs for orientation and information. Save on greeting staff by empowering your visitors to interact with digital screens in reception lobbies.

Get your visitors to sign in, print off their itineraries, and integrate with Google Calendar on their smartphones to make their first day on campus memorable.

Put your prospective students in the driving seat and demonstrate how your campus garners technology in smart ways.

A Personalized Welcome

Many students find college campuses intimidating when they first arrive. To boost enrollment and retention, you need your prospective students to see the campus as their new home.

Personalized welcome messages at orientation show that you’re interested in the student and can help them feel like they’ve arrived in the right place!

And when the screens are not being used as welcome displays, admissions counselors can show campus maps, display campus tour schedules, or even display social media feeds from the school, students, alumni, or potential students.

Displaying weather and traffic updates add value to the visitor’s experience by helping them plan their tours and minimize first-day nerves.

Digital Menu Boards

University life is all about independence, and it could be the first time young people have choices over their diets. Again, dining halls can feel like intimidating places, so digital menu boards add energy and a sense of fun to set new students at ease.

Use enticing graphics to bring menu boards to life and see sales increase. In fact, 64% of retail users cite increased customer engagement as the main benefit of digital signs.

Bring lessons to life

Lessons that engage students physically and intellectually improve learning. So, digital signs in classrooms help bring learning to life. They integrate media players for high-quality audio, video, and graphics with high-speed internet connectivity, making the driest of subjects more interesting and engaging.

Get students to interact in real-time with digital signs, appealing to kinesthetic learners, and make entertainment part of the learning experience.

Use digital signs to boost student social lives

Students sign up for higher education because they want to learn. But they also want to make new friends and have fun.

Digital signs in common areas become important hubs for campus-wide communications. Advertise campus events and make emergency announcements about last-minute room changes and supplementary guest talks and appearances.

This helps create a sense of community and cohesion within the student body by maximizing the value of available social time while reinforcing the whole student experience.

Keep People Safe in Emergencies

Emergency situations, such as fires, can be disorientating, especially if people are new to campus. Integrating your digital signage network with Common Alert Protocol (CAP) systems ensures that everyone receives safe and consistent emergency alerts.

Keep everyone safe with real-time wayfinding information during evacuations and keep people informed of progress while they’re waiting to return back to the building.

Creative and Innovative Promotions

Increase enrollment for specialty programs by using interactive kiosks during recruitment days so that prospective students can learn about curriculum content.

Empower students by letting them explore interactive curriculum brochures on digital boards. 96% of students say that video increases their learning experience, so start right from recruitment day.

Interactive displays can be used for faculty directories, including brief professor bios, office hours, and descriptions of the classes they teach. Interactive faculty directories make teachers more accessible and approachable.

Boost lobby engagement

Replace traditional lobby messaging with an eye-catching video wall.

Video walls make an immediate visual impact, especially in high-traffic areas. They proffer immersion, inviting viewers to play and interact.

Tell your campus story with video, spotlighting campus achievements, and display the campus map with walking times between buildings.

Save Resources

Millennials are passionate about sustainable technology and renewable resources. Show students that you share their environmental concerns by sharing energy usage data on digital signage displays. It will differentiate you from other campuses.

Some campuses have successfully adopted this strategy. In fact, some dorms participate in “Green Challenges,” competing for the lowest energy waste.

Using displays to measure progress towards sustainability offers a tremendous competitive advantage, attracting prospective students to your campus.

******

Higher education digital signage is an straightforward but effective strategy that will supplement your university’s admissions efforts.

Implement the strategies we’ve explored and outshine other universities by appearing tech-savvy and fresh in a new way.