Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

How to engage a higher ed audience beyond the digital screen

Digital signs should point students to other campus resources.

In trying to create new and relevant content for digital signage screens, we sometimes forget that our audience is in motion and will not see everything they are intended to see.

As part of a comprehensive marketing strategy, digital signage can be an effective facilitator of information, but is not always treated as such.  With the wider availability of smart phones, laptops, and tablets, we need to be able to reach our audiences where they are  — namely, on the move.

In a workplace or school setting, most of the information being distributed on the screens is also being sent through other means.  Websites, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, eMail, text messages, RSS feeds and more are incorporated into a marketing strategy to make sure the message gets out.…Read More

Digital signage adoption skyrockets in higher education

Digital signage is moving from commerce to education.

Paper flyers are out. Digital signage is in. College students have sent the message loud and clear to their campus IT officials: They want information broadcast on-screen—and recent statistics say decision makers are listening.

Digital signs—usually large, flat-screen TVs—were once used exclusively in common campus areas like the student union.

Today, even small colleges are installing digital signs in buildings across campus, and instead of controlling the messages scrolling across these signs from a central location, IT leaders are giving control to department chiefs who can customize each sign with announcements and news items.…Read More

Digital signage as student recruitment tool

Digital signage shouldn't be used just as a digital bulletin board on campus.

An advanced digital signage system won’t just keep the campus community informed — it will attract students impressed by the tech-savviest of higher-education institutions.

From music to politics to technology, higher-education institutions have always been a proving ground, a place where new concepts are tested and often become commonplace in society.

Not surprisingly, some colleges and universities are again ahead of the curve, this time in adopting new approaches that deliver unified communications (UC), specifically harnessing the convergence of digital signage and video.…Read More

Digital signage competes for students’ attention

UC Irvine recently upgraded its campus's digital signage.

Budget-conscious colleges and universities are finding digital signage not only helps them improve their campus-wide communications and emergency messaging, but many discover that it’s cost-effective and eco-friendly. And the signs might just make students glance up from their smart phones.

The need for improved communications is driven by a consumer electronics industry that has created a generation bombarded with engaging messages all day, every day.

As a result, students tend to ignore messages that don’t meet their high standards for media and its messages.…Read More

Signs of the times: Digital displays go to college

Colleges use digital signage to warn students of campus emergencies.

From revenue-generating message boards at concession stands and athletic venues, to point-of-sale displays at campus bookstores and alumni gift shops, to distance-learning applications and asset-reservation panels outside lecture halls and conference rooms, to giant video walls in football stadiums and basketball arenas—digital displays are becoming ubiquitous at colleges, universities, and even in some K-12 facilities.

Nearly 20 percent of U.S. colleges and universities now use digital signage in some form, according to industry veterans attending the 2011 Digital Signage Expo (DSE) at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev., Feb. 22-25. DSE is the official show of the Digital Signage Federation.

These electronic displays come in virtually all sizes and shapes. Some are stand-alone, self-contained units.…Read More