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Campus safety is important. It comes before anything else. Two main elements of ensuring a high level of reaction are wayfinding and alerting. University campus digital signage allows educational institutions to transform the way critical information is disseminated and enhance the safety of students and staff.
Challenges in campus safety
College life has so many positive aspects. Learning together, organizing community events, playing sports, having parties. The list just goes on. Unfortunately, it can also be unsafe.
As campus crime is surging to the pre-pandemic levels (according to a USA Today survey), crime reporting stays very low and communication desires better, universities are often struggling to react adequately to the challenges.
Here’s a brief overview of the main campus safety challenges colleges are facing today:
– mental health crisis among students
“36% of higher education institutions reported they did not currently have or did not have any appropriate mental health resources to support students,” according to Motorola Solutions survey.
Mental health issues remain a stigma on campus. Untreated, they can lead to potentially harmful behavior on campus. So it’s in the best interest of universities to create a reporting system and support students with their mental health questions.
– crime
Active shooters, sexual assault, theft, cybercrime, and drug-related incidents are the main crime categories campuses face across the world. Unfortunately, crime keeps rising on university campuses and it’s a challenge that needs addressing. Technology provides a good safety-enhancing tool to mitigate crime risks and keep students and staff safe.
– lack of an effective real-time communication
When an emergency comes, it should be reported to everyone on campus immediately. Unfortunately, many college campuses do not have the technology for that and rely on old-school and obsolete ways of communication. This puts campus safety in jeopardy and students at risk.
– lack of proper navigation for vast college campuses
While you can write off the lack of wayfinding in an ordinary time, during an emergency it’s a disaster waiting to unfold. There’s nothing worse than panic. And lack of organization is extremely dangerous when panic comes to campus. An effective wayfinding system allows colleges to mitigate the risk and ensure that everyone is safe.
– no or limited emergency preparedness
Whether it’s because of the lack of resources, shortage of staff or mismanagement, many colleges miss the vital emergency preparation. Even with technology, insufficient training may become a big threat during the actual emergency.
– outdated technology
Many universities don’t update their emergency technology. They keep using outdated surveillance and alert systems that are not up for a challenge.
What are the benefits of university campus digital signage for improving safety?
Screens are great for improving safety. They are very visual. That means that everyone will interact with any emergency message you show.
It’s important to understand that university campus digital signage is a part of the campus safety system. The screens work with other elements such as centralized administration, prior training, surveillance, guest tracking, etc.
They improve the communication side of emergency reaction, but displays can’t do everything.
– effective navigation
As we mentioned earlier, the lack of clear wayfinding on campus is among the main challenges universities face now. Screens allow colleges to use technology to provide directions. Indicate evacuation paths, show maps, and direct students where they need to go.
e. When it’s a high-traffic area on campus, having a tool that clearly displays important information is a way to avoid panic and calm the students down.
– flexible and customizable content
With Kitcast you have a myriad of content creation options. It’s a flexible tool with ready-made emergency and wayfinding templates, many widgets and an intuitive content creator.
– faster response time
Speed is essential in an emergency. University campus digital signage wastes no time in reacting to various situations. Also, the content may be adjusted to include the evolving situations.
How to implement university campus digital signage?
So you’ve decided to use digital signage to boost the campus safety. But how exactly do you do that?
First of all, you need to decide on software.
Kitcast is a go-to solution for colleges and universities. We offer cloud-based digital signage for Apple TV. You won’t need any IT knowledge to create the campus digital signage network using Kitcast. It’s powerful, yet very user-friendly and quick to install.
The reason for such an uncomplicated deployment process is that you’ll only need Apple TV to turn your screens into powerful content deliverers.
Just plug the device into a TV, install the Kitcast app, follow the simple instructions on linking the devices and you’re ready to use digital signage.
Kitcast allows you to boost campus safety with improved real-time emergency alerts and more effective wayfinding.
Try it for FREE now!
