Download How to Keep Students Engaged on Campus

If you run a college or university, you must do everything you can to keep students engaged on campus. Dedicated students tend to be happier students, they have better learning outcomes, and they are much more likely to recommend college to others. So how do you achieve this?

Why is student engagement important?

Let’s start with the basics of why student engagement is important.
The students are engaged when they actively consider the surroundings, feel that they belong, and thrive and thrive in the environment. This is important for several reasons:

· Learning outcomes. It is intuitive that more engaged students tend to see better learning outcomes. If you feel comfortable and attentive, you will retain more information from lectures. You will also perform better on the exam and eventually see better grades. Increasing engagement means creating a more efficient learning facility.

· A sense of community. Commitment is also important for building a sense of community. Engaged students are more likely to collaborate with each other, more likely to identify with the university’s identity, and more likely to contribute to campus culture.

· Student involvement and activity. Keeping students engaged will also increase their likelihood of getting involved in activities. They will join more groups, lead more initiatives and more often volunteer. All of these things are great opportunities for individuals and the university itself.

· Institutional reputation, new students and more. Having more committed students also reflects well on your university. If your students are generally happy and active, you will end up with higher rankings and a better reputation. Dedicated students are also more likely to recommend college to others, which helps you build word of mouth telegraph popularity.

Increase student engagement

Let’s now focus on strategies you can use to increase student engagement.

· Start with a coherent brand. It all starts with the university’s brand and core identity. If your school does not have its own distinctive identity, students will never be able to identify with it. If your identity means completely different things to different groups of people, these groups will not get along in collaborative environments. If the message of your brand changes from building to building and from day to day, students will also feel confused and alienated. This is why you should start by formally documenting your brand requirements and making sure every inch of campus follows them.

· Invest in digital signage. With digital signage and the digital signage software to manage it, you will be able to broadcast messages through all the buildings on your campus. You can display motivational messages, announce upcoming events, provide directions, and even distribute emergency messages when needed. All in all, it gives more information and more meaning to your students, and promotes a more cohesive campus culture.

· Get managers and administrators involved. Students are much more likely to get involved when interacting with faculty members in a positive setting. It is clear that your professors and teachers will to a large extent be responsible for building student engagement. However, you may not be aware that your managers and administrators will also be responsible for this. Encourage all faculty members to engage with students on a regular basis.

· Communicate across multiple channels. The omnichannel approach is very effective, since each communication channel offers distinct strengths and weaknesses. Whenever possible, use multiple channels and methods to communicate with students, including text messages, emails, and various social media platforms.

· Encourage activity. Active students tend to be committed students, so try to support more engagement by supporting more activity. This can manifest itself in many different ways, such as sponsoring the development of several groups, investing in advertising to showcase existing groups or encouraging participation in school events. If students are particularly interested in one specific activity, consider investing more time and money in promoting that activity.

· Encourage healthy competition. Healthy competition is a good thing for everyone involved. Encourage students to compete against each other in the classroom, in groups and in the university’s broader environment. Of course, the key word here is “healthy:” Avoid putting students against each other, otherwise you will break the culture you have tried so hard to build.

· Get feedback and improve. Finally, be sure to collect feedback from students directly. They will probably tell you if you are missing the goal and give you ideas you can use to improve student engagement in the future. The only major caveat here is that you need to take action on this feedback if you want it to make a difference.
Student engagement does not come naturally, and sometimes it is not easy. Still, if you make a concentrated effort to improve your culture and brand, and you are willing to experiment with different initiatives, you will eventually come to a place with much higher student engagement.

This post was last updated: June 7, 2022