Communication Effectiveness in Higher Education

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By Steven Keith Platt, Director and Research Fellow, Platt Retail Institute
 
 
The effective delivery of information is important in almost any environment. No matter the setting – corporate, health care, or university – unsuccessful communications can lead to unintended and potentially dangerous outcomes. Because of the unique requirements of a university, the need to communicate successfully through effective information delivery can become critical.
 
Whether a routine matter, such as a sporting event; an important concern, such as class registration; or a critical instance, such as a campus emergency; understanding the most effective and timely manner in which to relay messages to students is an issue worthy of investigation. In addition, as new and emerging digital technologies are being embraced, their position within the communication mix introduces added intricacies. Of particular interest is the emerging technology of digital communication networks (DCN, also referred to as Digital Signage).
 
The Platt Retail Institute, in conjunction with its affiliate, the Chicago School of Prof  sional  Psychology, recently released its research report entitled “Communication Effectiveness in Higher Education.” Underwritten, in part, by Black Box Network Services and Onelan, the objective behind this research was to gain insight into the issues surrounding communication delivery on college campuses. The study addressed two major  questions. First, of the methods that are being used by universities to communicate with their students, which are effective? Second, how can emerging digital technologies be deployed to enhance the administrator-student information flow?
 
To answer these questions, PRI surveyed university students and administrators. Students were asked to answer questions relevant to the effectiveness of various communication channels that are used to deliver academic, emergency, and entertainment information. These channels included the school’s website, email, text messaging, instant messaging, digital signage, phone hotlines, radio and television, and static signs. School administrators similarly were asked to evaluate whether or not a given channel was effective for communicating the three information types to students.
 
Various insights were drawn from this research.  First, students prefer to receive information through newer digital media channels including text messages, digital signage, E-mail, and a school’s website. Fully 97 percent of students responded that they prefer to receive information via digital channels, rather than from a non-digital source. In addition, students indicated that digital channels are effective for communicating school related messages. The second noteworthy finding is that universities continue to utilise  various older, less effective mass media delivery channels such as radio and television. Results found that both students and administrators rate these channels as only moderately effective methods of communication. In spite of this, 43 percent of administrators continue to use radio to  communicate both academic and entertainment-related information. Moreover, 57 percent of schools still use television to communicate academic information.
 
The study also found that some communication channels are not being used efficiently, as their inherent strengths and weaknesses are not being considered. It was found that in some instances, for example, schools failed to use channels that they indicated were highly effective. Conversely, even when administrators deem a channel ineffective for communicating a specific type of information, they still choose to use the channel. This can be interpreted as an inferior use of both the channel and university resources.
 
While a channel’s effectiveness is of great importance, it becomes an afterthought if the message is not relevant to its intended target. Today, students need to deal with an abundant amount of messages sent to them daily from different sources. They must determine the relevance of each message and identify which sources of information are reliable. It was found that universities often relay considerable irrelevant information to students, with the unintended consequence that relevant or important messages tend to get crowded out. That is, when the majority of information a student receives from a source is not relevant to his or her needs, the level of attentiveness to messages distributed by that source will decrease significantly.
 
The final goal of the research was to understand the various applications of digital signage in the university setting, and the reasons why universities are adopting digital signage as a communication platform. Unique examples included giving students the ability to post messages to facilitate communication among peers, and using screens for simulation of work environments such as a medical operating room or a stock trading floor. The ability easily to manipulate target-specific content on multiple screens is one of the underlying properties found to drive a university’s decision to install a DCN. The ability to display content in real time is also especially advantageous when communicating emergency information.