Negosentro.com | Ways of Improving a School’s Communication and Community Engagement | As an educator, there is a need to communicate and engage with stakeholders regarding different matters about the school. While you have options like TV commercials, printed memos and other traditional forms of communication, they might not be as effective as they are supposed to be. You should, therefore, find ways in which you can improve your school’s communication and community engagement. There are plenty of ways to increase the engagement of your students. The biggest way is getting them learning together in a community setting. Learning communities like Participate offer great ways to collaboratively learn and grow together. There is no better way of doing this than using your website.
Note that this is the digital era, and most people are using digital platforms to source information on various matters. So why not have a website that takes care of your communication needs. With that, you will have an arena even to use it for educational purposes and allow students to find options like how to do their math homework.
The following are how you can improve your school’s communication and community engagement.
- Have a Glossary that serves as an educational tool
Considering that education is the core business of your institution, communication regarding educational matters should be on the forefront. It is for this reason that you need to have a section of your website dedicated to educational resources. This should be somewhere the students can get revision materials, past papers, tips on how to create an effective timetable, and links that can direct the audience to other external materials that could be useful such as the best data-driven research tools.
- Link entries to your school website or blog
If there is something new or an ongoing initiative in your school that you need to communicate about, it is advisable that you create entries on your school’s website or blog. With that, stakeholders visiting your site or checking out your blog will be able to get information regarding the specific project. Note that creating links to your site allows you to reach out to as many stakeholders as possible within a short time and pass your message.
- Use social media platforms
As aforementioned, this is a digital era, and the world is going mobile. What that means is that your students, stakeholders, and the community are all online. A day will not pass before they access social media platforms like Facebook. LinkedIn, Twitter and so on. To make communication effective, you need first to establish which platforms the different groups’ best engage with. With that information, you will be able to target the information you need to share. If there is a career fair in your school and you need to let the community know of it, platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn will come in handy.
All you need to do is create content on Facebook and drop links that will direct the audience to your website for more information on the specific projects. Social media platforms also allow you to engage with your audience on the comment sections and so on.
- Use emails to communicate
The beauty of using emails for communication is that it will be effortless as you already have the email addresses of the different stakeholders collected during your encounters at various points. Why not use them to communicate and engage with the stakeholders?
If you are carrying out surveys, you only need to send a mail. If there is an upcoming event or projects, you could still use the same. Emails will also offer an excellent platform for sharing students’ results.
- Hold regular briefings
Do not wait until there is an event or project launch for you to hold meetings with the board, members of staff or other parties. On top of banking on digital technology. Holding regular briefings is recommended. This offers you an excellent opportunity to communicate things that, you may not have been able to on the other platforms.
Communication and community engagement is essential for any educational institution. It goes a long way in ensuring that the stakeholders are heading towards the same direction hence success in achievement of the institution’s objectives.
