Live Streaming From Schools: Benefits and Tips To Consider

Live streaming is an increasingly popular communication tool used by modern brands, including educational institutions, to directly engage with their target audience. This dynamic platform has been instrumental in enhancing engagement, trust, and conversion across various industries. Educational institutions can particularly benefit from live streaming, as it offers an innovative way to elevate campus communications. This guide delves into the advantages and best practices of live streaming in an educational setting, helping institutions use this technology effectively.

In this Article:

Why Incorporate Live Streaming On Campus

As mentioned above, we often associate live streaming with retail brands instead of schools or universities. That being said, using this practice in the education sector has many advantages.

Here are some reasons why your campus must incorporate live streaming:

Offers Access to More Knowledge

Live streaming provides an excellent opportunity for teachers and other similar professionals to provide valuable information to students. Through this outlet, campuses can offer online lessons, external workshops, and training programs using live streaming services.

Aside from that, they can provide students with helpful information beyond their current curriculum. For instance, they can teach them how to refinance student loans and help them maximize their options.

The best part about live streaming is that many tools enable creators to incorporate various elements to generate an engaging broadcast. Aside from creative backgrounds, they can include buttons, multiple screens, and live chat. 

The latter is one of the most notable features of live streaming because it allows creators to communicate with their viewers directly. 

Meanwhile, creators can repurpose their broadcast content for later use. This option is perfect, mainly if the stream contains details that are part of the curriculum, allowing students to replay these videos and better understand the subject. Although virtual calls also allow recording, quality is not always guaranteed, making live broadcasts the better tool.

Broadcast School Events

Aside from providing valuable information to students, live streaming is an excellent tool for showcasing important campus events, including tournaments, performances, and achievements. 

Live streaming these occasions provides an opportunity to present all the festivities and milestones inside the campus. Doing so will help demonstrate the organization’s unique culture, which helps attract potential enrollees. 

Moreover, live streaming helps campuses improve transparency, allowing them to gain the confidence of parents, students, and partners. 

The best part is that broadcasting live content is not limited to a certain number of participants. Unlike virtual calls through Zoom or Google Meet, live streaming viewers can go from thousands to millions, meaning they’re not just accessible to teachers and students inside campus but to their friends and families, too. 

Because of that, live streaming provides an excellent opportunity for campuses to reach potential students. 

Similarly, campuses can use live streaming to disseminate important announcements that students and parents must know. For instance, in case of a natural disaster, health emergency, or other similar occurrences, teachers or administrative officers can launch a live broadcast informing people of the following steps to take during such incidents.

Builds Communities with Teachers and Students

As mentioned above, live chat is one of the best streaming features available today. It allows viewers to ask questions, address concerns, or leave honest feedback in real time. Campuses can encourage students and parents to speak out, helping them boost their trust and foster a sense of community. 

This sense of community goes beyond the campus walls, reaching parties like alums who want to keep in touch with their alma mater and former colleagues.

Best Practices for a Successful Broadcast

Live streaming significantly benefits campuses, as showcased in the list above. However, it is vital to know that there are many challenges the education sector must go through before gaining the many advantages of broadcasting live video content. 

With that, we have created a thorough list of how to ensure success for your live broadcast. The following are some of the best practices to consider.

Incorporate Interactive and Creative Features

As discussed above, creators can use many live-streaming tools to make their broadcasts more impressive and engaging. Using these tools will help elevate your stream from a simple live video to something that looks and feels professional.

Of course, to access these features, you must use a third-party live-streaming platform for your broadcast. In addition to live chat, you can add polls, share screens, use multi-camera views, incorporate live reactions, and include closed captions. These tools and more will help boost your broadcast and encourage viewer engagement.

Invest in Quality Equipment

It is vital to remember that audience attention online is always fleeting, meaning they’re easily distracted by any issues when consuming live content. Another way to ensure a quality broadcast is to use reliable equipment. From cameras to microphones to internet routers, dependable hardware is pivotal in providing streaming success, ultimately elevating viewer experience and engagement. 

The key is to test your gear before your stream. That way, you can address any potential hiccups on your broadcast day. When testing your equipment, always ensure clear audio, crisp visuals, and uninterrupted streaming. Fortunately, many live streaming platforms allow thorough testing to help creators create successful broadcasts.

Plan Content in Advance

Live streaming may seem straightforward, where creators point their cameras and shoot. However, to benefit immensely from this model, campuses must carefully plan their content to generate better flow and ensure excellent engagement during their broadcast. 

When planning your livestream content, various factors must be considered. These include carefully plotting your theme, considering your content’s overall look, and anticipating potential challenges. 

Aside from that, you must come up with ways to ensure that you encourage your viewers to engage with your content. These include holding a question and answer session after the program. That way, you create a more organized and successful broadcast on streaming day.

Set Frequent Reminders

It is worth noting that the target audience for live streaming on campus is primarily students handling a jam-packed schedule. Watching your stream might get lost between studying, meeting with colleagues, and doing chores out of campus. That is why you must constantly remind your target audience of your upcoming stream to ensure they do not miss your program. 

Ideally, you must promote your broadcast days before the event. There are many ways to approach this step. However, the best one is using social media. If your campus has a social media page, you can publish creative content to remind your ideal viewers. You can also use the bulletin board or make public announcements through the campus system.

Elevate Your Campus Communication With Live Streaming

Live streaming is an excellent outlet for schools and universities to nurture connections with students and parents, elevating trust and engagement. It also allows these institutions to stand out and attract potential enrollees.

The key to a successful stream is ensuring quality, planning early, and maximizing every helpful tool to guarantee an effective broadcast. Campuses must also always watch out for current trends to continue producing effective live content. 

OneStream Live is a cloud-based live streaming solution to create, schedule, and multistream professional-looking live streams across 45+ social media platforms and the web simultaneously. For content-related queries and feedback, write to us at [email protected]. You’re also welcome to Write for Us!

Picture of Ivan Serrano
Ivan Serrano
Ivan is a technology and business writer since 2015 working with companies like SmallBizClub, StartupNation, Namecheap and Time Doctor. He's obsessed with the constantly evolving fast-paced society and finding new ways to integrate that into amazing content that teaches the readers something new.

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