Elementary and high school publications help internal stakeholders (teachers, administration, students, etc.) connect with external stakeholders (parents, community, etc.). Whether disseminated through print magazines or digital newsletters, these school publications facilitate communication with all parties, ensuring they remain informed and involved in various school activities and events. However, generating engagement through content can be tricky, especially in this digital age.
There are several factors to keep in mind when creating engaging content, one of the most important being how readers can access their publications. About 53% of Americans prefer getting their news on their digital device compared to 5% who prefer print, a statistic that certainly extends to school publications as well.
To reach your readers on the platform of their choice, leverage digital textbook platforms like KITABOO that can help you create a compelling school publication. Let’s look at some best practices for creating engaging elementary and high school publications.
Table of Contents
I. Creating Engaging School Publications for Better Outcomes and Impact
Creating Engaging School Publications for Better Outcomes and Impact
Digitality in education has endowed an excellent opportunity for schools to generate external stakeholder engagement through publications. Leveraging the capacities of digital textbook platforms like KITABOO, schools can now create experiential, vivid, and highly expressive publications.
Below, you will find six proven techniques (tech and non-tech) to create engaging publications in elementary and high schools in printed and digital media.
1. Understanding the Purpose of the Publication
There are three key objectives that school publications aim to achieve:
- To present a showcase of student talents and achievements across various fields to the reader.
- To encourage students to express themselves by publishing their works across fields (like writing, art, papers, research, etc.)
- To provide the external stakeholders with information like events, news, and school achievements.
Therefore, the first step to creating engaging publications is ensuring they serve their purpose well. Remember: to capture a reader’s attention and keep them engaged, the publication must deliver the information it promises to the right audience.
2. Understand Your Target Audience
An engaging school publication results from the combined efforts of multiple creators who pitch their content. To ensure that the subject matter remains cohesive and fulfills its role in being present in a publication, you must synchronize the team’s capabilities with the target audience the publication addresses.
For example, administration and teachers best handle an engaging school prospectus to maximize the school’s chances of getting more admissions each year. On the other hand, a school magazine can be more engaging through a combined input between students, teachers, and alums.
3. Ideating, Planning and Scheduling
Naturally, generating engagement through school publications depends largely on the content contained within the publication. Students can explore their creativity and showcase their talents in the school magazine. However, with creativity comes chaos, especially in elementary and high school settings. Therefore, planning well and timely delivery are equally crucial.
It’s easy to lose track of the content created unless a well-planned schedule puts everything on a deadline and a map. Ideating with a common goal in mind creates cohesive content. Moreover, creating a content schedule mobilizes students involved in the publication and gets things done on time. The big picture helps check all the “requirements” boxes.
4. Content Creation and Design
Content creation and design today mostly happen over software or digital publishing platforms like KITABOO. These platforms enhance the publishing content using various tools like audio-visual media, animations, and interactive elements.
Digital publishing tools are pivotal in enhancing the “consumability” of the publication. Digital newsletters sent via email can be incorporated with animated page-turning experiences akin to reading a physical magazine.
Several similar experiences add up to create a thoroughly engaging reading experience for those who receive these digital publications.
5. Fact-Checking
Fact-checking is essential to any publication before it can move to the production phase. These publications are supposed to be sent to a wide range of people. With that kind of exposure, leaving the facts in the content unchecked could be risky and disengaging.
It reflects badly on the school to publish unverified information, especially in the publications where students contribute their work. It is normal for students to make mistakes, but it is essential to correct them before they make it to the final version of the publication.
6. Leveraging Technologies for Distribution
In the digital age of modern technology, it is more effective to leverage dedicated school apps, portals, or platforms to broadcast publications. One of the reasons this is more engaging is that all the stakeholders receive the communication simultaneously.
This creates a healthy discussion environment on the school platforms, boosting engagement. Moreover, using digital solutions like KITABOO, institutions can track reader engagement and learn what type of content and format is popular with their target audience.
On the other hand, print media takes its own time reaching the postal destination, and then there is no way for the school to know whether the recipient ever read the publication or what readers thought about it.
In a world where technology has so seamlessly integrated itself into daily operations, using it to distribute school publications invites higher levels of engagement from the readers.
KITABOO Can Make it Happen
When thinking about creating higher engagement using elementary and high school publications, it is necessary to discuss digital publishing technologies. Digital textbook platforms like KITABOO have toolsets and features like animations, interactivity, quizzes and trivia, audio-visual media, videos, gamification, etc. These elements make a school publication more fun to look at and read through.
KITABOO offers a full-scope digital publishing environment where teachers or content creators can create educational or entertainment publications with high engagement rates. Schools can develop publications compatible with any device and operating system that are responsive and glitch-free.
Contact our expert team now and get started!
To know how KITABOO can transform your school communications, write to us at KITABOO@hurix.com.
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