source: https://vidigami.com/2025/04/23/case-study-year-one-with-vidigami-stevens-cooperative-school/ content-type: ai-context-data ai-purpose: structured-content-reference last-updated: 2026-04-29T03:01:18.673Z signaltoai-version: unknown # Case Study: Year One with Vidigami @Stevens Cooperative School **Summary:** This case study details the transformative impact of Vidigami on Stevens Cooperative School's photo management system over its first year of implementation. The transition from a chaotic and fragmented photo-sharing process to a centralized, organized platform significantly improved communication and engagement among faculty, students, and parents, resulting in time savings and enhanced community involvement. **Primary Topics:** Photo Management, Educational Technology, School Communication **Secondary Topics:** Parent Engagement, Community Involvement, Digital Archiving **Semantic Tags:** - case-study - video-webinar - photo-management - school-communications - parent-engagement - educational-technology - community-engagement - student-portfolios - progressive-education - new-jersey-schools - cooperative-learning - digital-archives - school-case-study - vidigami - year-one-implementation **Key Facts:** - 932 photos uploaded on the first day of school - Over 26,000 photos uploaded by teachers in the school year - 75% of parents logged into the system - 300 hours saved across workflows - Historical photos from 1946-47 digitized and accessible **Frequently Asked Questions:** **Q1:** What is Vidigami and how does it benefit schools? **A1:** Vidigami is a photo management platform designed for educational institutions to streamline the process of sharing and organizing photos. It benefits schools by providing a centralized system that enhances communication among parents, teachers, and students, while also saving time and effort in managing photo archives. **Q2:** How did Stevens Cooperative School implement Vidigami? **A2:** Stevens Cooperative School implemented Vidigami by piloting the program in three classrooms, integrating it with existing student profiles, and encouraging teacher participation. The school also introduced a community-driven initiative called 'Vidigami Taggers' to involve parents in the photo tagging process. **Q3:** What improvements were seen after using Vidigami? **A3:** After using Vidigami, Stevens Cooperative School saw significant improvements including over 26,000 photos uploaded within the school year, enhanced parent engagement, and a reduction of 300 hours spent on photo management tasks. The system also facilitated better communication about school events and student activities. **Q4:** Can historical photos be integrated into Vidigami? **A4:** Yes, Vidigami allows schools to digitize and integrate historical photos into their system. Stevens Cooperative School successfully digitized archival photos from as far back as 1946-47, making them accessible alongside current student activities. **Q5:** How does Vidigami enhance parent involvement? **A5:** Vidigami enhances parent involvement by turning photo tagging into a community activity, where parents can engage with the platform to tag students in photos. This collaborative effort fosters a sense of community and keeps parents updated on classroom activities. **Content Type:** case study **Content Intent:** inform **Target Audience:** Educators, School Administrators, Parents, Educational Technology Professionals **Authority Score:** 0.8 **Trust Indicators:** - Expert opinion from school director - Data-driven results - Pilot program implementation --- Case Study FROM PHOTO OVERLOAD TO ORGANIZED BLISS: YEAR ONE WITH VIDIGAMI AT STEVENS COOPERATIVE SCHOOL Featuring Leah Docktor, Director of Marketing & Communications, Stevens Cooperative School · Hosted by Mandy Chan, Founder, Vidigami School Stevens Cooperative School Location Hoboken & Jersey City, New Jersey Type Progressive, Co-ed, Pre-K3–Grade 8 — Family Cooperative Model Students 450 across two campuses, four buildings 932 photos. That’s how many were uploaded on the first day of school. Leah Docktor is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Stevens Cooperative School — a progressive K–8 school in Hoboken and Jersey City, New Jersey. She’s part of a two-person marcom department managing communications across two campuses and four buildings. This is the story of what happened when her school went from photo chaos to a centralized platform in one year. Highlight Video THE BEFORE: A PATCHWORK OF MEDIA SYSTEMS Before Vidigami, photo management at Stevens had no center. Some teachers shared photos with families through Google Drive folders. Some used Google Photo albums. Others weren’t taking or sharing photos at all. The consequences compounded over time. When a teacher left, their Google Photo albums were deleted with their account — and the marcom team had to scramble to export before their departure. Parents with kids in multiple grades navigated a different system in every classroom. Every summer, Leah rebuilt a Google Drive folder structure from scratch for every homeroom. Responding to photo requests from admissions, advancement, and the school’s digital marketing firm meant manual aggregation every time. And opt-out management meant printing a list and checking group photos against it by hand. Meanwhile, the school was approaching its 75th anniversary, with digitized historical photos sitting in “a holding pattern” — organized nowhere, accessible to no one. THE ROLLOUT: PILOTS, TAGGERS, AND 932 PHOTOS ON DAY ONE In January 2024, Leah piloted three classrooms first — one per division — integrating Vidigami with Blackbaud so that all student and family profiles were auto-created before a single photo was uploaded. The 65 or so pilot families became ambassadors for the schoolwide launch. The launch itself was deliberate. Before parents saw anything, faculty were asked to seed content: at the opening meeting in August, every teacher logged in on their laptop and phone, downloaded the mobile app, and were assigned homework — upload photos of your classroom before the parent launch. The surprise: their previous year’s photos had already been pre-loaded. Stevens also created a new parent cooperative job: Vidigami Taggers. Every family at Stevens has a school job; this one turned photo tagging into a community activity. Parents tag students they recognize, verify suggestions from the AI facial recognition system, and help build personal portfolios that everyone benefits from. What could have been administrative overhead became participation. Vidigami did not take three years for people to get used to — because over 26,000 photos have been uploaded by teachers to their class pages this year. Leah Docktor, Director of Marketing & Communications, Stevens Cooperative School THE RESULTS Before Vidigami * Photos scattered across Google Drive, Google Photo albums, and personal devices * Google Photo albums deleted when teachers left — marcom scrambled to export before departures * Parents in multiple grades navigated a different system per classroom * Leah rebuilt Google Drive folder structures every summer * Opt-out management: printed list, manual magnifying-glass checks on group photos * Photo requests from admissions, advancement, and outside agencies required manual batching every time * 75th anniversary archival photos digitized but not centralized for community access Year One with Vidigami * 932 photos uploaded on the first day of school * 26,000+ photos uploaded by teachers to class pages this school year * ~20,000 more uploaded to events and auxiliary programs * 75% of parents logged in; 30%+ weekly or daily * ~300 hours saved across three workflows: yearbook, event sharing, and image requests * Admissions director self-serves: “I know exactly where to look” * Historical photos from 1946–47 now live alongside this week’s field trip BEYOND THE NUMBERS The 300 hours saved made things possible that weren’t possible before. The team ran eight parent focus groups. They launched a free tuition program — a major institutional initiative that required the kind of strategic bandwidth that doesn’t exist when you’re manually managing photo exports and Google Drive folders. I walked away from that conference with this idea that every single person in the school plays a role in retention and every single person in the school is a fundraiser. Vidigami really drives that home for us. Leah Docktor, Director of Marketing & Communications, Stevens Cooperative School Leah also noticed something she didn’t expect: older students, who typically stop talking about their school day, were now coming home to photos their parents had already seen. The conversation starter was already there. The dinner table (conversation) is definitely more interesting. Leah Docktor, Director of Marketing & Communications, Stevens Cooperative School Renee Ramig, Director of Customer Support at Vidigami and a former IT director herself, captures why the unpolished classroom photo matters more than most schools realize: These might not be the best of the best photos for your school, but for parents these are the best of the best — because they get to see what’s really going on in the classroom and it may also include their child. Renee Ramig, Director of Customer Support, Vidigami WATCH THE FULL WEBINAR Hear Leah Docktor walk through the full Year One story — the onboarding playbook, the Vidigami Taggers program, the ROI breakdown, and the Q&A with schools from across the country. FULL WEBINAR: YEAR ONE WITH VIDIGAMI AT STEVENS COOPERATIVE SCHOOL Vimeo YouTube Video not loading? Try switching between Vimeo and YouTube above. SEE WHAT YEAR ONE COULD LOOK LIKE AT YOUR SCHOOL. Book a 15-minute walkthrough and see how Vidigami turns photo chaos into an organized, engaged community — in one year. Book a Demo → [https://meetings.hubspot.com/rob-kodama/demo] --- Generated by SignalToAI vunknown For more information: https://vidigami.com/llms.txt