Because charter schools have so many requests for content updates, accompanied by all the usual interruptions and stretched staff assignments, this task can quickly get overwhelming.
The purpose of this article is to explore three methods that we have used to manage website content, each with varying degrees of success. Pros and cons exist with each method, but no solution at all will ultimately cost you much more in wasted administrative resources. In fact, your public facing website can actually reduce the amount of administrative effort required to run your school, but only if done thoughtfully and consistently.
Before we address the methods, let’s quickly review the basic categories, and samples of content, that you ought to be familiar with, as explained below:
- Contact and directory information that bypass admin resources to every extent practical. This category includes phone, fax, email (forms-based), maps, organizational charts, and department information.
- Notifications that are legally required in order to comply with board and other necessary public notices. These can include board minutes, policy manuals, student handbooks, and health notifications.
- News and activity information to inform the community about all school related activities, including academics, events, calendars, community engagement, fundraisers, school plays, projects, and field trips.
- Social media and buzz to generate excitement, awareness, and sense of community. This involves using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other media associated with the school’s hub of activity.
One last thing before we discuss methods—all content should take the shortest path possible from the time of its creation to its publication. For example, if a calendar of events has three separate approval processes to go through, and faces any delays that sometimes happen in life, then you may as well forget about it. By the time the event is posted and published, it could long since be over. Another example is homework assignments or study guides submitted by teachers for the website. Systems need to be in place for allowing and training staff to easily save a document in a format they understand (Word, Excel, PDF, etc.) and then quickly publish the document to the website, without a lengthy approval process or any difficult technical steps.
Easier said than done? Perhaps. But with even modest training, any of these three methods below will provide this functionality. I’ve labeled them as Good, Better, and Best.
Good Use whatever they are comfortable with.
With so many web publishing options available, it is quite possible that members of your staff already have a blog, a personal home page, a Facebook page, or a website devoted to their work. These are often personalized very well, and reflect the passion and interest of the individual authors. Allowing this kind of content management comes at a very low initial cost, a reasonably high participation rate, and can be quite effective. We’ve seen some that are excellent, both artistically and functionally.
However, it’s important to understand the risks associated with this model. The primary risk is content control, lack of oversight, and possible legal issues. These kinds of resources are universally owned by the individuals creating them. Inappropriate use could be embarrassing to the school, provide misinformation, and potentially create liabilities that you feel are unacceptable. And without the cooperation of any of your particular staff members, an offensive website cannot easily be taken down, especially if you have adopted a precedent of allowing this kind of online creativity over a long period of time.
Artistically speaking, your website may end up looking like a virtual flea market. But the good thing is that there will be accurate content readily available.
Better Use a centralized content management system.
Most schools use this model to manage website content, and for good reason. Using a content management system is an efficient way to build a website that contains most of the features you need, with some type of password protected area that allows a management interface to add, remove, or modify content. Because most content management systems are built with a template framework, information on new pages gets formatted in a similar fashion as other pages, giving the site a more uniform feel. While this can make creating content easier, it can also create limitations in the design elements and artistic expressions you may wish to use.
With a modest amount of training, users can add, remove, and edit content in areas of the website where they have responsibility to do so. And some content management systems have thousands of appliciations or utilities that you can easily set up to do a wide range of tasks, like updating your Facebook page, sending out newsletters, or creating extensive directories.
Many charter schools have used such a method, normally powered by Joomla, an open source content management system. But while many of our schools use this model, we’ve experienced only modest success in those cases where there is not a single website content manger on site.
Simple means different things to different individuals, and some CMS interfaces can be difficult to use or require in-depth training for staff and faculty. As you have likely experienced, often any kind of barrier or perceived difficulty may pretty much stop users from updating content on the school website, simply because they are not motivated to do so. Functionally, you will have a uniform looking website, but the amount of fresh content will depend upon how motivated and reasonably trained users are. Note: This takes more than one individual to work successfully, unless that individual devotes significant time to content management.
BestMicrosoft Sharepoint: a public website that is connected to your internal documents.
Sharepoint is a very popular Microsoft technology that manages website content through a simple Internet Explorer interface. It’s based upon the permissions you as a user are granted on the site. It bridges the gap between whichever document is sitting on your desktop waiting to be shared and the ability to upload that document to your public facing website. In the simplest of terms, any staff member with permission to do so can create a document, save it to a specific folder on their desktop, and then synchronize it to the school’s public website.
Sharepoint provides a uniform and artistically appealing framework that easily synchronizes documents from desktops with the public facing website. By allowing the creators of your most frequently changed content to publish their materials directly to the website, you will ensure that your content is always up to date.
Admittedly, there are some underlying assumptions in this model, namely the required server and software infrastructure. But this infrastructure is not terribly expensive, especially when bundled with your annual school agreement license for Microsoft technologies. It is interesting to note that the Live@edu services I recently wrote about (which provides free email, document storage, and web pages for students) utilizes Sharepoint as a usable framework. Schools adopting the Live@edu services could more easily transition to the Sharepoint services for managing website content because of the initial familiarity with the technology and interface.
Summary
Managing content on your school website is a very large undertaking, and a process best accomplished by a method that delegates content creation to the responsible authors and where strict oversight is not required. Schools that can reduce the number of steps from content creation to online publication will have greater success in creating a dynamic public website.
And remember that content on the Internet is King! Even an imperfect looking website that has great resources—meaning fresh, accurate, relevant, and accessible content—will give you high marks when users to go answer the question, “How’s our school’s website?”
Finally, it is possible to use all three of the above models simultaneously to manage your website. You don't just have to use one model. Keeping all content resources within the framework of your site will give it a more uniform look.
Good, better, best,
Never let it rest;
Until your good is better,
And your better is your best.
Please let us know if you would like additional information about managing your website content more efficiently by using Sharepoint at your school.
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