Why a CMS won't work for your Online Course Catalog

Through our extensive experience working with schools to help them convert their print catalog to a more online-friendly format, we've seen it all. The PDF links, the re-purposing of the university's CMS to try to support a course catalog, to using the school's SIS to generate an index of courses, forgoing the catalog part altogether.

Obviously some of these strategies work better than others, but none live up to what you can do with a course catalog when using a catalog management system. A catalog management system, like CatalogM, was designed for the unique needs of university courses catalogs, and ours was built specifically to give universities the flexibility to create their OWN menu structures instead of having to re-write and re-structure their course catalog to fit a specific hierarchy.

1. It was built to manage a website, not a 300 page document.
   It really is that simple. When you try to use literally ANYTHING for a purpose that it was NOT designed for, you're going to to have problems. Those problems take up a ton of time and resources that could be spent elsewhere. There's a fact: catalog management systems wouldn't exist if it were that easy to use a content management system to support a course catalog.
   
2. Just try to set up a logical menu without having to rewrite/restructure your catalog content.
   When you have a document of this size that you're trying to convert for the web, and with the nuances in terms of structure that are necessaary for a document like this, setting up a menu that works logically with the flow of a book is the hardest part when you're using a CMS. They just aren't configured to the flow of a document which can have 6-8 levels of hierarchy, or more, so you end up re-purposing the functionality to try to make it work. However, that's just a patch, and it requires a LOT of technical knowledge to do so, making it essentially impossible for the non-technical user.
   
3. Registrar v. Web Office technical skill level.
   Typically, the catalog is management by the Registrar's Office, and with no offense meant, they are not usually the most technical people when it comes to websites. That being said, it's probably not best to give them a tool to manage the catalog content that wasn't meant to do so. It will probably take up a lot more internal time and resources to get them up to speed than it would to invest in a system that was built for that purpose.
   
4. Global Updates.
   Sure, some CMS's do have a find and replace feature, but catalog management systems are database driven, so anytime you make a change to English 101, which is mentioned countless times throughout the catalog, each instance of that course will be automatically updated. Why force people to take the extra step to find and replace, which a lot of times causes more harm than good anyway, if you don't have to?
   
5. Imports/Exports.
   It's not exactly the easiest thing to export web content in a way that makes sense for print. However, with CatalogM, we're able to produce a fully functional print-based catalog, which exports completely formatted into a one or two column format, ellipses separating course names and the number of hours, heading styles and page numbers, to name a few. We can even control the font styles and everything, so when we say that you can manage both your online and print catalog from one central place, we mean it. And it's not going to take you extra time to produce the second one.

Find out more about our work with university course catalog management at http://catalogm.allofe.com or contact Katie at kbrosious@allofe.com.

The Journey to Becoming 21st Century Educators (Part 1 of 4)

{by Gail Tolbert}

This is my first of 4 blogs about many of my friends and connections who are educators, educators at different stages in their career, educators wanting to become 21st Century Educators. Since I, too, have been a teacher and a principal, they share their stories, their success and their trials with me. As a past educator, I can relate to these stories and have lived similar things. I cherish their journeys and new learning, and hold these educators in high regard. I appreciate and respect that every day they enter their classrooms to educate and teach our children and give 100% of themselves in the process. I want to share some of their stories, their thoughts and lessons and some solutions to their questions with you. Here is the first story about Christy:

Christy is a teacher in training; she is in college studying to be an elementary teacher. Christy grew up with the web, phone, games, Twitter, YouTube, texting and all the other technology. She attends a large, progressive University in the Midwest and is in the midst of her education internships in local schools. She is preparing for real-world teaching. Christy has had one class on educational technology in which she learned about NETS-T and NETS-S. She also learned about Smart Boards and their benefits to teachers and students.

Since Christy is so tech savvy, she has been thinking about how she can communicate with students, peers and parents over the web. She wants to express herself, her style, and her brand using all the tools with which she is comfortable. Anytime she needs information, she goes directly to the web; so she wants the web to be her primary source of disseminating communication and information. She wants to quickly add weekly notes, class newsletters, lunch menus, spelling words, homework assignments, grading rubrics and class schedules. She is concerned about how she will accomplish these tasks easily and in a short period of time. She is wondering if there is a place or tool that will help her and give her access to blogs, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Christy has not yet learned about the leading edge content management tools that will enable her to reach this technology goal.

Social Media sites get organized with SMASHUP

by Meagan Smith

Social networking has become increasingly important throughout the 21st century. Social media web pages, known as social sites, have been getting more and more attention universally for their ability to help users gain recognition for individual talents, build important relationships whether for their career or personal life, and help them gain valuable networking resources.

For universities, social media has quickly become the focus for marketing and recruiting purposes and can allow students following their university stream to keep up on recent events, news, and announcements happening around their university. Universities can use social sites like Facebook and YouTube as a free source for marketing themselves and increasing their brand recognition to potential students or employees. For instance, instead of having to go through the expensive process of purchasing and burning DVDs to get your school marketing campaigns out, you can simply upload your videos onto YouTube!

University twitter accounts allow students and employees to find people who are key influential members in their community and follow their tweets. If you or someone from your university is an active member in the community you can get your word out to students who are interested in what you have to say. A university blog can help university members find out what their students are thinking about recent happenings around campus which could be a crucial step in your decision making processes. These are just a few examples of the many types of social media sites that can be beneficial to universities. Needless to say, social media has become a vital tool that should be utilized by universities everywhere and ContentM makes it easy to do just that.

If you are a current user of multiple social media sites then you know first-hand how many separate links and web pages must be opened to view them all simultaneously. Not only does having that many browsers open slow down your system, but it can quickly become an end-users nightmare trying to figure out which web browser belongs to which social media site. AllofE’s ContentM system is built around web 2.0 functionality and makes it simple to store all of your social media needs on one convenient page using our RSS feed panels. ContentM has prebuilt social networking panels that allow you to simply paste your social site link or username in the allotted area, hit submit, and view your content in one clean, organized location. ContentM allows you to have your Facebook fan page, Twitter feed, Blogger feed, Flickr pictures, and much more all neatly organized on one convenient page which allows viewers to spend less time searching for your social sites and more time actually viewing them!

Having a social media initiative isn’t good enough unless it’s organized and easy to get to. Being a beginner with social media sites myself, I know how frustrating it can be when you want people to check out your social pages but can’t find the right link to it or having your web pages be so disorganized that you don’t know which browser houses which social site. Since I’ve started using ContentM for our social media needs I have just one link to share with everyone and they get our most recent blog postings and twitter feeds. It’s just that simple! Check out a couple of our example pages listed below if you’re interested in what ContentM can do for you.

Click Here to See Example Site #1

Click Here to See Example Site #2

My First Experiences Designing Websites with ContentM

The first time I was exposed to working on K-12 teacher websites was about two years ago when working on my mom’s school website. I remember spending hours Googling how to write HTML code and then copying and pasting that code in random boxes, just hoping that it was doing what we wanted, as there was no real way to preview the web page without completely submitting it for the live website. When my mom and I were finally done struggling through the HTML, we hit submit, and to our disappointment the screen in front of us showed a page full of vibrant, tacky colors and error codes. Needless to say, this interface did not make me (or my mom) want to update her site anytime soon which goes against the whole point of having a school website – to keep teachers, students, and parents up-to-date on the recent happenings around your classroom, school, or district.

When I started working at AllofE, I immediately started working on example teacher and administrator websites using our ContentM system. ContentM is, hands down, easier to use than the system my mom and I were struggling with two years ago. Since I’ve started using ContentM, I have found a number of ways to customize websites in very little time. The ContentM interface lets you customize your website virtually any way you want. Although ContentM provides numbers of preset options for headers and body backgrounds, there are a few shortcuts I use to get around using some of those preset designs in order to completely customize my example sites. One shortcut I find myself always using is to hide the actual header of a panel and create my own by typing with bigger, different colored font in the same panel I use to write my main content. It’s a simple way to get a completely customized website look in just a few seconds.

All-in-all, AllofE’s ContentM offers a whole new paradigm in Content Management Systems. It's impossible to even try to compare it to the copy-and-paste HTML coding experience I had with my mom when designing her site. With drag 'n drop panel-based functionality and intuitive design features, along with its ease of use and integration with social media, ContentM not only cuts down on the time it takes to create, update, and maintain your website, but it will provide you with so much flexibility that you’ll want to change and re-design your site more than you need to—because it’s fun. ContentM changed my whole perspective on designing website pages, and it can change yours too. If we are finally getting to the place where every teacher needs to have a classroom site, it is important that they have fun doing it. With ContentM, website design takes very little time and finally, allows teachers to do powerful things on their school websites.

ContentM for Educators and Recent Webinars

We recently launched our newest product for educators, ContentM for Educators, that will allow elite educators with a deep passion for technology to create and manage their own high-end websites. The websites for elite educators will feature seamless social media integration and help educators establish their virtual brand, all while better serving students, parents and the community. To kick off the launch of ContentM for Educators, we've created a series of three Webinars, the first of which was facilitated by myself, and hosted by Eric Sheninger and Patrick Larkin, elite administrators in their own right.

Click here to view the Webinar with Eric and Patrick

The following Webinar discusses ContentM for Educators featured functionality that would be most appealing to administrators and developing a brand. It also addresses some questions that have come up since our first Webinar.

Click here to view the Webinar for Administrators and Addressing Questions

The most recent Webinar is geared toward teachers and how teachers can take advantage of ContentM for Webinars to create websites to better serve their classrooms.

Click here to view the Webinar for Teachers

This is an extremely exciting time for us with so many people showing such interest in building an elite educator website. Please register at http://educators.allofe.com to receive the latest information about ContentM for Educators and for notification of new Webinar releases and for invitations to begin building your site.

"Death is Only the Beginning"

I’ve found that life is always more interesting when you can relate it to either KU basketball or a good movie. And since my last blog was in relation to March Madness, and I am feeling completely disgraced to be a Jayhawk right now, I will relate my point to one of my all-time favorite films, the 1999 remake of The Mummy, starring Brendon Fraser.

The part of this film that I’d like to focus on is when Evelyn awakens the mummified high priest, Imhotep, by reading the words “death is only the beginning” from the book of the dead. After saying this single phrase, the mummy awakens and is more powerful than anyone else in the world, even though he once was dead. So, let’s recap: someone that was seen as dead, awoken and proved that he was far from dead, but actually incredibly capable of literally anything, even things that nobody else in the world could do.

This particular moment in the movie came to mind when I came across an article today that was entitled, “Is This the Year the Propriety CMS dies?” If you are someone who believes this, or is even asking this same question, then clearly you haven’t been using the right propriety systems. If anything, this article should read, “Propriety CMS Mummified, but Resurrected and Back with a Vengeance.”

It is true that open source systems have found a special place in the hearts of several web developers throughout the nation, but that isn’t to say that propriety systems are dead. In a tough economy, choosing the open source route may seem like the more attractive route to take, but there can be a lot of hidden costs and extras that don’t appear right off the get-go. Also, something people tend to consistently forget is that an open source system and a propriety system are NOT the same thing.

The article uses the phrase, “selling your milk when the cow is free” to describe propriety systems against open source, but that couldn’t be more wrong. To make that phrase apply correctly it would have to say, “Selling your Häagen-Dazs Triple Cherry Chocolate Chunk when the cow is free.” Meaning that, yes, you could probably find a way to turn your cow’s milk into that fabulous ice-cream flavor if you were a total expert in that field, but even still, probably not get the exact results you’re looking for. A propriety CMS, if it’s the right CMS, isn’t just milk, it’s a one of a kind frozen dessert that can never be duplicated.

People working for propriety companies are complete experts at what they do. They can customize a CMS to exactly fit the bill for what a school is looking for. They can do all of the behind the scenes technical work, so that the design and all of the fun stuff is left to the university employees (even those with NO technical experience). Ross Morrone, a developer for Youngstown State University and user of ContentM by AllofE said, “I am in love, not only with the CMS but the idea that I can now get back to what is fun about design, I have fallen back into care free mode when it comes to coding because I don't have to do it. I have more control over the look and creating a great user experience rooted with rich media.” How man users of open source systems can say the same?

If you think the propriety CMS has died, remember that death doesn’t always mean the end. If there’s anything we can learn from society’s current obsession with vampires and mummy’s, it’s that some things may surprise you and come back more powerful than anything else out there.

March Madness

It is officially March 1st, which may not mean much to most of the world’s population, other than the select few individuals who are convinced that March 1st is the first day of spring, simply because their first grade calendar was covered in grass, flowers, and rainbows. But those who are employees at colleges and universities across the nation know that once March approaches, the fun begins.

Nationwide, several college application deadlines begin in March and go through May. So for the next three months high school seniors will be pouring themselves into the Web-o-sphere, searching through a multitude of collegiate Web sites to find a school that just might be the perfect fit. Some students have one school in mind and one school alone. An individual that is a fifth generation Jayhawk and grew up watching Kansas basketball before they were even old enough to know what basketball was, probably won’t have to do much searching. But a student living in the Midwest that can’t wait to get away from the drastic seasonal changes, the flat terrain, and above all, her parents, may just type in “Colleges in California” and pick one purely based on the Web site, without having any previous knowledge of the institution.

Imagine you are this student. Someone that doesn’t know your debate team won the national tournament last year, or has no idea that your school’s biology research program is the best in the country; just an everyday, average, American teenager looking for a new place to call home for the next four years. Would your Web site appeal to this person? Would someone with no prior knowledge of what your institution has to offer, be intrigued enough to sift through the countless number of pages and resources? If at this point you are shaking your head and biting your fingernails, that probably isn’t a good sign.

The good news is, if your application rates significantly decrease, you know why, and it isn’t a hard problem to fix. Even doing something as small as looking into a new content management system can help turn things around, and if it’s the right CMS, the process should be not only painless, but fun. If your site is one of those that doesn’t even take up the full screen, but sits partially in the middle with a sea of blank color surrounding it, it’s probably time to start the redesign process. If your site is one that is overloaded with bland content and a few pointless pictures, then it is DEFINITELY time to start the redesign process. Why? Because other schools out there have caught on to this trend. Students have begun choosing schools whose Web sites are loaded with gadgets and revolutionary technology.

Biola University in La Miranda, California did not miss a beat when it came to Web site innovation. Their site is packed with virtual tours, blogs, videos, social networking, and even video chat with admissions counselors via AIM or Skype. At first glance, this appears to be a trendy, hip, educational facility that anyone in their right mind would be interested in attending.

But if all else is fails, and redesigning the Web site or implementing a top notch CMS is entirely out of the question, you could always try to make the Sweet 16 in this year’s NCAA tournament. According to Jaren Pope, a professor at Virginia Tech University, making the Sweet 16 cut can increase the number of students who apply by 3 percent, and winning the tournament can generate a 7 to 8 percent increase in applications. So with that being said, let the madness of March begin.

Why a Great CMS Helps Build Your School District's Brand

by Katie Brosious

In response to both Eric Sheninger's post about the importance of branding in education, and Trish Rubin's blog, EdVentures in a New York Minute, about branding in education, I started to think about how, with a CMS, schools can use their district Web site to establish a brand.

The Importance of a Brand in Education

Although I will leave this part mostly to the experts (Thanks Eric and Trish!), I will say a few words about the importance of a brand in education. Education is a service. Education is just like any other service in that it must exude value in the business that it is in, in order to attract new students. In education, school districts must show academic value. Bad or good; clear or not, everything--person, place, or thing--has some sort of brand attached to it. It's what others think and feel about what you have to offer.

Why doesn't education take advantage of this? Especially K-12 school districts! Universities have come a long way, and seem to be working on establishing their own individual brand. However, many school districts do not put their best foot forward...To network, to evolve, to improve, and to show the world what they are accomplishing.

But how would they spread their message? It's not like school districts have the advertising budgets of McDonald's or Coca Cola. They have the label of 'school,' which implies education, but it's extremely obvious that no two schools are the same. Its important for schools to build their brand because school districts, more than any other educational institution, need to stay updated and in the know. Today's K-12 students are tomorrow's leaders. It is essential for schools to have a cohesive mission, a set of values, and a sense of pride within the district, which can be done by establishing a brand.

Branding on the Web

More and more, school districts are using social networking sites like Twitter to extend and enhance their brand. Some Twitter accounts are for the whole district, some just for a school, and some are from teachers, staff or administrators from the district. Each Twitter account is another point of contact for that district. It improves community outreach, makes the district more personable and personal, and helps to spread the district message. Social media sites like Twitter are great. And they're an extension of the district brand. But they just aren't enough. Even if a district has a great media presence, consistency throughout the district all-inclusive WEB presence is key.

Aside from social media, the school district Web site is often the most important point of contact for the school district. If community members want to know what time the football game is on Friday, the district site is the first source of information. The district Web site is like the Encyclopedia for that district. Students, parents and community members expect to have all of their questions answered simply by clicking over to the district Web site. It must support a cohesive brand and mission along with all other point of contacts for that district on the web.

Using ContentM K-12 to Brand your District

The best and easiest way to build a school district Web site is with a CMS like ContentM K-12. Not only will you be able to design and implement your school district Web site with ease, you (or anyone else) will be able to maintain it with a few clicks. You will be able to update your Web site in seconds when you need to (i.e., for snow day cancellations or delays). You can spread the word about your district's overall academic accomplishments. You can show your students' accomplishments. The best Web sites are dynamic and fluid; they are always changing as new things happen. School district Web sites should be no different.

Aside from being able to update and maintain the district site easily, you can use a CMS like ContentM K-12 at any level of your district, including individual school sites, individual classroom/teacher sites, Web sites for the PTA or Athletics, etc., extending your brand through all sectors of your district by keeping the theme and message fluid throughout each site. There's an eSchool News article about a school district that got it right. Recognizing the need "to leverage our entire digital environment, to bring in tools for all our teachers, principals, and staff to communicate with all our stakeholders, and to provide a way for our stakeholders to engage in communications with us," this California school district implemented a CMS to improve its communications with parents and the community.

After establishing a branding network for your district, you can use all those Web 2.0 goodies that will make your district look great and that students will love to view and create, building their exposure to technology as well as your own.

YouTube, Twitter, and Blogs, Oh My!

These tools are really underutilized and overflowing with potential. Our CMS offers these tools as part of our panel-based technology, so you can easily upload your Twitter feed or a YouTube video you posted. Kids love the Web 2.0 stuff because it's a break from the norm, and so do teachers and administrators, like the ones that I meet every day on Twitter. Instead of having students write a paper, why not create a blog discussion about it? Teamwork is a key skill, and blogs and comments promote it in a fun way. With a CMS, teachers can easily post the blog on their Web site and have their students contribute.

As another example of using Web 2.0 in the classroom, take a video camera on a field trip and interview the kids about their opinions on where they are. If you take them to a museum, what was their favorite part? And why? Better yet, let the kids ask the questions! Putting these videos up on your classroom site is a great way to get students involved in using technology and reaping the benefits, and parents will love it so they can see what their kids do all day.

All of these ideas will show your audience (students, parents and community) that you and your school district have a dedication and commitment to using technology. Even if you only posted these on your own classroom site, a classroom site is simply an extension of the district brand.

Why Build a Brand?

When my family moved from New York to Texas, my mom had to figure out where to send my brother, sister and I to school. However, just by looking at a few Web sites she easily chose a school district for us to attend, because she couldn't get a feel for what some district Web sites were trying to say, couldn't sift through the clutter, or just really couldn't get a feel for the school's goals or values. How else would you choose a school district from 1,000 miles away other than calling the school? I wouldn't want to be the school district to get overlooked based on a poorly designed Web site with no purpose. District Web sites mean more than some may think.

A brand sets you a part. It differentiates your school district from the next. It's an experience. Why not be the best? Your school district works hard to fulfill its potential. Don't fall short because your Web site doesn't perform, become a "Brand-Ed" school district.

Higher Ed the Best/Toughest Job in all the Web

Within the last week or so a lot has been posted on the topic of whether higher education is the best or the toughest job in all the web. Both arguments have valid points and in reality best and toughest do not contradict each other straight on. Perhaps what makes the job the toughest also makes the job the best and vice versa.

If you have missed out on these discussions check out Mark Greenfield’s and Nikki Kauffman’s blogs covering the reasons it is the toughest gig. Then travel to Michael Fienen’s and Mike Richwalsky’s blogs for their point of view on why higher ed is the best gig in the web.

Each article has several valid points and all of those who commented had compelling thoughts as well. I took notes on everything I read, grouped similar comments, and continued to dwindle down until I had a manageable list of both the pros and cons of working in higher ed web. What I found was that those lists had many similarities.

I know this list is narrowed down considerably, but I hope by some stretch you can see where your points fall.

Collaboration and Consensus Decision Making
Sounds like something that could very easily slow down any decision making process. Then once you get the ball rolling, it can be hard to stop if it’s going in a wrong direction. Shifting direction in a team that uses the argument “this is how it’s always been” is not easy. The web is not “how it’s always been” and that mind set can be difficult to change in people who don’t understand evolving web technologies.

However in higher education the fact is, collaboration is necessary. What good can come from this? As Mike pointed out, you get the chance to be exposed to things you wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to. This can lead to successful new ideas.

Cool Factor
To impress students, universities try to stay on the cutting edge of all technologies out there and use every web 2.0 feature known to man (today). It’s up for debate if all that is really necessary. Could it cause a headache? Yes. Is it fun to experiment with new technology? Some would say so.

Heaps of Content
Everyone across campus in every school, department, organization, or club has content to be added to the Web site. Maybe some of those areas think their site needs a different feel from the rest. Could this too cause a massive headache? Most definitely. Does it have to? No, the number one reason people visit a Web site is to find information; the more content available, the more useful the site.

Student Help
So, initially this would seem like a good thing, cheap labor, someone to do the grunt work, and someone to keep you in touch with what is going on. However, Nikki brings up a good point that students working only a semester or two can fail to see the future value of a project.

Compensation
It’s not as good as the private sector. Here’s the tricky part to put into hard figures. Everyone places different level of value on access to the gym, tuition discounts, leadership opportunities, conferences, guest speakers, relative job security, and vacation time. For you it may be far worse than the private sector others find that the benefits outweigh the lack of monetary compensation.

One item I failed to find a pro for was the issue of satisfying multiple audiences. Not only does a university’s Web site have to satisfy prospective students, current students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, state and federal legislators, research-granting organizations, corporate recruiters, and the community’s content needs, but many of these groups may feel they have some ownership of the brand and how the Web site depicts it. This indeed complicates things, making the gig tough, but who doesn’t like a challenge?

With all that in mind, I would like to rack your brain for ways to overcome these challenges that make higher ed the toughest job in all the web? As well as, what could be done to take advantage of the things that make this job one of the best in all the web?

Choosing the "Best" CMS

David Aponovich is a web CMS strategy consultant at ISITE Design in Cambridge, MA, and co-authors The CMS Myth blog, and he wrote a really great post on choosing the right CMS in 2010. I think it has some great insight, so I felt compelled to share it.

You say 2010 is the year to find a new web content management solution? No pressure there. It’s only the success of your online marketing and corporate web presence that hangs in the balance. But before you go mad in feature spreadsheets, spend weeks pecking through vendor websites or go cross-eyed from too many demos, take a more reasoned approach. Clear you mind and consider these ideas before choosing a web CMS in 2010.

Think about strategy first, technology second. Web CMS has a notoriously high rate of failure. But it’s usually not the software’s fault. It’s usually due to poor planning, poor implementation and a lack of vision for how to harness a CMS to achieve web goals. Before you search for a tool, first define the problem, why it needs solving and how best to solve it. Don’t just throw software at your website. Web CMS is not a silver bullet.

Bury the CMS feature matrix. Hundreds of rows of feature check boxes? Does it really help now that most (mainstream) CMSs offer near-identical core capabilities? Sure, vendors are scrambling to add tools marketing, social media, personalization, measurement and more-–it’s changing daily. But, with today’s flexible platforms you’re just as likely to get certain functions outside the CMS. Instead, conduct initial vendor sorting by focusing your criteria on a few high level differentiators that matter most based on your real world needs.

Don’t expect to find “the best” CMS. With commercial, open source, and on-demand web CMS solutions numbering in the hundreds, there’s no single “best” answer. But is there a good-better-best ranking aligned to your requirements and priorities? Probably. Choosing a CMS usually involves heavy requirements gathering, priority shuffling and feature trade-offs. Aim your search at finding a shortlist of two to three choices. Then ask: What will life be like with each of these systems based on what I prioritize?

Measure against key fit factors. Another way to make a CMS search more manageable and to achieve success is to take a holistic look at how CMS fits into your organization and align technology to key business processes and marketing strategies. On our blog the CMS Myth, we term this the six CMS fit factors; they cover the technical, cultural, process, feature, marketing and vendor “fits." Read more about the benefits of this approach here.

Tap the community for validation. Social media has made transparency a wonderful thing when researching a purchase--whether a new car or a new CMS. Are customers happy or not? Can you call a real user you found online? Is there evidence of a robust developer or user network? Check social networks, Twitter, blogs, developer and marketer forums and elsewhere to conduct primary research on prospective CMS choices, and to validate your shortlist and eventual selection.

When in doubt, ask the experts. There are a lot of people who’ve been there, done that, and answered CMS questions for all sorts of organizations. Find a web CMS expert, a qualified independent consultant, integrator, interactive agency with CMS specialty or someone else who’s been down this path before, and who can take an agnostic view toward your situation.

CMS: It has some serious issues

What is the number one recruiting tool for colleges in the country? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not guest speakers, cold callers, word of mouth, pamphlets, flyers, school counselors, posters, or handouts of any kind. Give up? A study done by E-Expectations in association with The National Research Center for College and University Admissions concluded that prospective student’s turn to the school’s Web site as their main source of college information.

There’s just one small problem – many schools are lacking the technology to create the Web sites they desire. This may seem like no big deal, but let’s look at it from the bigger picture. What if one school had a phenomenal top of the line Web site with the works: videos, podcasts, slideshows, RSS feeds, photos, intricate design, blogs, and live chat. What if that school was your biggest competitor and your site had some bland text with a couple of pictures and a messy lay out that was impossible to navigate through? Do you see the picture?

Luckily, content management systems (CMS) exist. CMS, if it’s a good CMS, allows non technical users to create advanced, consistent, attractive Web sites in no time at all. However, like everything else in the world today, there’s a catch. Most content management systems on the market are hard to understand, require days or sometimes weeks of training, and can barely get you through the basics let alone add in all of the bells and whistles. The point of a CMS is to make creating Web sites easier and to enable the majority of the staff to work on the site, not just IT people. But if learning the system requires days of training, then doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Odds are that people will become frustrated or just blow off the training entirely, therefore, never learning how to operate the technology.

If you walked into a room full of collegiate web masters and asked how many of them crave an easy to use, top of the line CMS I can pretty much guarantee that almost all of them would raise their hand. Right now there is a major market for a quality content management system that is focused on the unique needs of the higher education sector. Granted a commercial company may put you in a better position than a homegrown outdated system, but most commercial companies are currently stuck. With so many clients it’s impossible to concentrate on upgrading your product.

Too many clients can also lead to a vendor-buyer relationship, one in which you never hear from the vendor again after the product is sold, leaving you alone and confused. Problems can also arise with using open source systems. It may sound cost effective and FREE, but in reality the bill can really start to rack up by the time you find the staff and training to make it work.

Unfortunately there are schools out there that for one reason or another end up with a mediocre everyday CMS company, and these schools are what I would call “Yankee fans.” It seems like mostly everyone is a Yankees “fan” because every eight years or so they’ll win a World Series, and following them is usually a pretty safe bet. It doesn’t matter that the Phillies might be AMAZING that year, you’re just choosing to play it safe and stick with what everyone else is doing.

Playing it safe isn’t always the best option, especially when looking at CMS, because playing it safe usually leads to a boring, average, outdated Web site, which in turns leads to a poor image for your university and low enrollment totals. It is an exciting time for content management systems because the paradigm is shifting and allowing non technical end users to do amazing work with collegiate Web sites. Start looking at what else is out there, take chances, do some demo’s and find a fit that truly works for you and your university.

How-to in 90 Seconds or Less: Look and Feel Tab

Here’s a quick tutorial containing Teacher Page Tips about using the Look and Feel tab of the latest version of our panel-based content management technology. In other words, it’s a video about how to customize and personalize the panels on your classroom site in just a few minutes. How much easier does it get?

Research: CMS Enhances Recruitment for Universities

This blog is a summary of a Noel-Levitz White Paper.

Content Management Systems make it easy for anyone to update a university Web site, keeping the information as current and as relevant as possible. Lately, it seems that college Web sites have become the key aspect for recruitment, so it is now a necessity to put the most relevant information in the spotlight as easily and as quickly as possible.

The cooler the Web site, the more likely it is that students will become interested in your university. So college sites must become interactive and include more Web 2.0 aspects than ever. Videos, flash-based design, and other like media can organize information in a cool way that will grab students’ attention.

However, the content of the site is still the most important thing. Noel-Levitz found that 80 percent of college-bound students said that content is more important than design, and 57 percent said that they wouldn’t consider going to a school whose Web site seemed dated or incorrect. So it’s essential to implement an easy way to update and make changes to the content of your university Web site.

The relevance of information is especially important when it comes to admissions and financial aid information. Your university site must answer all of your potential students’ questions while promoting your university’s brand, while encouraging the students to come back for more.

The problem with not having a CMS is that, usually, only one or a few people are qualified to update the university site. CMS makes it possible for even non-technical users to update content without any training. Now a large group of people will be able to constantly update the Web site content with ease.

The main goal of CMS is to increase the amount of communication between the university and its stakeholders. CMS makes it easier to get the most relevant information to its end users, and current information is the most valuable when it comes to recruitment, as potential students need the most up-to-date information of all of your Web site viewers.

Click here to see the full Noel-Levitz White Paper.

SchoolEffects: The Inspirational Version

We've recently produced a few videos to give you guys a little taste of SchoolEffects, our Content Management System geared toward K-12 School Districts (see previous post).

Here are some fun, inspiration videos to give you a break in your day. We hope you like them!

Don't forget to subscribe to our page on YouTube! We're always updating and adding new videos!

CMS Tools Help Build Web-Savvy Presence for Teachers

The Internet is the main vehicle of communication in today's society. Students spend enormous amounts of time on the web every day, and there is a real opportunity for education to use this to their advantage.

The current generation of students is naturally web-savvy and will not be satisfied with Web sites of mediocre quality and substand. Therein lays the challenge. Most web content management systems (CMS) and web tools available to teachers just don't have the ease of use or comprehensive functionality to allow non-technical educators to quickly create and manage effective Web sites with rich content with minimal time or effort. Some of the challenges are as follows:

• Every teacher needs to be able to work on their own Web sites, thus creating a need for a much more diverse set of users in terms of technical competency, interests and backgrounds.
• The functionality requirements to make a classroom site useful are much greater than the needs at the district or school level. Classroom sites need a greater feature set for educational content. This includes more Web 2.0 tools as well as complex multi-media functionality.
• Teachers need a lot of flexibility but at the same time it is important that there is consistency with the district's site--that the district's brand and image are maintained.
• Teachers have limited time. Therfore, it is even more important that the site management tools are intuitive and fun. otherwise, sites can quickly become outdated and stale, thus defeating its very purpose of keeping the primary audience, such as parents and students, engaged.
• Teachers need a starting point from which, in a matter of minutes, they can have a basic site that is attractive and useful. Without that, most teachers will not even get started, creating a situation within a district where only a smalle group of classrooms actually have and web content.

AllofE's SchoolEffects is a culmination of a decade of Research and Development. SchoolEffects is a vast and extensible platform with a very broad set of functionalist. Innovations, such as the panel-based edit-in-place function, focus on implementing Web 2.0 technology that empowers teachers to maintain engaging sights that become an extension of their classrooms. Here, teachers can post assignment and lesson plans, share videos, pocasts or albums, maintain blogs and create a variety of rich content such as slideshows and tabbed panels, or reconfigure layouts of pages intuitively and quickly.

To see the level of flexibility a CMS like SchoolEffects offers, click on the links below to see how teachers are taking advantage of this opportunity:

• Example Site 1
• Example Site 2
• Example Site 3
• Example Site 4

Or check it out at www.schooleffects.com