How should educational organizations approach their website strategy?

SCHOOLS are in the communication business. One thing, perhaps the only thing, a school needs to do well is communicate. Because without good communication, not much gets taught.

A huge part of a school's communication is external and, more than ever before, schools have to have open and clear channels of communication for information coming in to the organisation and going out from it. Trying to do this in the 21st century without a website is like the sports day sack race – unneccessarily difficult.

Many schools have got websites, although a surprising number are still lagging behind. Those that are still standing on the hard shoulder of the information superhighway with their thumbs aloft, cite reasons like “lack of budget”, “not enough resources” and “no time to devote to it”. As the technology progresses, each of those objections crumbles, with websites getting easier and quicker to maintain and becoming more affordable than ever.

That same march of technology is also catching out the “early adopters”. Schools that have had websites for a while are now looking at them and thinking: “That looks a bit dull and clunky. We need something more cool and funky.” They might not make it rhyme as well.

So the result of all this is a large number of schools, academies and colleges looking for help with websites. When schools website expert John Roach, managing director of e4education, was asked to provide some guidance for schools as they consider the options, here's what he came up with:

Advice for schools looking for website development, by John Roach

Well the first thing you must do is involve the key decision-makers. A website will be responsible for many people's first impression of your organisation. A good website will only enhance a school's reputation, a bad one – one that doesn't work – can only do harm. Once the right people are involved in the process, you need to look at the choices.

The first decision that needs to be made is who will build the website. When making this decision it's important to think about both the short-term design and build of the website, and the longer-term development and maintenance of the site. When tackling the early stages of the website you need to ask yourself these three questions:

1. How quickly do I need the website?

2. How important is the quality of the website (in both design and features)?

3. How much will it cost?

So, what are the options for building a website and what are the pros and cons?

Option 1 - In-house resource (student, teacher or other member of staff)

Building the website in-house is appealing to senior management as it appears to keep costs down. It is also perceived that you retain ownership and are less reliant on third party suppliers. This may be the case but what happens if the individual leaves the school and you are potentially left with a website that you are unable to maintain?

You should also consider whether the person understands industry standards related to accessibility (how the website can be accessed by visitors with various levels of disabilities), usability (how easy the website is to navigate) and information architecture (how the website is structured and organised). All of these are critical to having a successful website and are often ignored by smaller companies and enthusiasts.

If you choose to design and build the website yourself, the first thing to consider is do those involved have the skill and time? If you are fortunate enough to have a willing enthusiast within the school then they will need to be released from other duties to create the website, possibly requiring someone else to step in to their role.

The next thing to examine is how they will go about creating the website and what software will they use. Building websites using flat HTML requires technical knowledge and may not allow multiple people to get involved in the updating the site and limit the potential growth of the website. There may also be costs associated with purchasing the software that's required to design and build the website.

What a school really needs is a content management system (CMS). This is an application accessed via the internet, that allows individuals to maintain a website without any specialist knowledge or technical abilities. Multiple people can be granted access to the CMS so that it's not limited to one person.

There are a number of free open-source CMS' such as Moodle, Joomla, WordPress and SilverStripe which are totally free of charge and available for download. However there are hidden costs that are often overlooked. You will almost certainly require some technical knowledge to set them up and you'll require access to a remote web server that will host and run the software.

Or you could choose to licence a commercial CMS from companies such as Light CMS or Expression Engine. These products are often used by small companies and individual web designers who don’t have the capacity to develop their own products. Although these products are not specifically designed for schools they are perfectly adequate and also have the advantage of not requiring additional hosting fees, and the companies supplying the CMS will manage the day-to-day task of keeping your website online.

However these solutions have their downsides. Open-source software is free and widely used and can be the target of malicious users who look for security issues that can be exploited. The software is typically updated regularly to fix these issues, so you have to keep installing the updated software to ensure you're fully protected. There have been instances in the press recently of popular VLE software being hacked into and unwanted material being uploaded, all because the software wasn't kept up to date. The updating process can be time-consuming and requires staff with technical knowledge.

Using third-party software can also be limiting to your long-term goals as you have no control over what features are added to the software. Over time your goals can change as new technologies become available and it can often take many months for third-party software to implement new technologies, and when they do become available you'll have to perform a software upgrade to take advantage of the new features. If the CMS you've decided to go with doesn't implement the features you require then you may need to change to a different CMS which is costly and time consuming.

We have many clients that come to us with unique ideas or specific issue that they would like to overcome using the website. We're able to work with our clients and use our specialist knowledge to implement new features, and achieve the goals that they have set. However when working with third-party software it's not possible to implement changes or solve issues without someone within the school having the advanced programming skills required to work with the internals of the CMS that you're using. There are also issues relating to backups and management of the servers used to host your website; are the servers backed up regularly? What happens if there's a problem with the server? How often is the server down for maintenance? Does the sever run 2,000 websites as well as yours?

All of these things need to be carefully considered before embarking on the self-build route.

Option 2 - Outsourcing to a professional website design company

If you decide to outsource your website to a professional design company then you need to ensure that you get the best possible value for money. There are thousands of web design companies across the country and indeed quite a few that specialise within the education market. They differ in quality and price. A small primary or infant school can buy a website for as little as £199 whereas larger education establishments can pay thousands of pounds for a more sophisticated solution.

It is important to identify the short- and long-term benefits and savings and then set a realistic budget. With so many options and choices it has become increasingly difficult for schools to select a provider which is right for them. With this in mind you should take time to research the market and do your homework on the companies. The best way to do this is simply visit their portfolio of websites and contact a selection of their customers. This should enable you to draw up a short-list of companies that you can send a brief to or arrange to meet.

It is also advisable to find out more about the companies, especially in the current economic climate; how long have they been in business? How many staff are employed? What are their qualifications? How many clients do they have? What future plans do they have that will benefit the school working with them? You could visit the organisations' premises to get a real feel for how they work. This way you can meet the team and be totally re-assured.

It's also important to see how the website will be updated. Will the company provide you with a CMS or software that runs on your own local computers? Will they provide hosting for the website? Do they develop their own CMS, or do they use third party software (effectively outsourcing the most important part of your website)?

Can they add new features and technologies to the CMS as both the industry and your ideas change? Can they work with you and build a relationship that will allow your website to successful? Do they offer training and support?

Once you have selected who will build the website, there are a still a number of fundamental decisions that should be made and some roles, responsibilities and timelines that need to be identified:

 Who will be the key decision-makers for the school and will they be available to discuss the key aims and objectives of the website?

 Who is the website for (the key audience, the main types of visitors/users)?

 How will the website save money, increase the number of students or improve the image/profile of the school?

 Is training and support required?

 How will the success of the website be measured?

The first point cannot be stressed enough! Key decision-makers really do need to be carefully selected. They will be required to make significant, conscious and practical decisions about the school's online presence and be available and committed to ongoing developments, maintenance and updates to the website.

These are key to working with a professional design company to develop a strong and successful online presence for your school, that not only reflects your ethos, but also keeps parents and community members updated, and increases the learning potential of students.