Wofford College, a private liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina, provides its students, faculty and staff with the latest technology on its Web site powered by Ektron CMS400.NET. Blogs, podcasts and videos provided through a well-designed, user-friendly Web site attract prospective students and keep current students, faculty, staff and alumni connected to what’s happening on campus.
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Wofford College |
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Wofford College is known for its pre-professional programs, particularly in the health care and law fields, and is ranked nationally for its study abroad program. Students at Wofford experience a strong academic, social and cultural life. The summer is also full of activity, including hosting the NFL’s Carolina Panthers for summer training camp.
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ChallengeWofford’s online presence is designed to allow prospective students and their parents, alumni and other friends to feel as if they are on campus when they visit the Web site. Addressing a variety of audiences, and allowing them to feel connected to the college, was paramount to the college’s site. Among the audiences for the college are:
- Prospective students and their parents, who would be able to request information about Wofford, submit applications online, find schedules for visiting the college, get information about tuition, financial aid and scholarship opportunities, and more
- Current students, who would read student blogs, get engaged with student organizations and activities, shop in the online bookstore, locate handbook and policy information, find articles in the online library, and more
- Parents of students and other visitors, who would find directions to Wofford, get information on local hotels and restaurants, shop at the online bookstore, learn about the local weather and area attractions, and more
- Faculty and staff, who would check the latest news updates, calendar of events, handbooks and policies, announce their latest research or publication, and more
- Alumni, who would join the Wofford alumni network, and read about and submit alumni news, such as births, marriages, promotions, honors, etc., and more
- Donors and sponsors to the college, who would read the latest campus news and stay abreast of events, find out about Wofford’s scholarship programs, and more
- Local businesses, who would have access to a new career services section on the site, allowing them to post job openings
With a younger audience of students and prospective students, Wofford knew that to keep them engaged, the Web site had to offer new and exciting technology – such as videos, blogs, podcasting, and more.
In addition, Wofford recognized the importance of a site that allowed non-technical staff to easily update and manage content daily. A redesign of its Web site would allow Wofford to accomplish its goals, and a solid content management solution would allow it to keep the site up-to-date and engaging.
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Solution |
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After evaluating several solutions, Wofford College chose Ektron CMS400.NET to accomplish its goal of making its Web site technologically advanced, keeping individuals coming back to the site, and making many publications Web-based rather than using print.
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“We chose Ektron because we wanted a content management system that not only had all of the features we required, but one that is reliable and offers a strong support system,” says Laura Corbin, director of news services at Wofford College.
The integration was extremely quick. According to Kyle James, Wofford’s Webmaster, “We had a core team working on the new site, and the biggest challenge was moving thousands of pieces of content to the new site. The CMS was very easy to implement. We had our new site up and running in less than three months – even with all of the content we had to move. Training users is easy because the CMS is so intuitive – it only takes half an hour to train a new user.”
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ResultWofford’s new site went live at the beginning of September 2006. “The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive,” James says. With more than 10,000 pages on the site, Wofford has 50+ users responsible for adding and editing content.
In the past, Wofford College used Frontpage for adding and editing content, so Ektron’s CMS has made things much easier for content contributors. Says James, “Our users love that they can log in at anytime and make their own changes to the site, and I love that they’re only editing content – I don’t have to worry about coding changes or other errors.”
They are pleased with the workflow functionality within the CMS. Says Corbin, “We have set up approval chains within the CMS, and that is working out really well. How we present ourselves to the world is important — especially since we’re a highly respected college. The workflow within Ektron’s CMS provides an element of quality control on our Web site – something that I think many sites overlook. This helps us reduce errors being published, while allowing us to enforce our styles, grammar and overall quality of content.”
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