Simple CMS for students

[philjones2000]

Hi

I need a simple cms system for the students to create webpages on. At the moment the out-going head of ICT used to use blogger (don't get me started...), but the new one thankfully wants to change things.

I've shown her dreamweaver but this is a little too complicated (for the staff mainly- this year our ICT teachers are mainly from other depts (we are like PSE this year)) and difficult to justify these days with most businesses using a cms of some form or other.

What would be perfect is a cms we can host on our linux webserver that ties to their AD accounts and gives them just the simple wysiwyg interface with the option to enter straight code for the more adventurous.

Most of the ones we have looked at have been far to complicated.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Phil

[rrichmond]

Moodle. We are trialling it at the moment. Works well.
It can tie into your existing system as well, and is designed for education! No HTML knowledge required to make pages either, so its perfect for the staff (built in editor).

Moodle - A Free, Open Source Course Management System for Online Learning

[Jona]

Moodle isn't really a CMS more of a VLE, joomla is a good CMS but probably overkill for what you want.... There is also drupal but the same probably applies.

Maybe you could use wordpress or something of that nature.

Jona

[CyberNerd]

DrupalEd | Drupal in Education.
drupal.org | Community plumbing
Elgg.org
Home | Mahara

[CyberNerd]

Moodle isn't really a CMS

actuially it is. It is a "Course Management System", but I see where your coming from

[FN-GM]

Joomla maybe a little complicated. What do they want to put in the site?

[philjones2000]

It's pretty simple- (they have been using blogger for it after all)

They need to be able to create pages, links, tables, etc. and insert code for rollover buttons etc.

[K.C.Leblanc]

I've heard Websitebaker is ment to be easy to use.

Have a look here Home - OpenSourceCMS

[mark]

WordpressMU if it's still around is the best for blogging.

For a community site elgg is tops - does eportfolios and is developing into more of a school system (it was started by/ for universities). Kids can create themes in elgg and share them, it ties in with AD and Moodle, and uses tagging.

Joomla is the best CMS IMHO. It's getting simpler but has a steep learning curve.

TYPO3 i'd recommend, but setting it up is impossibly difficult - you may need proffessional support for that. Once it's up, sectioning it off for users and groups, and the granularity of control is excellent.

I think you're more asking about php user space for individual kids though. Dreamweaver is web coding dumbed down IMHO, and as such limits itself. I'd like to give kids the space, then put the joomla installer in the root and let them loose. Depends on the capabilities of your IT teaching staff, who may run scared to the hills. Those with 1/2 ounce of nouse tho' will love it and fly.

[kesomir]

Originally Posted by philjones2000

It's pretty simple- (they have been using blogger for it after all)

They need to be able to create pages, links, tables, etc. and insert code for rollover buttons etc.

Why use a cms at all? you can use the apache mod_userdir extension

mod_userdir - Apache HTTP Server

create accounts on the lamp box, let them ssh into their home folder, place the html and BAM - visit http://yourserver/~username/

you still need to find a wysiwyg editor for the substitute ICT teachers, but there are a fair few around.

could even use something like Open Source Cross-Browser WYSIWYG Editor although you'd have to build a small framework around it.

ALSO found phpwcms -> phpwcms 1.3.9 (r213) | open source content management system