School website - move from joomla?

[Little-Miss]

Hey guys,

 

Our school is looking more into marketing ourselves in the next academic year, even going as far as to hire someone to do it for 4 hours a week.

 

I know they are going to focus on the website and to be honest with our current one I've created a monster. I cant pass it don't to anyone else as it has its quirks which are hard to explain to n00bs and some parts are really convoluted.

 

I would be over the moon if i didnt have to deal with the website any more (as much as i hate giving things like this away) so i'm starting to think that i will spend the holidays redesigning it.

 

So which are websites going these days? Which would be the best way to create a website that i can then just dump on someone else who want be massively techical? I know people mentioned wordpress a lot. Are there any templates available?

[plexer]

Ours has just been re-done in drupal when it's like I'll drop you the url.

 

Ben

[rush_tech]

We use Joomla and the balance theme from YooTheme that is a paid for template though

[Little-Miss]

Any good for not-massively-techy people?

[Sephiroth]

Any good for not-massively-techy people?

 

Joomla has a fairly simple interface (also, you can edit from the front end if you allow logins to the site) making it quite good for non-techies. At least, our Business Manager has very few problems.

 

Our website (here) is built on Joomla with a custom template

 

That said, I would recommend Drupal as it has a lot more features, though I have only dabbled with it.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Sephiroth
Grammar Nazi catches himself...

[Little-Miss]

So, bringing this post back.

 

One of my uni modules is to use Drupal to create a knowledge base. But he did go on to say that we could make what we wanted.

 

Our website is my biggest headache at the moment and as i already have content im wondering whether i should run with this.

 

Have you guys got any example of schools sites made from Drupal? Is it easy enough for someone who isnt massively literate to maintain?

[crutchfieldj]

Wordpress is dead easy and there are hundreds of free templates available for it, good ones, too. It's also very powerful if you want to get technical.

 

I would use Wordpress.

[witch]

Our old website was Drupal and not particularly user friendly. I would use wordpress

[webman]

I've just replied to another website-related thread with my thoughts on the matter - you might find it helpful

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/web-development/101193-examples-school-websites-made-blogger.html#post875141

[speckytecky]

Sent you a PM

 

Our old website was Drupal and not particularly user friendly. I would use wordpress

[featured_spectre]

My old schools original site was done in HTML, I was tasked with bringing it up to Drupal...I personally disliked the interface at the time, but liked the front end. I then practically begged to update it to Joomla...and was tasked with doing a BETA site, little did I know that they got the HT's other half who made websites with the 1and1 thing, and got him to design and implement the website...needless to say when I found out I went to my union and got the website maintenance dropped from my contract.

 

I then went and did about 12 other school websites with Joomla and a yearly support contract, this year most have changed to academies and as of september 11 of the 12 did not renew the contract (4 went into the same academy band, the rest decided to bring it in house with their academy, but I did get a nice payoff from them because of the help with the transition). The remaining school took it in house but keep me on retainer for extreme emergencies as I have backups of all websites done taken once a week, which is a godsend for them.

 

If you like I can put you in touch with the remaining school that has me on retainer if you like and I can inbox you the web address

[mattianuk]

Wordpress every time, quick, easy, powerful.