Selecting the Best School Content Management System for your School
Single sign-ons, ADA compliance, and Google integrations, oh my! There’s a lot to take into consideration when looking into a new content management system for your school. A private school or school district in a large metropolitan city probably has very different goals than a public school or school district in a small town. It’s important to think about your goals when deciding on a new content management system (CMS) for your school or district. Fortunately, our team here at Edlio has gotten a chance to speak with thousands of school website administrators to help them match their goals with the right system and features. Here are 6 major considerations that administrators have when looking into a new CMS, and the specific requests our team often hears them ask for.
1. Aesthetics & Design
One of the most important goals that almost every school or school district has when looking for a new content management system is to have a beautiful website that is representative of the school itself. Depending on what type of school you are and your budget, you may have slightly different goals in mind when thinking about your website’s design. Fortunately, here at Edlio, we offer 3 different design options to support all budgets and school types.
Request: “I’m a smaller school looking to save time and money.”
Solution: Select a pre-made design and update it with your logo, colors, font, and main menu to stay consistent with your school’s brand. This is Edlio’s most cost-effective option with the shortest implementation timeline!
Request: “I’m a school looking for a website that’s one-of-a-kind, but I don’t have an unlimited budget to make it happen.”
Solution: Select a design from our gallery, and once you select a design, we remove it immediately. That design cannot be used by another school, making it uniquely yours.
Request: “I have a larger budget and was hoping to have a completely original website custom made for our school. Timing isn’t a huge priority, I just want to make sure we get everything right.”
Solution: Start with a blank canvas. We get to know your organization and create a user-friendly, beautiful website design based on your brand, your traditions, and your spirit.
2. Ease of Use
We live in a time when technology is being used to simplify the way we do things. Because of that, one of the major goals that many schools and districts have when looking into a new content management system is that it’s easy to use.
Request: “I want the staff in my school to be able to create their own teacher pages without having coding experience.”
Solution: If you can use email, you can update your Edlio CMS. The back end includes intuitive drag-and-drop elements, making it easy to use for all your school staff.
Request: “My staff can sometimes be unorganized and is notorious for losing their passwords.”
Solution: Edlio has single sign-on capabilities, so web administrators and users don’t have to worry about logging into multiple different platforms separately to share content.
3. Accessibility
No two parents or guardians are the same, and it’s important that your school’s content management system is built with that in mind. Fortunately, Edlio’s websites are designed with ADA adherence in mind, specifically WCAG 2.1 level AA guidelines, helping ensure that your website is accessible to everyone. Our easy-to-use tools help you and your staff make sure your photos, videos, and content are ADA-friendly.
Request: “There are many parents at my school who use screen readers to access information.”
Solution: There are a variety of accessibility features built into Edlio’s websites that allow for screen readers to receive information. Our websites are properly coded for screen readers, have options to add alt text, include a navigation feature that allows you to skip to your website’s main content.
Request: “Some of our student’s guardians are hearing impaired which makes it hard for them to watch videos.”
Solution: When you upload a video to your Edlio CMS, our AI software will automatically add closed captions and a full transcript. Administrators can update and customize the captions and transcripts if they choose.
Request: “While we encourage our teachers to add alt text to all of their photos and videos, they often forget to do it.”
Solution: If you or your staff sometimes forget to add alt text to media, Edlio offers a feature that prompts and requires users to add alt text to images and videos before allowing that user to save the information and continue.
4. Google/365 Integration
In today’s day and age, many of us heavily rely on online calendars and apps to keep ourselves organized and on top of our schedules. The Edlio CMS saves you time by integrating with the Google and Microsoft 365 tools your community already uses.
Request: “I want to keep my Google Calendar.”
Solution: Whether your school or district uses Google or Microsoft 365, Edlio is fully integrated. Our CMS allows you to import events right from your Google Calendars, making it even easier to keep parents in-the-know.
5. Social Media
Parents use a variety of different channels to stay up-to-date with their child’s school. For many, this means paying close attention to their school’s social media. It can be stressful for a web administrator to have to worry about logging into a variety of different social channels. Edlio’s content management system can help you maintain an active social media presence while simplifying the act of posting content.
Request: “I want to schedule Twitter and Facebook posts from my school’s website.”
Solution: Post to your Twitter and Facebook pages from the Edlio CMS. Choose a news item from your site or create a new post, post immediately or schedule it, and it's logged for your records.
Request: “I want my school’s Instagram photos to appear on my school’s homepage.”
Solution: Displaying social content on your school’s website is easy with an Edlio CMS. Share your Instagram feed right on your school’s homepage to encourage parents to engage with your school on multiple different channels.
6. Support & Training
Moving to a new CMS can be a big undertaking. Whether it’s initial onboarding or ongoing support, it’s important that your school feels like they have an expert to turn to when they have questions or technical problems.
Request: “I want to be updated when there are new features available for my school’s CMS.”
Solution: Edlio’s monthly newsletters and webinar trainings help our customers stay up-to-date with the latest product updates, industry trends, and the best ways to get the most value from your Edlio CMS.
Request: “I want to have multiple ways to find information when my staff and I have questions.”
Solution: Different users prefer different channels to access information. All Edlio customers can submit tickets or call their customer support representative whenever they have more complex or urgent questions. Additionally, we offer a large library of articles and videos in our Help Center.
No matter what your school or school district’s overall goals are, Edlio has a solution that’s perfect for you. We pride ourselves on offering a variety of solutions that can help serve small and large schools alike. Check out our portfolio to get inspired!