An Awfully Big Adventure

Web Content Management at Loughborough University

About Loughborough University

• Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities

• University of the Year 2008/09

• THE Best Student Experience four years in succession

• UK’s premier university for sport

• Internationally renowned for research

• Official Preparation Camp Headquarters for Team GB prior to 2012

• Large single site campus in the heart of England

437 acre, single site campus

Our website before Site Manager

• No University-wide content management system

• Enthusiasm for web publishing

• Publishing predominantly using Dreamweaver

• Variety of ‘University’ publishing styles

• No global navigation – sites presented in isolation

Key objectives

• Introduce consistent publishing mechanism to University

• Publishing solution that required little or no technical skills

• Allow more people in departments to update their web content

• Better integrate website with University’s corporate systems

• Re-use content across a variety of different sites

• Professionalise web publishing – right tools for the job

The Challenge

• Move all academic and support service departments into WCMS by end of 2012

• 80+ sites

• 250+ publishers

• Limited central resources

• Complicated by academic restructure

Approach to adoption

• Two years of planning (even before deciding on which WCMS)

• Implementation of standard publishing style

• Three pilot sites developed with T4

• Four academic pilot sites to be developed – December to April

• Phased adoption schedule – through to end of 2012

• Manual adoption – little or no automation

• Mobile version of all WCMS sites

What we’ve learned so far

• Manage expectations – WCMS not a solution to everything

• Careful planning is crucial

• Don’t rush into getting sites live

• Importance of communicating with wider University community

• Don’t underestimate how much people are attached to the old

Who am I?

Jonathan Walters

Web Development Manager

01509 223443

j.s.walters@lboro.ac.uk

www.twitter.com/jswalters