COA Website Committee

MeetingSept. 20, 2011

Agenda Consider moving the new site to Wordpress

based CMS rather than a Drupal based CMS.

Pros of Drupal More Advanced tool – more freedom and

control for high level functions but requires high level of expertise to implement these functions (coding, php, web design skills)

LDAP Integration – username and password and e-mail can be pulled from District database rather than manually entered by Admin.

Cons of Drupal Customization and utilization of advanced

capabilities requires advanced skills not currently available in house.

Merritt is only college in District using it (other two campuses are using Wordpress). No District support.

Quotes for outside help seem to be higher than Drupal quotes for similar work.

Smaller community than WordPress Granual permissions requires developer

cutomization

Pros of WordPress

Easier to use for novices Requires less customization – Ex.

permissions issues easily resolved by setting up a network site with mini administrators (being done at Laney and BCC)

Chances of receiving help/assistance from sister colleges and District is greater. Laney and BCC are currently using. District is moving to Wordpress

Larger community using WordPress Ease of training - many faculty already

familiar with WordPress as a blogging tool

Cons of Using Wordpress No LDAP integration – that I’m aware of Less robust system for advanced functions

Colleges Using WordPress for CMS Wake Forest College - http://www.wfu.edu/ University of Arkansas at Little Rock -

http://ualr.edu/ Lafayette College - http://www.lafayette.edu/ Laney College –

http://www.laney.edu/wp/library/

A Motion? “The COA Website Committee recommends

that the new college website be designed and managed using WordPress as the content management system (CMS).”