27 Resources for WordPress in Higher Education

WordPress is quickly becoming the CMS of choice for colleges and universities. From WPCampus (the first conference specifically dedicated to WordPress in higher education) to WordCamp tracks devoted to higher ed, it's easy to see how the community has embraced the unique needs of the higher education community. How can you leverage the power of WordPress for your own institution? We’ve pulled together a massive list of resources to help you out.
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WordPress in higher education isn’t a new phenomenon, but recently, it’s been making waves as a focused niche within the community.

WordPress in higher education - students walking on campus

Hot on the heels of the inaugural WPCampus event (the first conference specifically dedicated to WordPress in higher education), WordCamps across the country have pushed campus users into the spotlight. Both WordCamp Boston and WordCamp Nashville offered higher ed tracks this year, and WordCamp Baltimore recently announced they will include a higher education track at their November event.

With all this focus on WordPress use for colleges, universities, and other learning institutions, we’ve pulled together useful resources to help you make the case to bring WordPress to your campus.

White Papers

These white papers are all useful to help get stakeholders on board with WordPress, from project managers and developers to administrators and IT. They are laid out in a way that makes the information scannable while also providing in-depth details necessary for the decision-making process.

Surveys/Studies

Where white papers explain, surveys and studies measure. All of these resources provide data specifically applicable to the use of WordPress in higher education.

  • WordPress Trends In Education (Modern Tribe) Includes data set from landmark survey of 486 campus representatives.
  • WPCampus Survey (WPCampus) Discussion of survey findings.
  • CMS Survey for Webmasters (University of Colorado Denver) Includes CMS usage data from a survey of 132 webmasters.

Case Studies

Higher education institutions are faced with unique challenges from a diverse group of stakeholders. Case studies provide information on how those challenges were solved, as well as additional information about important context or constraints relevant to the story.

Presentations

If you’re more of a visual learner, these slides and videos from WordPress in higher education presentations will be right up your alley.

Tools

Creating a WordPress resource page for your college or university? These resources can help you plan what to include in your own user toolbox.

Open Source Resources

Want to step back from WordPress and back up your case with some data for the bigger open source picture? These resources can help.

Top Agencies for Higher Education

These agencies have what it takes to navigate the complexities of higher education projects. They have demonstrated a proven track record of success on campus, working with a range of clients from small private colleges to big names like Harvard Law School.

WordPress in Higher Education Wrap Up

As you can see from the variety of examples listed above, WordPress is a powerful CMS solution for higher education.

WordPress easily scales to handle the requirements of institutions small and large, and can be customized to meet the needs of various stakeholders, including students, alumni, faculty, staff, and donors.  WordPress checks all the boxes and then some – it is also easy to use, effective, economical, and efficient.

From full-featured content management to building application platforms, these resources will help you begin leveraging the power of WordPress for your own campus.

Jen is a Minneapolis-based marketing consultant and compulsive community organizer. In addition to working with the WordPress artisans at Modern Tribe, she helps organize events for Social Media Breakfast – Minneapolis-St. Paul (SMBMSP), the MN Blogger Conference, and the MN Search Engine Marketing Association (MnSearch). Tweet her: @JenJamar.

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