Resources for Selecting a Higher Education Web CMS

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 10:30am -- Eric KaraszewskiBookmark and Share


Researching, selecting and implementing a web content management system (CMS) has the potential to be a lengthy and difficult process for a higher education institution.

For important long-term purchasing decisions like this, it’s beneficial to have access to a plethora of unbiased resources that will help ensure that you’re going down the right path. This is essential because your CMS selection will have a tremendous effect on your web presence for the next several years. Since we’re a web content management system provider that’s spent the past 10 years helping higher education institutions throughout the CMS research process, we have knowledge of and access to a wide range of higher education web resources. With that said, we thought it’d be beneficial to compile those resources to help anyone involved with the process.

Here are some good resources that our clients and prospects have found useful.

Nearby or Similar Schools

What content management systems are colleges and universities in your area using? What CMS solutions are colleges and universities that are of similar size and structure using? Getting feedback from those types of schools will be helpful since they will likely have similar concerns and processes in place.  

Higher Ed Listservs

Utilize popular listservs such as the UWEBD (University Web Developers) listserv. Sign up for the UWEBD listserv here, and engage with schools all over the country that have been through a similar process before. Questions asked on this listserv often receive a handful of answers within 24-48 hours from university web developers across the country.

Forums and Industry Publications

You can also solicit similar information from forums and industry publications. Some of the popular industry publications include the following (quotes beside each site are the words they use to describe themselves):

  • doteduguru - “This blog is about the pursuit of internet marketing in higher education”
  • MeetContent - “To empower higher education institutions to create and sustain web content that works by providing a resource for sharing and learning”
  • BlogHighEd - “BlogHighEd is a higher ed blogger network. We are trying to unify a community of bloggers that talk about the “higher ed” niche. We aggregate blogs from many areas: webmasters, marketers, vendors, counselors, consultants, and more.”
  • HigherEdLive - “HigherEd Live is a weekly web show focused on the emerging role of social media and digital media marketing in higher education”
  • HigherEdExperts - “Higher Ed Experts is a leading online community offering professional development and continuing education opportunities to executives and professionals working in web marketing and communications in universities and colleges around the world.”
  • CollegeWebEditor - “Collegewebeditor.com is an independent, popular and influential blog about the Web, marketing, and PR in higher education.” 
  • Real Story Group - “We publish independent vendor evaluations that help you sort out suitable technology choices for your particular needs. Our research is known for its technical depth, readability, and absolute neutrality.” 
  • EduStyle - “eduStyle is a web design gallery dedicated to higher education websites and powered by higher education web design professionals. Users submit, review, and comment on sites they like (or don’t like).”
  • University Web Developers social network  - “This social network is for anyone involved with implementing and maintaining web sites in a University environment. As a companion to the UWEBD mailing list, this site provides a platform for higher education web professionals to connect and collaborate; as well as strengthen relationships with peers across the globe.” 

Every school has a different approach to the CMS process due to varying structure, hierarchy, policies, requirements, budget, the current state of the web at the college/university, and other factors. If someone recommends a CMS without having asked any questions about the aforementioned factors, it may be wise to seek help elsewhere

What else? What are some other resources that you’ve found helpful for the CMS research process? What are some other things to look out for? Please let us know in the comments section below.


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