In today’s world, technology has substantially improved the quality of education for students of every grade and every type of school. If your school doesn’t have a school website, it’s time to build one now. School websites have become essential for students to communicate with teachers, parents to track their child’s success with grades, teachers to post learning materials, and students to experience a much easier academic year with the help of online tools. Need help creating a school website? Here are some tips from SDI on how to get started! Create A Web Policy To establish your web policy, ensure that everyone, including all staff who will help create the website, knows what type of content can be projected on the website. Think about who owns the posted work, if copyright statements are needed, which search engines the website can use, and other factors that come to mind. Once the web policy is established, you can move onto the following steps. Determine Capability of Server Ensure whether your website can be accommodated by your internet service provider. Train Your Staff Do you know who will write the pages for each class? Will updates and maintenance be periodic? Address these questions and then train your staff on how to maintain a website. Some schools have website training programs for teachers so that they know how to customize their own web pages. Set Procedures and Standard Guidelines Ensure that teachers, staff, and administrators are following procedure when updating a web page so your school does not run into any legal problems. You can also create a standard template for teachers to use to design their page, therefore reducing the likelihood of this happening. Browse Other School Websites Take a look at other school websites to determine features that you may want to include on your own or features that you want to be sure to avoid. Notice details of element placements, color and font usage, and other elements that enhance the website. Design – UI/UX One of the most important parts of creating a school website is taking into account the UI/UX factors. UI refers to the user interface, which takes into account how the website looks, including colors, fonts, placements of certain elements, and shapes that the user sees. If your school colors are red, white, and blue, then use those colors throughout your website in a uniform setting to represent your school. However, also take into account the meanings behind colors. For example, red is commonly associated with stop, and green with go. Squares and circles have such hidden meanings, which should also be considered before designing the website. UX refers to user experience, which takes into account how the user will use the website. While considering UX, always prioritize the easiness of using the website. For example, don’t hide the Login button for a school account somewhere in the corner, since that reduces the “easiness” of using the website. Ensure that there aren’t whole paragraphs of confusing information on the first main page of the website so that the user doesn’t lose sight of the big picture of your school mission. Overall, ensure that the content on the website is easy to see and use. With people’s shortened attention spans, it’s important that your website be considered “quick and easy”. Just remember to take this step very serious to ensure your website will be successful! Tips for Website Administrators – Elements to Include 1. Main page Create a main page that includes pages for the school portal for grades, transcripts, registration for events, links to school social media, sections for school info, programs, community, school life, athletics, and more. 2.Store Create a page for the online store to allow parents to shop for school gear, event tickets, and recommended books. Tips for Teachers – Elements to Include Here are some features that teachers should include on their pages within the master school website: 1. General Class Information Include background information about yourself, the class syllabus, the supplies that students should have for the class, student/parent handbook, and other information you deem necessary. 2. Homework Board You can post the daily assigned homework and classwork here so that students and parents can easily access it, and allow students who missed class to catch up on work. 3. Student Project Display Proudly show off the amazing work that your students have produced over the years to inspire current and future students, and to show parents what their child is learning in class. 4. Calendar for the Year Provide a master calendar which includes sports games, guest speakers, back to school nights, science fair dates, school events, and more. 5. Pictures! Pictures personalize your teacher webpage and allows the parents to see the things their child learns in class. Parents and students can occasionally visit the website and see pictures of their child or friends on the site as well. Ensure that if you post pictures of kids, that you do not violate any school rules or even laws. If you need help creating your school’s website then you should contact web development companies like SDI to ensure that your school needs are met and taken care of. With over a decade of experience, our software developer experts have supported enterprises, startups, small and large companies, and schools. Contact us at team@sdi.la to get help creating your school website.