technology

Why Drupal 8 Should Be Used In Higher Education

Drupal is certainly one of the most popular and widely used open-source Content Management Systems. It has been designed particularly for building enterprise websites. Drupal is based specifically on PHP language and it is available to you as per the General Public License. We have seen that more than 5 percent of websites worldwide are based on this versatile CMS and its various versions.

A Content Management System helps a user in maintaining a website with an interface and a dashboard. All your site data, for instance, the homepage content or content on the service sections exist very much in a robust database. Whenever a page would be loading, the data at once fetch directly from the database that is strategically placing within the templates and demonstrating instantly to the end-user.

Drupal 8 was launched a couple of years back, packed with amazing features including greater scalability, flexibility, faster page loading speed, and security, etc. We have noticed that a majority of the organizations have invested in Drupal 8 development to availing the top benefits of this ground-breaking CMS. 

Role in Higher Education Websites

Educational institutes and universities are all implementing Drupal 8 thanks to its amazing advantages. Drupal 8 is certainly the best option for educational websites. Drupal is being widely used by top educational institutes and universities because of multiple reasons. When universities start building their websites, on most occasions, the sites were developing and designing primarily by students. The young and imaginative minds would always be looking for robust, easy, and innovative web design solutions. Hence, Drupal was the ultimate and natural choice. Drupal is an open-source CMS and its code modifies easily by utilizing an uncomplicating text editor. Thanks to these striking features, we understand that Drupal migration seems to be gaining traction phenomenally. Here are some of the benefits of using Drupal on educational websites.

Customize Your Higher Education Website with the Robustness & Power of Drupal

Using Drupal in most higher education websites has been quite a hot favorite option for numerous leading schools. However, over time it has gained a reputation of being the most preferred CMS for website development for hundreds of higher educational institutes worldwide. We understand that schools such as Stanford Law School, Harvard University, Duke University, Rutgers University, Brown University, University of Prince Edward Island, University of Oxford, Zaman University, Karlstad University, Uncommon Schools, Bentley University, University of Yale, and University of Waterloo all of them have opted for Drupal as their preferred CMS as it is best for supporting present and future requirements of students, alumni, faculty, and their communities.

Quick Scalability

Drupal regards as a highly scalable Content Management System that boasts robust features for building and managing a website of ten, hundred, or even thousand pages. A university website generally boasts numerous web pages that could be seamlessly developing. And easily managed with the help of the Drupal framework. For example, even though you are having just one single page. You could still consider using Drupal 8 CMS simply. Because it could be installed easily on a fundamental web housing configuration. Drupal is quite versatile and equally effective in the case of a heavy website flaunting a hundred pages. In such a situation, the CMS is capable and proficient enough for handling all types of traffic surge even when you are gaining thousands of hits every second. 

As per https://www.forbes.com, while identifying precisely which digital properties would be working best for your company, it is of pivotal importance to consider keeping scalability in mind. This would help you to keep up with the pace of a rapidly transforming digital landscape. And CDNs or Content Delivery Networks.

Simple Content Management

Designing and implementing a Drupal 8-orienting website seems to be just half the job done. The most important part is incorporating and managing the content simply keeping all information and data updated and upgraded. The most striking feature of Drupal CMS is supposing to be the Page Editor. Where even a non-technical or novice user could incorporate or update various web pages just like a Word Document. Whatever an individual could do in a Word Document, Drupal 8 would be offering the same functionality.                                  

Multilingual Support

Drupal seems to have a big community with numerous contributors across the globe. Hence, it is no surprise that all multilingual experiences are seamlessly integrated with the versatile Drupal 8 framework. Scholars and students from diverse backgrounds would be accessing the websites hence; dozens of languages would be necessary for the web content and interface. We know that Drupal 8 boasts of a complete set of tools meant for efficient content translation, admin interfaces. User interface making it one of the most efficient and competent CMS for specifically university web development. We understand that numerous universities are employing the services of Drupal developers for making amendments that appear complicated. The Drupal experts help in custom-tailoring the website according to the unique needs of the user.

Supportive of Custom Content

University websites are known to have numerous custom content types that comprise events, news, programs, videos, and many more. We understand that Drupal 8 boasts effective tools for creating and managing custom content that would include a special feature. For incorporating a broad spectrum of multiple kinds of fields. It is to have a robust taxonomy system, letting content editors access relevant content and make the content accessible. Moreover, it would be allowing the generation of rich and robust content layouts without having any specializing technical knowledge. Tools such as layout builders could prove to be immensely useful in enhancing the UX and helping in content discovery.

Allows Quick Edits

Drupal websites built for higher education institutes would be providing quick editing capabilities. An amazing editing fast track would be facilitating. Any school event cancelations, location changes, and others could be managing quickly and competently even by a novice. Using the CKEditor it is now quite a time-saving and simple affair to generate rich content. Remember that media management has been simplified effectively by Drupal’s Media Module as it helps embed files into your specific post, making files fieldable. This enables text fields used for storing captions on pictures, taxonomy fields meant precisely for precisely the audio file genres.

Assured Advanced Security

We understand that college and other educational sites may be the target and that is the underlying reason why decision-makers concerning higher education use to choosing their digital platform with wisdom. OSS orOpen Source Software is more secure as compared to proprietary software, so Drupal is certainly not an exception. Drupal provides advanced security and its security team seems to be highly responsive and they keep sending frequent security fixes meant for its actively maintained versions. Moreover, all security fixes seem to be logging.

Keeping in mind that university websites and other educational institution sites contain a humungous amount of vital and sensitive data. Security features are integrating seamlessly into the basic Drupal-based website structure. Moreover, new patches releasing regularly depending on specifically the installation settings. And are installing at once by default when they become accessible.

Highly-Responsive & Easy Design Implementation

As per a study conducted by eMarketer in 2016, an estimated 90%. The college students in the United States have smartphones of their own by graduation. Today with Drupal 8, we know that academic centers could use Drupal easily. Effectively in higher education for staying relevant and updated for delivering a seamless and responsive web experience. Drupal sites would be adapting to user evolutions. That makes it just right for educational institutions and universities with student demographics. Things would become simple and easier for the admins in managing content with a specific dashboard that is mobile-ready and responsive.

Workflow Modules

Drupal‘s feature set and workflow modules help colleges and universities in controlling and managing the publication process without restricting its use as merely a content management tool. For all content operations, granular content would be available. At every step, employees would be notified for completing their jobs such as editing. This strict control helps in keeping the team together as a unified force and helps in facilitating smooth performance and forward-moving projects. 

Content & User Access Control 

With Content & User Access Control, website admins could be creating privileges. Those are effectively grouping in terms of role, function, and level. All these permission sets could be automatically assigned to user groups. Instead of trying manually to grant privileges to all users. Permission sets prove immensely helpful in helping decentralizing task responsibilities such as editing, creating, and even managing content, everything without pressurizing further your IT hub. Drupal features seem brilliantly handy on university sites where students, site visitors, alumni, and even teachers access the site.

Conclusion

You must consider using the Drupal Content Management System for higher education websites because of the reasons discussed above. Moreover, Drupal takes immense pride in its robust community groups across the globe and could search easily. The issue queue is meant specifically for questions & answers associated with higher education institutes.