Digitalization has been slowly enveloping education for the past four decades. Colleges require websites to walk hand in hand with time. Libraries are getting their digital counterparts. Moreover, students can use different online platforms to organize their studies. Services like Studyfy put academic help only a few clicks away.
Today, the digitalization of education is taken for granted. But with COVID-19 came the realization of its importance. Remote studying was present for quite a long time, but nowadays we understand that it can actually become the standard. Different institutions were forced to figure out how to function remotely. And it is better to be prepared for it beforehand.
But even without taking into account the probable darker side of the future, colleges must and are implementing digital technologies. Whether you need a website or a study help platform, you can either hire a team of developers and create different sites for it, or you can utilize WordPress for all of your college needs.
WordPress is an open-source versatile content management platform that has been around for almost twenty years. And around 30% of all sites on the web are powered by it. The users of the hub are offered a wide variety of features including the plugin architecture and template system. Thanks to its versatility you can use WordPress for various needs, including, but not limited to, things you can find in this article.
1. Website
Every college needs to have a website. If you don’t have it yet, you should start working on it right now, as it’s the main way that your prospective students will learn about your institution and what you have in store for them. The main problem is that creating a website from scratch can cost you a lot, but with WordPress, you can get it almost for free.
Hiring a team of developers and designers can cost you up to $10,000 while using the well-known CMS is free. That’s why WordPress is one of the best choices for non-profit educational institutions. Thanks to the vast array of features of the hub, you can find everything you need to power your college’s site absolutely free of charge.
As mentioned above, you can create it almost for free. While utilizing the hub for building your website is free, you still need to pay for hosting it. But that can cost you as little as $100, which is one hundred times less than what you would have spent if you had hired a web design agency for creating your site. And the prospective freshmen would be able to learn about the professors, the courses, and even have an online tour around the campus.
2. Study Platform
Distant learning or not, it is better to have everything in one place. Having a study platform where students are able to find their assignments and upload their finished tasks, be it essays or tests, will make the studying process easier. Just upload the list of assignments and set the deadline, when they should be done. Students will do everything else on their own.
Lectures can be also uploaded in audio or video form, or at least the most important aspects of them. Thus, students who have missed the lecture for some reason, won’t lag behind their peers. They can easily access all the information they need. And professors won’t have problems with explaining the same things over and over again.
3. College Newspaper
College newspapers are important not only to the on-campus activities. They can also help the college to attract new students. When mass media was bound exclusively to print, college newspapers remained local. It was extremely difficult to get a hold of one if you had no ties to the particular educational organization. But things work differently on digital platforms.
Nowadays, college newspapers can be part of your website. And aside from attracting new applicants, it can also shed light on things that should be changed on the campus. With students sharing their opinions, it is easier to create an environment of trust between the institution and undergraduates. And with the collection of features offered by WordPress, it can be done swiftly and easily. A library of themes at the hub allows you to customize your newspaper.
4. Sell Your Courses
Another way of attracting freshmen is by selling your courses online. You can let prospective students around the world learn about your college. Creating an online learning platform with WordPress is easy. Upload lectures or any other learning content to the hub, and students from, literally, every corner of the world will be able to stream it.
You can either share those courses for free and use them simply for attracting prospective scholars. You can also integrate the payment system and sell your courses to anyone who may want to learn or utilize your materials in their classes or other education-related activities. The received payments can be used for the college needs.
LearnPress is a free plugin that allows you to create educational platforms for free. And you can easily integrate it into any site powered by WordPress. It will allow you to upload and manage your studying content. Then you can integrate a payment system, like PayPal or Skrill, to sell your courses online to anyone.
5. Fundraise Your College
Using WordPress for your college website provides you with plenty of opportunities to raise funds for your college. You can use GiveWP, a nicely written plugin that allows you to set up a donation system right on your website. All the visitors of your site will be able to donate a certain amount for the needs of the institution. And like all the plugins of the hub, GiveWP is absolutely free.
Another interesting plugin that you can use for the website is WooCommerce. It’s a free plugin that is frequently used by online merchants. Using this attachment you will be able to create a small online shop where you can sell your college-related items, souvenirs, and other merchandise.
Conclusion
There are countless ways you can make use of WordPress. It’s a versatile tool that makes it much easier for beginners to start their transition into the digital world. And while it’s not as advanced as some of the other platforms, in the hands of an experienced veteran it can do wonders.
