Having a website, whether for personal or business purposes, is now commonplace. Many however, prefer to build blogs (weblogs) rather than a static site because the former is much easier to implement. But whether it is a blog or a website, the bottom line is always online presence; and schools need to have online presence via building school websites.
There’s a lot to gain for schools having their own school websites. With a minimal investment, a school website provides the following advantages to the school:
1. A potent promotional tool of the school’s services and facilities. Websites could take the place of more costly traditional billboards and flyers. Further, with websites the world, rather than the locality, is your audience.
2. Add credibility and build positive image of schools especially it is well designed, has quality content and periodically updated.
3. Avenue for an interactive information exchange. With added website features such as chat room, school websites facilitates immediate response to queries about the school.
4. Can serve as an online school database. The school can upload a bunch of information about the school into the website. This can serve as an online filing cabinet which is more efficient compared to our traditional filing system. With the search button in your website, your reader can readily access the data uploaded in your website.
5. A virtual office which is open 24 hours a day seven days a week. This saves money and time which could be used to other investment priorities of the schools.
6. A venue for implementing a feedback mechanism. Because it is very convenient to use the Internet, visitors could easily post feedback on school services and other related issues which they would not bother with telephones and letters. With the interactive feature of your website, you can readily respond to the queries and issues.
7. A venue for hands-on learning tool for students and faculty especially so if the school offers information technology related courses.
These are just among the many advantages of building school websites which can be up and running with a very minimal investment. The only recurring costs are domain registration, hosting services and remuneration for website administration.
Creation of an effective school website however, does not happen overnight. By being effective, it would mean that the website is able to maximize the benefits as earlier presented. Careful planning should be the first step. Further, getting qualified and reliable people for the website project are necessary condition for a successful website.
Outsourcing experts for the project can be cost effective, but is to the advantage of the school if there are in-house experts contracted on a long term basis for reasons of project sustainability.