Website design has progressed to become one of the main methods of delivering online education. A number of educational websites are now available online. Most of them provide relevant information about the educational services provided by their organization and many of them are highly dynamic web sites which allow learners to access course curriculum with ease and even to undergo assessment.
Education websites need to be built with a slightly different focus from the general company website. The below-mentioned outline provides some relevant issues which need to be addressed in an educational web site:
Very simple graphics. Since educational web sites are not built to WOW an audience, but rather to deliver some value to students, the graphics are kept very simple. Designing a website step by step
Graphics are used in dynamic websites which carry course material to explain certain points of the learning content. So if you are designing a web site for the student community, it is necessary to keep in mind that you should not have any graphics which do not carry educational value.
Keep the user in mind. The first question you need to ask when designing an educational web site is to whom it is targeted and what the first thing they will look for will be when they come to this website. Once you have your answer, put the most searchable item on the website in a prominent location in which it will be obvious to the user.
Users of educational websites with dynamic content can be for various age groups, and possibly children, who might not be avid internet users. This must be kept in mind when designing the layout and the navigation system and for the web site. Some educational websites may even be used by five year olds and thus it is necessary to get a good user perspective before you design such a web site.
Dynamic modules are a good addition to education web sites. Education websites can have some good dynamic content which adds value to the user as well as provide a revenue stream to the company. Designing a website step by step
Some of the dynamic modules which can be added to an educational web site are the Learning Management System, Student Management System and the Assessment Module.
These modules, as their name suggests, deliver learning content to users and evaluate them on their effectiveness by assessing them at the end of the course. Dynamic modules of the web sites can either be developed by the main development team or might be third party product, which is integrated into the main web site. The deciding factor would be the cost and the time in which the solution needs to be delivered.
Industry standards for dynamic modules. The elearning world or the educational web site world is very competitive and thus if you want your elearning web site to have an edge, it is advisable that you follow some of the industry standards for this sector. One of the most common industry standards for elearning industry is SCORM.
A SCORM-compliant course can be used by many learning management systems, and this fact also increases the portability of the course. Following the standards would make your elearning venture more likely to succeed. Today many web design firms have SCORM experts on their team.
The above points highlight the main considerations when developing an educational web site. It is imperative that the objective of the web site be discussed prior to commencing the design work so that you can maximize your efforts.