Hello webmasters. We have been getting a lot of questions about Drupal. This is such a great thing and we really appreciate your enthusiasm. This short Q/A is to help answer some of the questions we are currently getting that we can’t possibly respond to in a thoughtful way one at a time over email.
Which UVM sites are currently in Drupal?
- Honors College
- UVM homepage and top-level overview pages
- College of Education and Social Services
- Undergraduate Admissions
- Orientation
- College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
- CEMS Web Wizards
- University Relations
- Grossman School of Business
….and there are several more groups that have trained, built and are getting close to launch. We’ll send them along as they go live.
How can I get a Drupal account so that I can build a site?
Account distribution is very much tied to attending a training. You must attend a training which is six hours over three weeks in order to be given a Drupal group. This is because we feel strongly that with a team of only three people supporting these users, we can’t properly support people who are in there “trying to figure it out” for themselves. It’s important that you come to training, learn how to properly work in the system, and learn best practices so that you can build a better version of your current site.
But can’t I just watch online Drupal training videos and figure it out?
Not really. UVM has built its own instance of Drupal. So the training we offer is specific to working in our instance of Drupal. Further, we have learned a lot along the way about shortcuts and best practices that we feel you will really benefit from.
Where can I see the schedule for training classes?
As we get through an intensive three week training period with a group of webmasters, we then offer three weeks of support to each of them. During that time we plan for the next training. There is no schedule posted anywhere as these training MAY be open to the community or they MAY be targeted depending on institutional priorities that come along. Because we can’t predict that, we can’t realistically maintain a training schedule.
What’s the best way to “get on the list”?
There is no ordered training list and we are not keeping a list of people who will be next. We will either announce over the webmasters’ listserv when there are open spots for an upcoming class, or we will contact specific groups that strategically we feel should consider attending a training. So the best way to get into a class is to sign up for the listserv and wait for an announcement. Directions to sign up for our listserv.
What’s the deadline for moving into Drupal?
At some point we will retire the “old” magicscript system, but there is currently no timeline for that. And we have to get around to training everyone before we can think about doing that. So don’t stress about needing to get into Drupal ASAP. When there’s a spot in a class, please sign up and we’ll take it one step at a time for your unit. We are working to provide an ongoing rotation of training classes.
What can I do in the meantime?
Drupal is just a tool. How good/bad your website is is most dependent on how well you strategize about your content and menu. We are not at all advocating that people copy/paste their old content into the new system. Really, planning for your menu and content is the important work and now would be a great time to begin to plan for your website’s redesign and transition to Drupal. See a previous blog post providing planning tools and tips.
We appreciate your continued patience. It’s not going to be a quick process, but we can say that the feedback we have been getting from our new Drupal groups has been positive. People like working in the system. Stay tuned for more!