All You Need to Know about KiwiSchools

Transcription

1 All You Need to Know about KiwiSchools

2 Table of Contents Welcome Your Investment with us Typical Website Timeframe The KiwiSchools Process - Building the perfect website for your school... Step 1: Discovering your website needs and aspirations Step 2: Test drive a KiwiSchools site for your school Step 3: Specification, Pricing & Options Optional Extras Google Apps Integration Step 4: Plan your new site Step 5: Custom Design Step 6: Build Site / Add Content Step 7: Going Live! Step 8: Support & Training About KiwiSchools Frequently Asked Questions Contact Us Welcome Thanks for considering KiwiSchools in your quest for the perfect school website! School websites are all we do. We ve built hundreds of school sites in the past twelve years, so we have a pretty clear idea of what schools are looking for! Our focus has always been creating websites which look great, are super-easy to update, and show your school in the best possible light. We look forward to working with you and your team to create something really special! Paul Stuart CEO LifeLong Learning Limited

3 Your Investment with us We believe our websites are great value for money. But don t take our word for it! Here are a few comments from our feedback page: Half the price of others who can do half as much! For the ease of updating, I would rate KiwiSchools as well worth the money. Definitely value for money, and many people have now commented on the new site and how fresh it looks. [more comments here] Also, remember you re dealing with a company which specialises in school websites. The only sites we create are for schools, and we re always working on ways to make your site an even better way to communicate with your school community. We have brand technology under the bonnet at KiwiSchools for you can tell at a glance when you look at our demo site. Virtually every NZ school is moving, or has already moved, to the cloud. We re very well positioned to support your school with this process, regardless of how far along the path you currently are. In fact, we don t know of any other company in NZ supporting as many Google Apps for Education sites as we do.

4 Typical Website Timeframe Schools sometimes joke that they want their site online yesterday! At a pinch, with no custom design, we can do it in a day or two - this assumes you have someone who can add lots of content and photos at your end! In practice, the design & build time depends on several factors: Activity Timeframe Dependent on Identifying your needs;; Specification Proposal prepared by KiwiSchools, forwarded to school, signed by Principal 1-2 weeks School taking some time out to consider big picture questions 1 week Design & Customisation Content uploading Mini Customisation: 2 weeks Full customisation: 2-6 weeks 1-2 weeks This is usually done at school, and can be done while we work on Design and customisation Depends on level of customisation chosen - obviously full custom design involves liaising with graphic designer. We recommend creating the bare minimum of content initially. It s easy to add extra content once your site is live and visitors start letting you know what s missing! Go Live! 1 hr - 3 days! Technical updates to DNS (may require tasks to be completed by third parties)

5 The KiwiSchools Process - Building the perfect website for your school... The only sites we build are for school, and over the last thirteen years, we ve developed a process which covers all the bases to get a new site ready to go live : Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Step 8 Discovering your website needs & aspirations Test drive KiwiSchools Specification & Pricing Plan your new site Design & Customisation Build Site / Add Content Go Live! Support & Training Step 1: Discovering your website needs and aspirations In the 21st century, there s really no argument that every school needs an eye-catching, up-to-date website. It s your school s shop window to the world. So, how best to achieve this? Here are a few questions to consider: Who will be visiting your website? Parents? Prospective parents? Local community? Staff? Students? What would you like their first impression of your school to be?

6 Are you hoping to attract new domestic or international students? If you have an existing site, what features do you like or dislike? Who at school will be updating the site? One person or a small team? Why not get a full custom design for your new site? It s a one-off cost and you ll get a truly unique look for your site. Do you want your website to act as a portal for staff and students working in the cloud? Do you want a site which has a Content Management System (CMS) so your users can update the site without having to learn HTML or become a web developer? Do you want to deal with a website company which specialises in school websites and gets great feedback from customers? Is your school moving to the cloud, so needing a website developer that understands how to integrate cloud tools and options into a school s existing learning environment? There s no need to reinvent the wheel, so every KiwiSchools site comes with features you d probably come up with if you did a brainstorm: Easy to create and update your site Eye-catching new designs Prominent banner images to create a great first impression Optimised for small screens: all mobile devices, smartphones, ipads and tablets Unlimited pages on your site - update any time you like! Online tutorials - text and video, available 24/7 Excellent Google integration: Calendar, Blogs, Photo Galleries, Teacher Dashboard Social media plugins: Facebook, Twitter etc New Photo gallery options New Video uploads - no Youtube or Vimeo required No need to use HTML - just drag'n'drop'n'type! Phone & support for your website administrator Website hosting, maintenance, backups and technical updates Minimum 20 minutes of FREE site maintenance each term Michelle is the person to talk to (or phone or !) [email protected] Auckland: Freephone: Step 2: Test drive a KiwiSchools site for your school Just ask us and we ll set up a no-obligation test site for your school. If you haven t already got a site to test drive, simply complete this form and we ll get back to you within 1-2 workng days with your login details. Test sites are available only to registered NZ schools, so we verify this before creating each site. It s like being given a car for a month to test drive - you can log in when it suits you, try various tasks. Check out the Tutorials - your KiwiSchools contact person will provide the link you need. There s an

7 answer or a video tutorial for all the common questions and updating tasks. It s nice to have a chance to really check your website back end before making a decision. And we promise you ll find it easy - even easy as lemon squeezie! Step 3: Specification, Pricing & Options Our pricing is based on your school roll and is designed to be all-inclusive annual subscription. Please visit our website to view latest prices. Once you ve had a think about what you re trying to achieve with the big picture in Step 1, it s time to consider the level of custom design you need, and what website features and options you d like. Your website comes with heaps of standard features, all designed with schools in mind. The only decisions you need to make related to the level of custom design required for your website theme: Fully customised theme gives your site a truly unique look Our graphic design team discuss what s important visually for your new site, then create something special, incorporating your logo, colour scheme and banner photos. Mini Customised Theme overlays your logo on the test site and customises the colour scheme to match your school colours. Google Apps Integration Our new website platform is very Google-friendly, and we strongly recommend your school utilises functionality from Google to make updating your website much, much easier and less time-consuming. You will definitely need a Google Apps for Education account - we ll create one as part of your Setup. Then we can embed Google Apps into your new KiwiSchools site. You can start using the super suite of Apps which come with Google whenever you re ready. We strongly recommend you consider using our Learning in the Cloud package to make this transition quick and smooth! Apps we can embed include:

8 Drive Google Docs Blogger Google Calendar Google + (staff only unless secondary school) Picasa Web Albums Google Sites Optional Extras Here are some popular extras school choose to enhance the appearance or usability of their sites: Stats package - it s fascinating to see how many people have visited your school site, where they came from, which pages they visited most and so on... Domain name registration - if your school doesn t have a domain name, we can register one on your behalf. Domain name setup/configuration - sometimes domain names need record updates which we do for you or by liaising with your technical suppliers. Copywriting - we create web pages and upload photos for you. Mailing list upload - if you send us your current mailing list as a spreadsheet, we can upload it to your website, saving you the effort of adding subscribers one by one! Administrator briefing - You arrange for one of our team to walk through the common updating tasks for a school website. One of our team will contact you to discuss your particular requirements. We will then send you a Proposal detailing everything to be done to create your new website. Once that s signed (verbal agreement is OK), we have a deal! Step 4: Plan your new site Time to think about how you d like you site to look, how it will be laid out, what topics you d like web pages for, and the labels on your website menu. By now, you will have an empty website to work with (or your test drive site), so use this as a starting point - it has many of the key features you need already. Do some research: What other school sites do you like, both from a design point of view and content? Step 5: Custom Design - optional We will send you a task list with all the things we need you to do e.g. tracking down a high resolution logo. We will stay in touch with you as the design unfolds, and once we have your final approve it, ask our graphics designer to apply to your evaluation site.

9 Step 6: Build Site / Add Content Typically, we work on the customisation of your design to your site while you put finishing touches to content - text and images on web pages. If you re stuck for time, you can get us to do this for you, but since it s going to be an ongoing task at school, this is a good time to learn the basics before the world sees your site. Our Tutorials let you access text and video tutorials 24/7! Step 7: Going Live! When you re ready and give us the word, we go live! The world can now see your school online. The final changes can get a bit techinogical! DNS record updates, for example! But, with your permission, we ll navigate the necessary steps quickly. You might want to announce the imminent arrival of your new site in a school newsletter? Step 8: Support & Training We re famous for looking after our customers! As a KiwiSchools customer, you receive unlimited , support website and phone support for your school website administrator. Staff at school are welcome to access the online support 24/7 or talk to your administrator if they need help. We offer support in several ways, including a dedicated KiwiSchools tutorials site and a Zendesk system which can sometimes answer your question before you even send it to us! You can also book a personal briefing for your administrator/s - this can be done by video conference or visit to school.

10 About KiwiSchools KiwiSchools started building easy-to-use websites for Kiwi schools in The founder of Lifelong Learning Limited, Paul Stuart, was a Senior Lecturer job at Auckland University of Technology for many years before setting up KiwiSchools. KiwiSchools has since focussed exclusively on NZ school sites (pre-school through to high school) and more recently, elearning / blended learning / Learning in the Cloud. As web development specialists, we enjoy all the benefits of being online, every day! Each of us can work from any computer, anywhere in the world - so long as it s connected to the Internet. We re big fans of Google Apps which you may have experienced if you have a Gmail account. In fact, we couldn t be in business without Google. When we visit schools around the country, we just log in and it s as if we re in our Auckland office - amazing. We d love to show you how your school can enjoy the same incredible power and flexibility! Feel free to talk to us about the cloud. These days, Paul works mostly with Principals and ICT leaders, enthusing on the benefits of the Internet to teaching and learning at their schools!

11 Frequently Asked Questions How soon can we have our new site live? Your evaluation / trial site is usually up and running the same day you request it. When your real site goes live depends on so many things that it s hard to answer this question. Let s say, it could be as little as two days (minimal customisation;; you have all your copy ready to enter on your site) to 6 weeks (complex custom design;; lots of content;; extras such as video) That said, most sites take around 2 weeks. What info or details do we need to supply? Once you ve chosen KiwiSchools, we ll send you a detailed list of all the things we need from you (or your supplier e.g. printer, graphic designer) Remember, adding content to your site is so easy you ll manage this with very little input from us! Why shouldn t we use a local website designer? There are hundreds of small website developers around. Many of them still build one-off sites which are difficult and expensive to maintain. Prices vary from very cheap to very expensive. By comparison, the engine underneath your KiwiSchools site is an industrial-strength CMS (content management system) and fully maintained, backed up and support by us. Unlike other providers, KiwiSchools can also support your teachers move into the cloud with our well-regarded Learning in the Cloud programme. How can we use sponsors to fund our website? YES - in fact this is the perfect way to get someone else to pay for your new site! How long is our contract for? The initial agreement with KiwiSchools is 2 years with your all-inclusive subscription being payable annually in advance. When your contract runs out, you can either extend it (with cost savings!) or run from year to year. What help do we get with a KiwiSchools site? 1. Online support and tutorials help. Administrators or teachers can access this 24/7 2. support * 3. Zendesk helpdesk* 4. Phone support * 5. Skype/Hangout/Video conference support * * for school website administrator

12 Contact Us Phone: Freephone: Contact us: What schools say: Follow our blog