Strengths and Weaknesses of EdWebs

"Edwebs" is the College of Education's Web Publishing System. The EdWebs solution involves the use of Macromedia's Contribute software to create and maintain College of Education web pages.  While many College units are required to use EdWebs, grants, student organizations, etc. may choose their own tools for creating and maintaining web pages.  This document's purpose is to help those with a choice to decide whether to use EdWebs for their site.

Strengths of Edwebs

  • Easier and Quicker Startup
    • Web page templates already exist.  Site developers need not develop templates for their site.  Authors can start to develop menu system and content immediately.
    • Implement pages with dynamic data (e.g., staff lists) with absolutely no programming.  Feedback forms, calendars, staff directories, search pages, inheritable menu systems, browser detection, and more are all available in EdWebs without authors needing to write their own code.
    • The Office of Educational Technology (OET) provides training to get authors started.
    • The easy learning curve can put web page authoring and maintenance in the hands of the person responsible for the content, no longer must content changes be passed on to tech-savvy staff.
  • Easier Maintenance
    • Templates are continually updated by OET to improve accessibility and to implement or to refine the use of evolving web technology standards.  Site authors need not update their templates or other technology behind the web pages, just content. 
    • Training, documentation, and support are provided by OET.  About 30 authors use EdWebs on over 20 different web sites in the College.  When there is turnover in staff, EdWebs sites are easier to handoff to new staff because training and a community of support are readily available.
  • Consistent Look and Feel and College "Branding": All EdWebs sites have a similar look and feel to them.
  • Templates resolve common design problems such as printable pages, accessibility, search engine optimization, and browser and platform compatibility.

Weaknesses of EdWebs

  • Authors can not create their own page templates.
  • Authors must use Macromedia Contribute or Dreamweaver to edit their pages.