How to Create an Educational Website with WordPress

Have you ever heard about online education? Well, you definitely have. As a matter of fact, online education is really a big deal today. More and more people prefer to study completely online or at least take some online classes or courses from time to time. Moreover, if you run an educational institution, no matter whether you provide online classes or not, a decent website is a must-have for your school, college, courses etc. So now you may wonder, “How do I make a website for my educational institution?” Well, this is exactly what we are going to figure out in this article.

The Importance of Having a Website

Nowadays, having a website is a must for any company or institution. Since modern people simply do not like to waste their time, they tend to look for any information they need online. That being said, if a person wants to find language courses, for example, they would google “language schools” and find the one they like the best. So as you have probably understood, if you do not have a website, nobody will find it in Google and, as a result, less people will attend your school or courses.

How to Make a Decent Educational Website

The easiest and the quickest way to launch a lovely website is using a WordPress theme. Modern WordPress themes have literally everything for building a fully functional website, come in various fancy designs, and are super easy to work with even on your own. In fact, there is a huge variety of great college templates and education themes for WordPresss to choose from, so you will definitely find something for your educational institution. So since you probably cannot wait to launch your very own website, let us dive into some tips and tricks on how to create an educational WordPress website.

Get a Domain

The very first thing you have to do in order to launch any website is to get a domain. Basically, people use their companies’ or institutions’ names as their domains, for example, harvard.edu, so do not worry about having to come up with some elaborated names. Besides, in order to get a domain you have to register it and pay a fee. We use registrars like Namecheap and Hover. After you domain has been approved you can finally proceed to the next step.

Arranging Hosting

Every single website needs hosting otherwise it simply will not work. So you have to find a hosting company and choose a hosting plan for your educational website. There are plenty of various hosting companies that can provide you with decent hosting services as well as with professional email addresses, but there are so many to choose from, which is why we put together our guide to WordPress hosting.

Find Your Theme

While looking for a theme for your educational website you might be fascinated by the beautiful designs they come in, however, design is not the only thing you should pay attention to. What is more important is to check out a theme’s key features, because if you want to have a fully functional website, you need a theme that is already equipped with some basic features. For instance, check whether the theme is cross browser compatible, does it have all the necessary plugins or animations, is it equipped with stock images and so on.

Let’s have a look at University Responsive Website Template by TemplateMonster. This multipurpose theme has a nice eye-catching design as well as some really useful for an educational website features. For example, the theme is equipped with:

• UI Kit
• Multiple header and footer layouts
• A huge set of various ready-made pages
• W3C Valid and SEO friendly code
• Live search and contact forms
• Megafooter
• Google Map
• Multiple Gallery types
• 6 Blog layouts
• E-Commerce Page Template

Besides, this very theme has a lot of five stars reviews from the customers, so you definitely won’t buy a pig in a poke. As you can see, University Responsive Website Template has pretty much everything you will need for creating a website for your educational institution. Moreover, if you want to add some specific options on your website, you can always get additional plugins.

Add the Plugins that Will Make Your Website Even Fancier

Powerful plugins can really bring your educational website to the next level. Certainly, contemporary WordPress themes are already equipped with some basic plugins, but if you want to make your website truly fancy, you have to consider getting some more. In terms of money, you can get lots of cool plugins completely for free, however, you might also have to buy some premium ones. So let us have a look at some plugins that might make your educational website the one and only.

LearnPress Plugin

LearnPress is a completely free plugin that will enable you to set up online courses on your website. This very plugin is equipped with such features as:

• Creating and managing multiple online courses;
• Charging for admission through different paying methods;
• WooCommerce.

This plugin is a perfect solution for online courses, tests etc. That being said, getting it for your educational website is literally obligatory. Besides, it is completely free, so why not?

CoursePress Pro Plugin

CoursePress Pro is a premium plugin that will let you set up online courses as well. This premium plugin comes with such features as:

• Ability to set up courses
• Charging for courses through up to 17 various payment methods
• Ability to add new interactive learning features such as tests and quizzes
• WooCommerce
• Enabling students to submit their works for review

This plugin is very similar to the previous one, but since it is premium, it is equipped with some more useful features.

LearnDash Plugin

LearnDash is another premium plugin aimed to make your educational website fancy. Basically, this very plugin will help you to create various types of quizzes and tests using audio, video, and image questions. Here are some key features of Learn Dash Plugin:

• Lesson Timers
• Dynamic Forums
• Gradebook
• Course Points
• Intelligent Course Builder

To cut long story short, this plugin has the whole bunch of cool staff that will make your educational website outstanding.

TechPress Plugin

TechPress is a free plugin, yet it still can make your website fancy. This plugin is created for course management, in other words, its modules for enrollments, assessments, and documents will help you to keep track of your students and their grades. The plugin is equipped with:

• Course management with integrated modules for enrollments, documents, and assessments;
• XLS/CSV export for course lists;
• Dynamic data system for students, courses, and publications;
• RSS feed for publications.

This free, yet truly cool plugin will no doubt help you to make your education website functional and fancy.

LifterLMS Plugin

LifterLMS is another premium plugin that can supercharge your WordPress site into an educational hub to create, sell and protect your educational content. The plugin comes packed with features:

• Multimedia lessons
• Quizzes
• Course builder
• Student dashboard

Along with LearnDash, LifterLMS looks to be one of the most powerful plugins out there for your educational site.

Final Thoughts

Online education is rather productive and quite fun, so if you are a head of some courses or a school, you might want to consider getting a website for your educational institution. Luckily today launching a website is not a big deal at all. All you have to do is to get a domain, arrange your hosting plan, choose a lovely WordPress theme, download some fancy plugins, and create the educational website of your dream in mere hours. Sounds insane, isn’t it? But as a matter of fact, it is real and possible. So do not waste your precious time any longer and create your perfect educational website!

If you’ve set up an educational website and have any recommended themes or plugins to use then let us know in the comments below.