Education Websites That Serve Parents and Learners

The information exists and cannot be found

Education websites are typically comprehensive and poorly organised. Parents and learners know the answer is somewhere and cannot locate it.

Navigation and search matter more here than on almost any other kind of site.

What people come for

1. Term dates and the calendar
2. Policies — often needed at short notice
3. Course or curriculum information
4. Who to contact about a specific thing
5. Admissions or enrolment process and deadlines

Two clicks from the homepage to any of those five is a reasonable standard. Most education sites fail it on at least three.

Policies need structure

• A single policies page, alphabetical, with review dates
• Real documents, not links to a shared drive
• Text on a page where possible rather than PDF only
• An owner and a review schedule for each

Accessibility is often a legal requirement

For many education providers, accessibility standards are mandatory rather than advisory. That covers documents as well as pages.

PDFs are frequently the failure point — scanned documents in particular are inaccessible and common.

Course pages, if you run courses

Entry requirements, dates, fees, funding, format, assessment and progression. All of it, specifically, per course.

Vagueness on any of those is where prospective learners stop and look elsewhere.

Frequently asked questions