In FY23, the Enterprise Technology & Services (ET&S) Software Development team collaborated with the Plymouth State University (PSU) marketing team to refresh the PSU website, streamlining the site navigation to make content easier to find, modernizing the look and feel with new photos and infographics, and taking advantage of content that could be sourced from central servers. For example, faculty/staff information is automatically pulled from Banner to add new PSU staff to the website directory. Likewise, when they leave Plymouth, their profile is automatically removed. This helps to keep information on the website timely and accurate.
The site also pulls program information directly from the course catalog to keep that information accurate, which is critical for NECHE accreditation. These teams started work in September 2021, and the site was launched on May 31, 2023.
The Software Development team consolidated content from Plymouth.edu and campus.plymouth.edu and built the new website on Drupal, a platform shared by the University of New Hampshire. This allows the team to update unh.edu and Plymouth.edu quickly, and with both institutions currently experiencing accessibility audits, all fixes apply to both sites.
Many groups across PSU were instrumental in making this project successful, from the Provost’s Office, which helped with a program of study information and general guidance, to the Admissions Office, who provided their review and feedback and provided Salesforce and chatbot integration, to all the departments on campus who helped move their internal content from the public website onto an internal intranet.
The project's next phase will involve the PSU marketing team migrating parts of campus.plymouth.edu into the new website or onto the intranet to retire that site this fall.
