EDUCO

educational consortium, Paris

EDUCO is an educational consortium composed of the American universities Cornell, Duke, Emory and Tulane, providing undergraduates with the opportunity to study for one or two semesters in France.

The new website which went live in September 2015 replaced an existing WordPress site. The EDUCO logo pre-existed.

Website

The website is bilingual French-English for the general public, and is French for its logged-in users: for EDUCO staff, teachers and students. The various parts of the system are viewable/authorable/editable by various echelons of registered users, via a rights management system. The Drupal content management system was chosen to enable the building of web based functionality to enhance the efficiencies for EDUCO staff and indeed students, and to enrich the student experience. This website is a feature rich portal, and elements include

• student pre-arrival site enrolment, such that a community is formed before students reach Paris
• class pre-registration
• private spaces visible to current students only (and EDUCO staff obviously), for class course content, academic information, and activities
• targeted e-mailing, like to all pre-semester or semester students…
• calendar of scheduled activities visible to only current students and staff, including also academic events and reminders
• online student activity sign-up
• student space for media and comment
• course space for EDUCO classes, accessible to current students, teachers and staff
• student alumni space.

The same rights management system governs the access hierarchy of EDUCO’s Le Millefeuille website, which is an online student magazine. The students’ active participation in this French language online publication contributes to their local immersion, hence augmenting EDUCO’s offering.