Drupal's distributions are not new to you. Many site builders and web developers benefit from their functionality and usability. Previously, we provided you with a brief overview of distributions as awesome starter kits and introduced one great example: OpenFed distribution. Keeping your options open, let’s have a look at the modular website framework built for higher education institutions — OpenEDU.
What is OpenEDU?
Developing a website is a fairly extended procedure. Usually, it involves downloading and setting up a Drupal core. Then you download and install the modules that are needed specifically for your site. To make this process quicker and easier, there are a variety of ready-made elements you can use for certain types of sites (e.g. a commerce and corporate site, a portfolio, a site for social community, a blogging site, etc.). These "pre-configured" versions of Drupal are called "distributions."
OpenEDU is a pre-configured Drupal 8 distribution specifically built for the key needs of colleges, universities and other education groups. It helps develop and run extendable, fully customizable sites without compromising either flexibility or usability out-of-the-box. As John Kennedy, an open source product manager at Acquia, said: "With OpenEDU, universities can own their platform and launch modern, responsive, multichannel experiences quickly and painlessly. Together, OpenEDU and Acquia Cloud empower developers, site builders, and content contributors to work together seamlessly and realize the open source advantages of flexibility and transparency."
Needless to say, you’ll get the best of both worlds with OpenEDU, which is already available for free download! It should be also noted that the distribution has some more pros, which we will list now.
Why use OpenEDU for your Drupal Site?
The advantages of using OpenEDU are numerous. Here are the most significant ones:
- A number of ready-to-use kits for profiles, courses and different educational programs (which helps save time and money);
- Robust and flexible news publishing (thanks to the pre-populated templates, such as profiles, event calendar, and news listing, you can focus only on the content);
- Content governance (after publishing content once, you can distribute it on your other websites. It is possible to share rich media, the latest news, future events and lots of other important information from one location);
- Customizable design options (including responsive and user-friendly layouts);
- Fast site deployment (In a matter of minutes you can deploy new, pre-configured websites).
Obviously, installing a Drupal distribution is a surefire way to quickly and effectively bring your great ideas into life. Contact our Drupal web agency to get a professional assistance in integrating OpenEDU into your website.