Description

The KU CMS allows users of various skill levels to contribute to the management of a KU website. Determining roles will depend on the size and web capabilities of the team members managing your KU CMS site.

There are two roles in KU CMS - Sunflower:

• Editor
• Site Administrator

Editor Role

Editors are responsible for basic content management of their KU CMS site. The Editor role allows subject matter experts to create and update their own content.

Editors have the ability to:

• Create and update content
• Publish/unpublish content
• Delete content
• View unpublished content
• View and revert to earlier versions of a page
• Create and edit URL aliases
• Update menu/link structure

Site Administrator Role

Site Administrators are responsible for the overall setup, design and functionality of their KU CMS site. They have advanced permissions, including the ability to manage site-level settings and configurations.

Site Administrators have the ability to:

• Create and update content
• Publish/unpublish content
• Delete content
• View unpublished content
• View and revert to earlier versions of a page
• Create and edit URL aliases
• Update menu/link structure
• Manage numerous site-level settings and configurations
• Add Editors and other Site Administrators
• Create and manage blocks
• Create and manage content types and views
• Add custom CSS and Javascript

Guidelines and Best Practices

• See Roles and Maintenance Recommendations below
• Determining roles will depend on the size and web capabilities of the team members managing your KU CMS site.
• Limit the number of individuals with Editor and Site Administrator roles on your KU CMS site to only those essential and actively engaged in the site management process.
• Maintain active communication across all site Editors and Site Administrators
• Collaborate across all users and roles to develop and implement a Site Maintenance Plan, including at minimum a bi-annual site review. See Site Maintenance Plan.
• See Site Maintenance for more information, including guidelines and best practices.

Roles and Maintenance Recommendations

Before an individual is granted the role of KU CMS site administrator or editor, they need to understand the time commitment and knowledge/skills required to do the job and ensure CMS Requirements (e.g., accessibility and usability) for the life of the site.

NOTE – There is a third role in KU CMS Sunflower titled “Super Administrator.” That role is restricted to KU IT Web Services staff.

Knowledge/Skills Required

Site Administrators

• Site administrators are responsible for creating/building CMS sites and day-to-day site maintenance, including adding new pages/content.
• Becoming a site administrator requires a significant time commitment to develop the skills and knowledge required to create/edit content and implement CMS Requirements (including accessibility and usability standards) and best practices.
• Site administrators are responsible for ensuring compliance with all CMS Requirements for the life of the site.
• They are also responsible for ensuring that all content edited by CMS editors meets all CMS Requirements.

Editors

• Editors are typically responsible for updating pre-existing content.
  • Editors can technically create new pages, but we strongly recommend limiting new page creation to site administrators to help ensure consistency as the site grows.
• Although the scope of the editor role is more limited than a site administrator, the amount of time required to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills is significant.
• Editors are responsible for compliance with all CMS Requirements for the life of the site.

See CMS Guide: Roles and Workflow for more information on the two KU CMS roles.

Recommended Training and Skill Building

The recommended initial training is the same for both site administrators and editors. Site administrators will require additional time and skill-building beyond the initial training phase.

Intermediate to Advanced KU CMS (Drupal) Users:

• Approximately 3 – 10 hours of training, skill/knowledge building
• Required training:
  • CMS Essentials I
  • CMS Essentials II and Site Admin
• Strongly recommended skill building and knowledge development:
  • Full review of KU CMS Guide website, including CMS Requirements and CMS Recommendations.
• For sites that host PDFs (that may require accessibility remediation), we recommend the 4-hour LinkedIn Learning course LinkedIn Learning Course: Creating Accessible PDFs for site administrators and editors.

New KU CMS Users:

• Approximately 10 – 20 hours of training, skill/knowledge building
• Required training:
  • CMS Essentials I
  • CMS Essentials II and Site Admin
• Strongly recommended skill building and knowledge development:
  • Full review of KU CMS Guide website, including CMS Requirements and CMS Recommendations.
• For sites that host PDFs (that may require accessibility remediation), we recommend the 4-hour LinkedIn Learning course LinkedIn Learning Course: Creating Accessible PDFs for site administrators and editors.

Recommendations for Each Role

Site Administrators

• In most cases, there should only be one or two site administrators on a given site.
  • It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain consistency as additional site administrators and editors are added.
• Each site administrator is responsible for maintaining compliance with CMS Requirements (e.g., accessibility and usability) and best practices/recommendations, including consistency across the site.
• Site administrators are responsible for provisioning editors on the site.
• Site administrators are the functional authority for that website ensuring that editors follow CMS Requirements.
• It is essential that site administrators and editors maintain active communication over the life of the site.

Editors

• KU CMS sites are not required to have editors.
• For many sites, it is preferable to route all changes through a site administrator rather than provision editors.
• Editors should be provisioned only to those willing to acquire the necessary knowledge/skills to ensure compliance with CMS Requirements (e.g., accessibility and usability).
• We recommend limiting the number of editors to as few as possible to effectively maintain the site.
  • It becomes increasingly difficult to maintain consistency as additional site administrators and editors are added.
• Each editor has the same responsibility as site administrators for maintaining compliance with CMS Requirements and CMS best practices/recommendations, including consistency across the site.
• It is essential that site administrators and editors maintain active communication over the life of the site.

Ongoing Site Maintenance

In addition to the initial investment in training and knowledge/skill building, site administrators and editors also need to understand their time commitment as site maintainers.

Regular Updates

How much time is needed for regular day-to-day site maintenance varies for each KU CMS site.

To estimate the likely time investment, consider the following:

• Size and scope of your website
• How often the information on your site changes
• How active your stakeholders are in updating the content they oversee

Scheduled Site Reviews

• We strongly recommend that each CMS site schedule at minimum a bi-annual review of the full website to identify out of date content, broken links, and new opportunities to improve the user experience.
• The scheduled reviews will likely involve site administrators, but may also include editors and the subject matter experts for a given page/section of the site.
• We recommend scheduling your site reviews and assigning responsibilities to specific team members in advance.

Site Updates Calendar

• We recommend using a shared calendar or other formal process to manage regular updates to your site throughout the year.
• Calendaring tools in Microsoft Outlook, Teams and SharePoint provide supported options.

See howto.ku.edu for information about calendaring in Outlook, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.

Workflows

• The automated workflow and notification system using the Contributor role in the previous KU CMS is not available in KU CMS - Sunflower and after.
• Site management teams are encouraged to develop their own internal workflows for content management outside the KU CMS system.
• Custom workflows can be created on a site-by-site basis. Contact KU Web Services at websupport@ku.edu for assistance with custom workflows.

Adding Editors and Site Administrators

See User Management for instructions on adding Editors and Site Administrators.