Just like a good WordPress theme for business helps to amplify the brand story, the learning institutions can use its themes as well to become more visible on the Internet. This post explores the best WordPress themes for educational websites, and below you will find the reasons why schools should try WordPress and what benefits it brings. So let’s take a look!
It is more than an information platform
You must have already noticed that educational websites are representatives of brand identity and culture. For example, themes depict institutional colors that appear in uniforms, logos, and other related images and merch. Moreover, a website furthers the agenda of colleges and universities whose missions and visions are anchored on technological advancement. We live in an era of information, and there is no other better way for schools to make a strong online presence than through websites that represent their ideals and philosophy.
Resource and learning platforms
The number of students signing up for online courses and distant learning programs continues to rise. Therefore, institutions, via professionally designed and appealing websites, strive to win studentship. A lot of education-related activities take place online. Moreover, millions of schools right from kindergarten to universities now avail information relating to term programs such as learning schedules, e-library resources, learning materials, and sporting timetables on websites. Thus, schools should, first of all, understand the importance of selecting the right theme.
Important website theme design factors to consider
Before we can look at the top WordPress themes for education, it is imperative that certain thresholds such as the following are met:
- Navigability. Websites for schools at all levels should be navigable. It is important to install a theme that features clear icons, buttons, and pages. Students tend to spend more time on sites that meet this threshold than those on which they will struggle to find their way around. For instance, if you were googling “university assignments made for you” and stumbled across a service with an easy-to-navigate website, would stay there? That’s the point.
- Cross-platform compatibility. The world is going mobile, and so are websites. A huge percentage of students now own smartphones which they use to access sites containing information relating to academia such as e-libraries, e-courses, and other e-content. This post emphasizes themes that are compatible with both computers and mobile devices.
- Responsiveness. Here, it is a case of how fast a site loads. Millennials are an impatient lot, and websites or web pages that take forever to load information are never going to be their cup of instant coffee.
- Design appeal. What you see is what you get is a principle that applies here. Students hardly visit websites of colleges and universities that lack visual appeal. From text fonts and images to videos, sites that target students should look attractive all around.
Top themes for education institutions
Here is a run-through of top WordPress themes for educational sites:
WPLMS Learning Management System
WPLMS is one of the most advanced themes for educational websites, and it comes with fully functional features. With it, schools can create online courses, quizzes, track performance of students, and set up payment systems. While it fits the bill for colleges and universities, WPLMS ranks in the league of sites like Coursera, Treehouse, Code School and other top-rated online learning platforms.
Visit WPLMS
Superwise
Superwise fits preschools, elementary, middle, and high schools, thanks to its robust features. With it, you can create quizzes and integrate learning productivity tools such as Google Drive, Sheets, Calendar and Docs, thereby making it possible to seamlessly deliver educational content to students. It comes with over 20 colorful custom widgets and tools you can use to tweak its appearance as desired. There are also attractive revolution sliders that make it possible to showcase learning content in a smart manner.
Visit Superwise
School
As the name suggests, this theme is the real deal. With up to 15 widgets and unlimited colors, what more do you need? With it, you can create customized posts for events and picture galleries. There are a custom slider and a feature that allows user rating. The design is highly responsive and features a minimalist interface. Plus, it is lightweight, hence it loads fast.
Visit School
Buntington
Here is a theme for an educational website that also makes it to the top, thanks to a visual homepage builder, a page for courses, events widget, powerful search widget, sliders, gallery builder and shortcodes. Buntington is designed for speed, fast loading, and the interface features a minimalist design.
Visit Buntington
EducationPress
EducationPress has up to seven variants themes for homepage, CoursePress integration plug-in, up to 13 payment gateways, and interactive design platform. More features include widgets for uploading and downloading quizzes, automated/manual instructor assessment, and free/paid course option. It also has a course demo widget for universities and kindergartens.
Visit EducationPress
The Bottom Line
There are tons of educational WordPress themes such as Campus, Univero, EduPro, Education WP and Clever Course. This post has explored some of the best and highly ranked ones in the blogosphere. You can always try one and tweak its features as you please.
This is a guest post by Alyssa Johnson. Alyssa is a web design professional and blogger specializing in WordPress design tips for both upcoming and professional graphic designers. Alyssa has studied animation and holds a degree in graphic design.