I teach journalism at Leeds Beckett University, and we needed a student news site that would:
- cope with hundreds of users
- have the appropriate access levels for students, tutors and external examiners
- have a customisable dashboard and admin area to make things clear for students
- look like a proper news website
- have safeguards to protect against copyright infringement
I built a multisite network so students could be set up on a completely private site in their first year – the Sandbox – moving onto the main news site – Leeds Now – in their second year, keeping the same user login to make it easy for them and for me.
I have used plugins including:
- PublishPress (multiple authors, groups, permissions, checklists)
- Image Source Control (to help avoid copyright infringements)
- Branda (to customise dashboard, menus and login screen)
- Author Filters (makes marking so much easier)
- Instant Images (adds Unsplash search to the media library for copyright-free photographs)
The biggest challenge has been having hosting that can cope with so many users, especially when lots are logging in at the same time.
I am happy to share knowledge with other journalism lecturers so please get in touch if that’s you.