Rappahannock Community College (RCC), a member of the Virginia Community College System, serves the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula of Virginia. It offers a diverse range of academic and career-technical programs aimed at both college transfer and immediate employment, with an emphasis on accessible education tailored to support community needs. RCC's commitment to fostering student success is evident through its robust services and initiatives that extend learning opportunities to both traditional and non-traditional students, positioning it as a pivotal educational institution in the region's development.
In higher education, an institution's website is not just a platform but a dynamic representation of its ethos and excellence. RCC faced a challenge that resonates with many community colleges: Subject matter experts were not able to create, edit, and publish content on their own without the involvement . This barrier impeded timeliness and incurred costs. The transition to a modern CMS marked a pivotal step in RCC's quest for a robust, user-centric web presence.
RCC's legacy WordPress website was less a tool and more a hurdle. Content updates were bottlenecked by the need for HTML coding skills, causing delays and forcing reliance on external contractors, which causes a significant drain on resources and agility. The college sought a solution that would empower its staff with a more direct and flexible way to manage its web content, reflecting the college's dynamic nature while being modern and easy for users to navigate.
RCC leveraged the wisdom of its peers within the Virginia Community College System, seeking insights into a CMS experience beyond the confines of WordPress. Hannon Hill's Cascade CMS emerged as a front-runner for its customization capabilities and the promise of a tailored approach to meet RCC's specific needs.
RCC opted not to migrate old content, favoring a fresh start. RCC engaged Hannon Hill's Professional Services team for changes to the templates and for the CMS implementation, which ensured that different types of users would see custom interfaces to add and edit content, based on their roles and skill sets. RCC chose thee page types, which took approximately two months to implement. Though the decision to forgo content migration extended the timeline, the result was a clean and contemporary site, architected from the ground up for ease of management. The training and support provided by Hannon Hill during this phase were instrumental in ensuring a smooth transition and setting RCC up for sustained success.
No longer constrained by the requirements of HTML knowledge, the RCC team could now update the website swiftly and effortlessly, aligning its digital presence with institutional developments in real-time.
RCC's proudest accomplishment is the comprehensive redevelopment of its site with new content and a refreshed design that embodies the college's spirit. This was a significant feat for a three-person , emphasizing the CMS's user-friendly design and flexibility.
RCC's journey with Cascade CMS was bolstered by the dedication of Hannon Hill's team.
“Nate Sims, Lauren Murray, and Sam Skinner guided us through the entire process and explained everything in terms we understood. Our IT department was not involved in the project, so we had a bit of a learning curve with the technical aspects, but everyone involved with Cascade was patient and understanding,” says Michele Inderrieden, Media Services Manager.