Great Plains College Combines Functionality with Ease and Warmth

Great Plains College is Saskatchewan’s newest college, formed in 2008 through a merger of two former colleges with over 65 years combined experience. It prides itself on providing "Education with Energy"—responding to student, community, and business needs.

Great Plains College offers an array of certificate and diploma programs, as well as a robust university program [including some full-degree options], Adult Basic Education and many shorter professional development courses. The Energy Training Centre caters specifically to the training needs of the oil and gas sector. With over 5000 enrollments each year, the college has been on a growth trajectory for the past three years. Great Plains College also offers the most aggressive scholarship program in the province.

Prior to the launch of their new website January 6, 2009, this post-secondary institution initially grappled with the challenge of creating one website to represent 10 locations across western Saskatchewan. The final result is a website that offers comprehensive, functional, and professional content combined with a friendly user experience and warm design.

"The new website definitely aided our branding efforts by helping create a strong visual identity and easy access to information about what the new Great Plains College is all about. It is a key tool not only as the public face of the college, but also as an internal resource for our staff." Teresa Cole, Director of Planning & Communication, Great Plains College.

"Because our college is rapidly growing and changing, it was critical for us to have maximum control over content. Classes and programs can be added or edited easily, information can be updated, and new features and pages can be designed and added as needs arise." Jennifer McConnell, Public Relations and Promotions Coordinator, Great Plains College.

"Every website has different information presentation challenges," notes Levi Myers, zu’s Manager of User Experience. "Great Plains College offers many different courses; the solution for presenting these without overwhelming potential students was to separate programs from courses. The programs section gives an overview of all the courses required, while the courses section presents students with an intuitive, advanced search option, that starts narrowing down their results as they type. From a compliancy standpoint, integrating a Drupal backend allows Great Plains College to have full control over their content without compromising the layout or functionality of the site."

About Great Plains College
Great Plains College is dedicated to enhance economic prosperity and the quality of life of residents of western Saskatchewan through education and training. As part of an integrated post-secondary education system, it is a provincial leader in energy sector training, and is responsive to learners, employers, and communities. Great Plains College, created through a merger of Prairie West College and Cypress Hills College came into existence on July 1, 2008. The new college’s region includes more than 100,000 square kilometers and 115,000 people, encompassing the area bordered by the US border to the south, Alberta border to the west, a northern border including the community of Macklin and the greater Saskatoon area and a final border east of communities including Hanley, Outlook, Elbow, Central Butte, Caronport, Gravelbourg and Lafleche.