Make WordPress Scale
How to run WP across a university system
WPCampus 2017 | Canisius College | Buffalo, NY | Fri Jul 14 2pm
NYU Team
Instructional Technologists
Malik Singleton,�Peter Arbaugh�NYU IT Instructional Technology & Services
Jenny Kijowski�Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Kelsey Buttendorf�Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
NYU's Web Publishing Service
University-wide WordPress platform serves our satellite institutions around the city and around the world.
New York City Campus
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NYU operates a Global Network
Abu Dhabi
Accra
Berlin
Buenos Aires
Florence
London
Madrid
New York City
Paris
Prague
Shanghai
Singapore
Sydney
Tel Aviv
Washington DC
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Matters of Scale - Malik
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You can scale up and also scale down
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We had to make key decisions
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
We had to make key decisions
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
We had to make key decisions
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
We had to make key decisions
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
We had to make key decisions
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
We had to make key decisions
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
Self-Service Model
Empower users to learn by doing (and deleting)
Site Setup Wizard
Customer Service System
Knowledge Base & Center
Sidekick
Lynda
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Site Setup Wizard
A self-service form walks users through steps that establish basic site settings (including URL), then choices of a theme and optional plugins.
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Site Setup Wizard
A self-service form walks users through steps that establish basic site settings (including URL), then choices of a theme and optional plugins.
The process can take about 30 seconds.
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Here's where users help us scale
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Site Setup Wizard
Neel's Site Setup Wizard is available to everyone as a plugin!
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Scale means something different for each group
DIVISION | RESPONSIBILITY |
IT | Tech Infrastructure: Can the system handle capacity and networking matters? |
Legal | Policies: Are the Terms of Service too vague or too specific for change? |
Biz | Budget: Does money scale? Has enough been allocated for future needs? |
HR | People and Time: Can the team manage the demands of the service as it expands? |
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
Scale means something different for each group
DIVISION | RESPONSIBILITY |
IT | Tech Infrastructure: Can the system handle capacity and networking matters? |
Legal | Policies: Are the Terms of Service too vague or too specific for change? |
Biz | Budget: Does money scale? Has enough been allocated for future needs? |
HR | People and Time: Can the team manage the demands of the service as it expands? |
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
Scale means something different for each group
DIVISION | RESPONSIBILITY |
IT | Tech Infrastructure: Can the system handle capacity and networking matters? |
Legal | Policies: Are the Terms of Service too vague or too specific for change? |
Biz | Budget: Does money scale? Has enough been allocated for future needs? |
HR | People and Time: Can the team manage the demands of the service as it expands? |
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
Scale means something different for each group
DIVISION | RESPONSIBILITY |
IT | Tech Infrastructure: Can the system handle capacity and networking matters? |
Legal | Policies: Are the Terms of Service too vague or too specific for change? |
Biz | Budget: Does money scale? Has enough been allocated for future needs? |
HR | People and Time: Can the team manage the demands of the service as it expands? |
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
Scale means something different for each group
DIVISION | RESPONSIBILITY |
IT | Tech Infrastructure: Can the system handle capacity and networking matters? |
Legal | Policies: Are the Terms of Service too vague or too specific for change? |
Biz | Budget: Does money scale? Has enough been allocated for future needs? |
HR | People and Time: Can the team manage the demands of the service as it expands? |
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
We optimize for fast performance over high traffic
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Last year we migrated cloud hosts
A. Our page load times went from 10.5 to 2.5 secs
B. Our costs were reduced about 45%
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
Last year we migrated cloud hosts
A. Our page load times went from 10.5 to 2.5 secs
B. Our costs were reduced about 45%
bit.ly/WPcNYu17
Service Mgt. Team
Set expectations and justify boundaries
Annual Downsizing
Strict Vetting Process
Universal restrictions
CSS only, no JS, PHP or DB
No promises or guarantees
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Serve the Masses
Listen to and learn from your users
Conduct Surveys
Analyze Metrics
Integrate other tools
Define clear use cases
Automate repeated tasks
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We are automating routines to address
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Metrics inform configuration & strategy
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Metrics & Scale
6,437 sites
within our multisite installation
21,861 users
registered
Our metrics solutions
Google Analytics
WP Network Stats https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-network-stats/
Metrics help us define clear use cases.
Who are our site owners?
Why do users create sites?
What types of sites do our users have?
Where are our users located?
Professional studies
Where are our users located?
How is WP used?
49 themes
available to our users
56%
of our users are using 1 of 8 themes.
When is WP used?
Metrics help us answer specific questions.
How many faculty in Dentistry are site owners?
“We need the paid version of ___________.”
Scaling our metrics
Our current methods have not scaled well, so where do we go from here?
Gallatin Use Cases - Jenny
The Gallatin School of Individualized Study
Liberal Arts Education
Interdisciplinary, Experiential
Academic + Artistic
Self-Directed Learning
Faculty Advisers
Support
In person & Online,
General & Individualized
Faculty workshops
In-class student training
1-on-1 consultations
Gallatin Directory of WP Sites
NYU Resources
Course Sites
Need: Alternative to LMS (Sakai), with public-facing option, better blogging platform, and custom options
Solution: Templated course site with opportunities for student-generated content and granular visibility options
USE CASES
ePortfolio
Need: Platform to help students organize & showcase work, and reflect on learning
Solution: Templated ePortfolios w/ IA to suggest content, but customizable
USE CASES
Everything else!
Need: Create a site dedicated to faculty and adviser resources, separate from Gallatin’s public-facing website.
Solution:
USE CASES
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development
By the #’s
Art & Art Professions
Music & Performing Arts Professions
Media, Culture, & Communication
CULTURE
Applied Psychology
Physical Therapy
Occupational Therapy
Communicative, Sciences, & Disorders
Nutrition & Food Studies
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Administration, Leadership, & Technology
Teaching & Learning
Applied Statistics, Social Science, & Humanities
EDUCATION
11 Academic Departments
17 Research Centers
292 Faculty
5,853 Students
Support
Fielding & Forwarding
Trainings & Workshops (Classrooms & Open Hours)
Utilizing the LMS for Training
Organizing NYU Resources
Portfolio
Need: NYU-branded identical portfolios
Solution: Templated design with organized “buckets” for content.
Occupational Therapy
Research
Need: Create a Lab public website
Solution: WP theme website for outside-NYU community
Communicative, Sciences, & Disorders
Course Site
Need: Misuse of class time, disorganization of resources
Solution: Fully developed course site broken into weekly modules
Communicative, Sciences, & Disorders
Thank You!
Leave feedback at https://2017.wpcampus.org/session-survey/515