A faculty and staff website directory should be easy to find—and easy to navigate. Yet all too often, directories are buried in sub-menus on a school’s website or not even listed at all, and many fail to provide relevant information to guide students and staff to the right contact.
A CMS purpose-built for higher education enables you to build and manage a dynamic directory that enforces design consistency while giving faculty and staff control over their own pages.
Before spending money on a canned directory or devoting precious resources to creating a master directory in house, check out these top seven college directories to see how they creatively expanded the idea of a general directory into a smart resource for users.
What is higher education directory software?
In its most basic format, a higher education website directory provides contact information for faculty and staff. It's also where you can showcase the accomplishments of faculty and staff by listing research projects, publications and any other useful information in personalized profiles for a website visitor.
A CMS purpose-built for higher ed makes it easy for faculty and staff to update their own listings. This eliminates the time-consuming task of keeping the directory up to date for IT and website teams by giving faculty and staff control of their directory content.
Why is a higher education directory important for students?
A directory allows students to quickly find correct and important information about a department and faculty they want to learn about. It also helps them reach out to the right faculty member through the right channel.
Modern students, especially Gen Z, are accustomed to finding anything they need online using their mobile devices. Therefore, having a directory accessible through mobile devices is the best way to empower students to connect with faculty.
Benefits of a higher education directory
A higher education institution’s directory can be the go-to place for students to learn about the institution, departments and faculty. Here are some benefits:
1. Saves time in researching schools
2. Provides comprehensive information about schools
3. Helps narrow down choices based on specific criteria
4. Can help identify scholarship and financial aid opportunities
5. Improves communication between faculty, staff and students
6. Allows students to quickly locate support services and other on-campus resources
7. Facilitates student-faculty interactions
8. Finds potential collaborators, such as research and other extracurricular activities
9. Gives an overview of the campus and its amenities
10. Gives students access to scholarships and financial aid information
A college directory is a great resource for both current and prospective students. It provides a comprehensive list of all available programs and services, as well as contact information for faculty and staff.
With a college directory, students can easily find the specific departments and resources relevant to their interests. A college directory can be used as a reference for current students to stay up to date on changes to the college or its offerings.
Examples of top higher education directories
Arkansas State University-Beebe
Arkansas State University-Beebe provides general contact information in a clear listing. Presented in the format of a vCard, you can download the contact info directly into your personal contact directory.
Arkansas State University-Beebe lists contacts in the form of cards that can then be downloaded from their faculty directory.
The Arkansas State University-Beebe faculty directory allows you to search by name, department or campus and provides staff and faculty with details on how to update their profiles directly from the directory page.
Florida Gulf Coast University
Florida Gulf Coast University’s directory automatically conducts word searches from one main search box, including partial titles, office addresses and email addresses. Presented in one comprehensive list, you can click on the email or phone number to automatically compose an email or make a call from your computer or smartphone. Plus, the higher education directory software is seamlessly integrated into their CMS.
Florida Gulf Coast University makes it easy to search for staff or faculty using name, address or title.
Queens University of Charlotte
Queens University of Charlotte provides one of the most comprehensive faculty directories in our list. The directory opens by highlighting various faculty in tiles below the standard department dropdown menu and search box.
Tacoma Community College lists vital contact information directly on the directory page.
Upon clicking a faculty tile, a biography for the faculty or staff member appears, providing contact information, career accomplishments, education, publications and other related information.
Tacoma Community College
The directory for Tacoma Community College is a comprehensive list that provides all vital contact information directly on the search page.
Tacoma Community College lists vital contact information directly on the directory page.
This style allows users to search the directory by type, including adjunct faculty, work study, classified, hourly, exempt professional and faculty. Users can also search by a specific department.
University of South Carolina School of Music
Rather than scroll through a list of all faculty and staff in search of the right contact, the University of South Carolina School of Music faculty directory lets you limit results by faculty only. From the directory list, you can then click to a personalized page featuring contact information and a biographic sketch for the faculty member. Faculty and staff can customize their profile pages with comprehensive bios, audio samples and more.
The University of South Carolina School of Music faculty directory can be personalized by individual contacts.
Indian Hills Community College
Indian Hills Community College makes it easy to find and identify faculty by providing a picture directly on the search results page.
Indian Hills Community College makes it quick and easy to find contact information.
The search box stays at the top of the directory page, making it easy to perform multiple searches without having to go back to the directory home page.
Wenatchee Valley College
Wenatchee Valley College gives users an option for displaying information, either in a list on the results page, or with tiles that include an individual’s name and contact information.
Wenatchee Valley College’s directory is attractive and informative, with both images and information appearing on the directory results page.
When you click on the contact’s name in the college directory, you’ll navigate to a more detailed listing that includes education and biographical information, all of which can be customized by the individual faculty or staff member.
Factors to consider when choosing a higher education directory software
Directory software shouldn’t be confusing to navigate or complicated to implement. If your school is shopping for faculty and staff directory software, be sure to review options that are:
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Easy to edit
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Offer brand consistency
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Integrate with external databases
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Allow for uniform duplication throughout your website
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Let users create multi-functional profiles
The Modern Campus CMS Faculty Directory module makes it easy for faculty and staff to update their own listings. This eliminates the time-consuming task of keeping the directory up to date for IT and website teams by giving faculty and staff control of their directory content.
The module features:
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Easy editing with form regions that make it easy to add and edit content in profiles
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Brand consistency enforcement with customizable templates designed to complement your overall website
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Systems integration that pulls existing content from external databases such as PeopleSoft, Ellucian Banner, Jenzabar, or legacy databases
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Multi-functional profiles to highlight staff, students, alumni, faculty, buildings and more
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Uniform duplication so that your directory can be recreated on multiple pages throughout your website, featuring different information but maintaining the same uniform design and look
The Modern Campus CMS Faculty Directory module does all this and more. Connect with our team to learn how we can elevate the online presence of your school’s faculty and staff.
Last updated: June 26, 2023
