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Vanderbilt Digital Strategies

Website Tools, Training and Resources

The Vanderbilt Digital Strategies team sets standards for university web properties, ensuring consistent content, user experience, and brand representation. We empower schools, departments and centers to develop and manage sites effectively by providing accessible resources and brand-compliant templates and components.

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Getting Started

The resources below are designed to quickly train you on how to create and maintain sites within the university's latest theme called FutureVU Digital.

Website Training Hub

  • FutureVU WordPress Training: First, take an introductory course for creating and managing sites.
  • FutureVU Design Guidelines: When you're ready to start building and editing pages, explore (in the top navigation bar):
    • Foundations: Color Palettes, Themes and Fonts 
    • Page Layout: Navigation, Page Templates and Tables
    • Components: Library of all modules including buttons, images, lists, callouts, forms and how to display people and news.
  • FutureVU Website Resources:
    • Writing for the Web: Content best practices
    • Image Best Practices: Access to VU Digital Asset Management (DAM) and tips on curating images
    • Video Best Practices: Adding videos to Vanderbilt's YouTube and embedding on your site
    • Google Analytics: Baseline training on running reports to get valuable data about your site.

Roles & Responsibilities

  • Your Responsibilities as a Site Manager

    As a site manager, your responsibilities include: 

    • Defining site goals, audiences and priorities
    • Creating, writing and maintaining site content
    • Selecting images 
    • Building pages and making updates in WordPress or OmniUpdate
    • Collaborating with your team, school, or department for reviews and approvals
  • Digital Strategies' Responsibilities

    When you're ready to create or update a site, Digital Strategies provides the following services:

    • Setup and launch assistance
    • Content and navigation guidance
    • WordPress Training tools for non-developers
    • Comprehensive pre-launch site review 
    • Web and SEO best practices 
    • Technical support through the Help Desk

Need Additional Support?

Request a New Project

Use this Wrike form for all new digital strategies projects including: 

  • New websites
  • Strategic content review
  • Design consultation
  • Large-scale navigation alterations
Make a Request

Submit a Help Desk Ticket

Use this form for technical questions related to VU websites or managed applications: 

  • Help with a Legacy site: Omni Update or Anchor Down.
  • Access to WordPress, Google Analytics or web forms
  • Image issues
  • Page or site not loading
Submit a Ticket

Resources for Agency Partners

Are you an agency partner? Login with your VUnetID to access our Agency Website Tools & Training Guide.