25 of the Best Websites for Educational Institutions
Published May 19th, 2009 in Galleries
The need for schools, universities and other educational institutions to have a quality website is constantly increasing as online technologies become a bigger part of the educational process, and as students and prospective students turn to the internet for information.
In this post we’ll feature 25 well-designed educational websites.
UPDATE: You may also be interested in 30+ Outstanding College and University Websites.
Office of Communications – The University of Texas
Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence
Maryland Institute College of Art
Global College – Long Island University
Forest & Wildlife Research Center – MSU
For more design inspiration, please see:
82 Responses
Byron Bay Schoolies is NOT an educational institution.
It’s an accommodation directory for school leavers going on their post-graduation holiday [a.k.a. schoolies].
Nothing educational about that!
Very nice selection. Thanks a lot.
Indiana University just launched a new homepage this week and it’s pretty sweet, too. http://www.iub.edu/
Don’t forget http://www.fullsail.edu/
I think you’re forgetting the coolest: http://www.assumption.edu
I’ll promote a few more BU designs:
http://www.bu.edu
http://www.bu.edu/ar
http://www.bu.edu/admissions/
Great list! Very helpful in seeing some of the more reputable online educational sources. They are way too many out there that are a scam and not legit.
Thanks!
Great list. Many of these sites are nominated for Awards in the eduStyle Higher-Ed Web Awards. People’s Choice voting is open until June 1st
http://www.edustyle.net/awards/2009/ballot.php
If you really want to dig into higher-ed web design, http://www.edustyle.net is the place to start.
wonderful designs.
UMass Amherst used to have a great all-CSS design until a few months ago. Not sure who designed the latest version of http://www.umass.edu but it definitely pales in comparison to the previous version: http://web.archive.org/web/20070202193903rn_1/umass.edu/umhome/index.php
If you liked ashville, there’s more here:
http://www.silverpoint.net/design/portfolio.aspx
Glad you have some VA schools
Go Hookies!
Heres another,
http://www.nvcc.edu
just to reiterate what Lachlan Payne said… Byron Bay Schoolies is definitely not educational! Schoolies is just a massive piss up for school leavers most of which are below the legal drinking age.
Whilst not an educational institute, its for educational purposes. Looks good too.
http://www.studyadelaide.com/
I’m honored to be on the list (especially @ #2) and in such great company!
As a designer of higher ed websites (I designed the Global College website on this list), it’s great to see the rising tide of EDU web work.
P.S. We all need to bow down to the New Media team at BU. At this point, they’re lapping the field.
They’re very well-designed Web sites, but what about the usability or compliance measures of the sites?
Is that incorporated into a “best” .edu category?
Just a thought.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Kaplan University’s website:
http://talent.kaplan.edu/home.aspx
i mean it’s done in flash, not sure if that’s the criteria for this post…
“Byron Bay Schoolies is NOT an educational institution.”
the title is 25 of the Best Websites FOR Educational Institutions.
As the owner of Byron Bay Schoolies I have done a few talks to schools students and find it is a good resource for educational institutions and their students.
Maxbeatty,
Thanks. IU’s site looks really good.
Samsntha,
That’s a pretty good site too. Thanks.
Karen,
That site’s not bad, but honestly I don’t like it as much as the others.
Stewart and Cody,
EduStyle is a great niche gallery.
Carla,
Usability is every bit as important as appearance. However, for the purposes of this post I was pretty much just going based on design and aesthetics. Honestly, I didn’t have the time to do much usability testing on sites to see how they did.
Very nice, but check out
http://www.iupui.edu
Some nice sites…
Heres the site from our College – http://webelieveyoucan.co.uk/
Thanks, nice site.
Our college has a nice website too – http://limkokwing.edu.my
Nice, fantastic selection. Now I see all the site!
Is a good post for the creativity…more idea here!
Undoubtedly fantastic sites..but are they easily navigable?
Their are some amazing designers put on this planet and they are all here with this fantastic list of well design websites. Well done thanks for this post!
I thought you might be interested in another educational resource called Explore.org. Explore is a library of philanthropy that consists of short documentary films, stunning photography, and interviews with great minds from the non-profit world. Check out the website at http://explore.org. Enjoy!
i liked all the websites and it is a great effort.
we at fomaxtech.com too do lot of educational websites and it was great ideas we learned out of the 25 designs.
thanks
rajesh
Bennington College should be on this list. http://www.bennington.edu/
Wow Stone Laboratory has a very nice design.
All of the others are elegant and beautiful, just the first one caught my eye.
Our Sucktastic college site
http://cob.edu.bs/
Check out my alma matter’s site. Great use of the hand made elements in web design
http://www.kutztown.edu/acad/commdes/
This is very nice work – thanks for the inspiration. We just finished a site for an educational institution we’re proud of and thought we’d return the favor.
http://www.stdavidscenter.org/
All the best
Todd
Great list – wonderful designs.
thanks…
exellent!
Byron Bay Schoolies is not an educational institution no matter how many talks you present. It doesn’t belong here. Just quietly, I live 45mins from there, and it seems to be more about drinking, money and sex than anything even remotely related to education. Otherwise, excellent list and some really great work there.
It is really amazing what kind of services they can now offer through a great design.
thank very much.
Don’t forget our newly refurbed online site: http://www.pointblankonline.net
And I did not know that many Educational Institutions have a professional design of their sites! Thank you for the article!
You have missed http://www.learnerstv.com the most amazing educational website which I have visited. They provide nearly 10, 000 of free video lecture courses and animations.
What I like about it, is that it is not cluttered and is easy to navigate.
Excellent list. From a marketing standpoint – VCU seems to be the only one that focuses on the student and what they want. The rest look like b2b templates and something catering to the parents, well, they are paying the bills.
Stone Laboratory has a very good design.
All of the others are beautiful.
Nice, fantastic selection.
Also, I have some more information about online courses.
Thank You.
The most modern and beautiful seemed to me the site Stone Laboratory – it is really quality made and looks like most youth. Other designs are made in classic style. In general, looking at this post, you can clearly see for themselves: “What should be an educational site?” Thank you.
Well done.This is a very good list of educational websites althought Byron Bay Schoolies might seem to be a little off the list. Regarding the list, how about the navigation of pages? I’m not to keen on visiting not unless the site is very easy to “direct”.
awesome collection here thanks.
I consider that the design of a site which is devoted formation, should be executed in strict style, but as it students will look and use basically to add still interactivities! Very much it was pleasant as it is stylishly made «Washtenaw Community College». Thanks for a selection!
As a designer of educational websites, it’s great to see some excellent designs.
Website design is an art and therefore not all can be as creative as some of the excellent ones portrayed here. Great job guys!
Thanks for this great collection of educational websites. Good content as well as inspired web design ideas.
Cheers
Check out Stevens: http://www.stevens.edu
This is a very good list of educational websites althought Byron Bay Schoolies might seem to be a little off the list.
I have to admit that this is a very cool collection. We are in the process of developing such a website and it is always nice to get inspired. Keep up the good work you guys!
We are looking at improving our web site and this was a great collection to look at. Anyone with ideas for our current site http://www.bepaidtotravel.com is welcome to input to me at fmslater@hotmail.com
Frank Slater, CEO
International Guide Academy, Inc.
The most modern and beautiful seemed to me the site Stone Laboratory – it is really quality made and looks like most youth. Other designs are made in classic style. In general, looking at this post, you can clearly see for themselves: “What should be an educational site?” Thank you.
I especially liked the third, fifth and sixth site!
I agree with diseno – the most modern and beautiful seemed to me the site Stone Laboratory
Respect to the love that Notre Dame got here!!!
Sessions College is really good also: http://www.sessions.edu
Don’t get me wrong, the list above is great but it could be expanded upon
Michelle,
I’m sure there are plenty of other good sites out there. It wasn’t intended to be an exhaustive list, so thanks for the suggestion.
Excellent Collection and inspirational. I would like to recommend one http://www.educatenepal.com from my country
Hi this is a really nice website of an educational institute http://www.vritam.in
Really different from what we usually get to see.
Being technically proficient, but artistically challenged, I enjoy coming across these evaluations. It at least helps me refine my sense of aesthetics, if not my ability to do proper design.
Thank you. I have bookmarked your blog.
mcc
we just recently completed a school website for a catholic school in Auckland, New Zealand – http://stfrancis.school.nz/
inspirational- school sites can sometimes be stuffy but none of these are
You should also look at design penetration. A lot of these sites have pretty lousy penetration. For instance, the Texas’ College of Education looks pretty meh compared to the home page for the entire school. Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech are examples of excellent penetration. Even some faculty personal sites are developed by the designers of the school’s website.