How to scale WordPress across a university

Date: Friday, July 14, 2017
Time: 2:00 - 2:45 pm (EDT) (UTC-04:00)
Location: Room 1053
Format: General Lecture Session

Session description

Let's talk about scale! Does your WordPress service scale well? Do your users agree? If remote access is a factor at your statewide system, your satellite institution (or that really far building), then this session is for you. NYU has campuses around the world, yet our model for scaling WordPress can work for schools of any size. We will share our most important strategies for scaling up (and down) across a university.

Participants will learn how we:

  • Designed a self-service model
  • Grew the service around real use cases
  • Enforce processes for annual downsizing
  • Employ a strict vetting process for new features
  • Use automation for testing and upgrading
  • Capture metrics to inform decisions

Presenters

Jenny Kijowski

Headshot of Jenny Kijowski
Educational Technologist, NYU Gallatin

Jenny is NYU Gallatin’s educational technologist. She is responsible for facilitating the development of pedagogically driven, technology-enhanced teaching practices in the classroom and beyond. She previously served as an instructional technology fellow at Macaulay Honors College and received her doctorate in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research examines war, trauma, gender and technology.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: How to scale WordPress across a university

Peter Arbaugh

Headshot of Peter Arbaugh
Instructional Technologist, NYU IT

Peter is a graduate of the digital media design for learning program at New York University. He is interested in instructional design and evaluation, games in education, second language acquisition and the design of museum spaces from an educational perspective.

Peter began living outside the United States after completing high school. After graduating with a BA in history and a minor in East Asian language and culture (Japanese) from the University of British Columbia, he went on to live in China and Japan. In Japan he changed the expectations for foreign English teachers in a rural high school with his business level Japanese, strong work ethic and commitment to bringing creativity into his lessons. After relocating to the Kansai region those communication skills were essential in maintaining good relationships with parents and host schools while delivering engaging lessons tailored to his students.

Peter has exposure to six different languages, including bilingual abilities in English and Japanese (with JLPT N1 certification), Spanish for basic communication honed while living on a permaculture farm in Chilean Patagonia, and enough Standard Chinese to work and live in northern China (albeit not gracefully).

Creativity and adaptability have been essential to Peter's experiences studying, working and living outside of the United States, and he brings this as well as his own love of teaching and learning to his projects.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: How to scale WordPress across a university

Malik Singleton

Headshot of Malik Singleton
Educational Technologist, NYU IT

Malik Singleton trains higher education faculty in the best ways to use technology in their courses. His work with NYU IT involves WordPress, instructional media, classroom technologies and learning management systems. Malik also teaches interactive data reporting at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He has worked previously in online news and in web development. Now Malik applies that experience to education technology.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: How to scale WordPress across a university

Kelsey Buttendorf

Headshot of Kelsey Buttendorf
Senior Instructional Technologist, NYU Steinhardt

Kelsey Buttendorf received her master's degree in digital media design for learning at New York University, and has received her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in anthropology from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Her experience as a teacher prompted her to recognize the lack of a technology enhanced education in early education classrooms, which piqued her initial interest in educational technology. She is specifically interested in the generational adoption of a digital literacy and a digital citizenship curriculum from PK through higher ed, where the unified goals are to create a college-ready student and a career-ready graduate.

Sessions

  • General Lecture Session: How to scale WordPress across a university

Session video

Sessions were recorded and have been uploaded. View the schedule or visit our main videos page to view the videos.

Sponsors

President Sponsor

Vice-President Sponsor

Graduate Sponsors

Undergraduate Sponsors