Website

WordPress

WordPress is a drag-and-drop website creation service that focuses on being highly customizable and having plenty of features. Of the three services presented here, WordPress has the steepest learning curve. The service has free as well as paid options. It supports paid custom domains as well as the option to have a free x.wordpress.com domain. It is highly recommended that student groups stick to the free version of WordPress and use the free domain option.

• WordPress Tutorials:
  • LinkedIn Learning (Sign in with your IU email for free access)
    • WordPress Essential Training (2 hours, 32 mins)
  • WordPress Support Guides

Wix

Wix is a drag-and-drop website creation service that focuses on being userfriendly and visually appealing. The service has free as well as paid options. It supports paid custom domains as well as the option to have a free x.wix.com domain. It is highly recommended that student groups stick to the free version of Wix and use the free domain option.

• Wix Tutorials:
  • LinkedIn Learning (Sign in with your IU email for free access)
    • Learning Wix (2 hours, 34 mins)
  • Wix Help Center

Google Sites

Google Sites is a drag-and-drop website creation service that is highly simplistic and extremely easy to integrate with other services created by Google. Google Sites is a purely free service with no paid options. It supports paid custom domains and well as free x.??.com domains. It is highly recommended that student groups use the free domain option.

• Google Sites Tutorials:
  • LinkedIn Learning (Sign in with your IU email for free access)
    • Google Sites Essential Training (57 mins)
  • Google Sites Help Center

More Advanced Edits

If you want to make more advanced edits to your website, it can be helpful to have a basic grasp of HTML. Below are some HTML tutorials and resources:

• IU UITS IT Training:
  • HTML5 and CSS: The Basics
  • HTML5 and CSS: Structuring Pages
  • HTML5 and CSS: Creating Style for the Web
• W3Schools HTML Tutorials
• LinkedIn Learning (Sign in with your IU email for free access)
  • HTML Essential Training (2 hours, 45 min)
  • Practical HTML for No-Coders (1 hour, 39 min)

Additional Advanced Website Tool

• GitHub Pages
  • GitHub offers a service to host a website directly from a repository called GitHub Pages. Skills required include basic web development (see HTML5 and CSS links above), git, and probably some command line familiarity.
    • LinkedIn Learning (Sign in with your IU email for free access)
      • Learning GitHub (1 hour, 3 mins)
      • Programming Foundations: Version Control (1 hour, 20 mins)
      • Learning GitHub Pages (2 hours, 38 mins)
• Jekyll
  • Jekyll is a static website generator integrated into GH Pages and is available in many themes and templates. In addition to CSS and HTML, it uses the Liquid syntax template language. Follow this quickstart guide to jump in now if you have development experience.
  • Ruby
    • Ruby is a very high-level programming language on which Liquid syntax is built. Building a Jekyll site on a personal computer requires the installation of Ruby and the Jekyll gem.
  • LinkedIn Learning (Sign in with your IU email for free access)
    • Learning Static Site Building with Jekyll (1 hour, 25 mins)
    • Components of Jekyll (1 hour, 9 mins)