Training to meet OUR's online needs

The Office of Utility Regulations is taking a unique approach to maintain its online presence. Not satisfied to simply update its site with a content management system, the agency wants to make structural changes when necessary.

So Leighton Hamilton, Director of Information Systems at OUR, opted to give his information technology staff what they need to manage their site from soup to nails. That’s where Panmedia came in. Hamilton believes his IT Department should have cutting edge technology tools to manage their site since it is integral to the OUR’s daily operations.

The agency asked Panmedia to train their personnel to use web development and database management tools. Our job is to equip the team with skills to maintain a state-of-the-art website way beyond the CMS’s capabilities. That way they will have fast response time to critical repurposing when they need to engage visitors immediately. 

The training covered XHTML and HTML5, CSS, the Drupal Content Management System, design and programming techniques. The format used both lectures and tutorials, with drop in talks from various Panmedia personnel. Trainees used a test site to simulate the issues that developers face with such projects.

Daemone Brown (left) training members of the OUR staff.

 “This approach to managing their online system is a strong motivating force and will encourage creativity and out of the box thinking,” says Panmedia developer Daemone Brown who designed the course with help from Vivian Gordon and Howard Henry. “We are committed addressing the trainees’ needs first, then using tasks to make the learning objectives explicit.”

Much of the CMS training was focused on interactive content such as a media centre (video and photo galleries, audio archives, press releases), publications archives, web forms, public notices archives, job posting and surveys. Such content are constantly being updated and demands a lot of the attention. Panmedia is also teaching the trainees to add pages, create new sections, change themes and troubleshoot common issues.

The OUR regulates telecommunications, electricity, water, sewerage and transportation sectors, and its website facilitates sharing of timely information on registration, regulations, guidelines, news and events, for its licensees, stakeholders and the general public.