University of Rennes

Sector(s)

Education

Team Members

ryad karar, amelieportela, rouaida, Alexandre Pons, Carole Khalife, christina_abboud, lara_z, georges adwan, marounmt

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Organizations Involved

bluedrop.fr

The University of Rennes entrusted us with the redesign of its course directory, an essential tool for high school students, university students, and professionals retraining for new careers. Our goal: to clarify and streamline the user experience by rethinking the information hierarchy and optimizing the navigation flow.

About the project

The challenges of the project

Clarification of the offer: Enable users to easily find information and showcase the range of courses.
Facilitating applications: As the directory is a central registration tool, it must simplify the process for prospective students to apply.
Internal tool for the university: Provide teaching teams with a tool they can make their own to better promote their programs.
Integrate the site with the university's Aegir factory and upgrade to Drupal: using our Aegir-Drupal10 patch to progressively upgrade all the sites in the site factory to Drupal 10.

A training catalog combining thoroughness and clarity

We have chosen an accordion system, combining both thoroughness and clarity. This setup allows users to get a concise overview of the available training programs while giving them the option to expand the sections that interest them to access more details.

A logical and simple presentation of the training offer

In the same vein, for the presentation of the training courses, we have implemented a clear hierarchy of content through a navigation sub-menu. This structures the information logically and appropriately, making it easier for users to understand and access the different sections.Setting up the ElasticSearch search engine

We have selected, implemented, and integrated advanced features into the ElasticSearch search engine:

Autocomplete for terms;
Management of synonyms and grammatical variations;
Relevance-based sorting to improve search results.

Setting up the ElasticSearch search engine

We have selected, implemented, and integrated advanced features into the ElasticSearch search engine:

Autocomplete for terms;
Management of synonyms and grammatical variations;
Relevance-based sorting to improve search results.

Automate the generation of PDF training sheets

We have integrated a feature that automatically generates PDF files from the course descriptions, offering users a downloadable version of the content. We have also added a unique QR Code for each course on the PDF files, making it easier to share information on mobile devices.

Organizing university contributions to maintain the overall quality of the site

We have implemented the Content Moderation module. It allows you to set up a workflow between various defined roles: Supervisor, Central Service Representative, Component Representative, and Administrator. Thanks to this solution, program managers, professors, and other contributors can freely enter content related to their courses. The central body, in turn, can oversee everything, thereby ensuring the overall quality and harmony of the site.

See our blor article for more information -->

Why Drupal was chosen

Drupal was chosen to provide the University of Rennes with a flexible and scalable platform capable of handling a complex training catalogue while fitting into the university’s existing digital ecosystem.

Its structured content model makes it possible to manage a large and evolving training offer while keeping information clear and consistent for prospective students, students and professionals.

Drupal also provides granular editorial workflows and permissions. This was particularly important for the University of Rennes, where programme managers and teaching teams contribute content while a central team retains control over publication and overall quality.

Another key advantage was Drupal’s ability to integrate with the university’s existing site factory and technical infrastructure. The project could therefore evolve the training directory without creating an isolated platform, while supporting the progressive migration of the university’s websites to newer Drupal versions.

Finally, Drupal’s open and extensible architecture made it possible to integrate Elasticsearch, advanced search features and custom functionalities such as automated PDF generation, while keeping the platform ready for future developments.

For higher education institutions looking for a secure, scalable and sustainable CMS for university websites, training catalogues or complex digital ecosystems, Drupal provides a solid foundation that can adapt to both organisational and user needs.