Use of Drupal in Turkey has been widening as it has already entered education and the government sector regarding web infrastructure. Sabanci University, one of the best examples of private universities in Turkey, has carried its entire web infrastructure to Drupal and has been managing digital needs of its users thoroughly all over the campus.

A small team of Sabanci University Information Technology has performed many implementations through the use of Drupal some of which may be mentioned as: more than 150 websites; university internal service intranet, MySu for university applications; internal social network for all announcements and campus events; GazeteSU, the Sabanci newspaper; documentation management system; alumni portal; Sabanci Museum activities; and all mobile web implementations for sharing of information, networking, and communication.

We integrated Drupal with Banner Student Information System, Sakai Learning Management System, Payment Systems, Principles & Instruction System, Lotus Workflow, Sympa list server, Sugar CRM Alumni Management System (With Drupal), mobile applications etc. By attending this session, attendees will learn about the technical details of how such systems were integrated and also about the ways in which we solved those problems.

What: We transferred various web-based application and web sites at the University to the Drupal infrastructure. We are managing the content feeds for over 150 websites using Drupal.

How:While we previously used our own content management software, developed in-house, we have now transferred that infrastructure to Drupal and developed Drupal modules to display students data, courses, faculty information on websites.

Why: We needed a platform in order to manage the web sites and web based applications on campus. It had to be easy to manage on the IT-end and user-friendly, so this need web infrastructure need drew us to moving over to Drupal.

Who: We completed this whole project with a web team of only 5 people. We initially organized a Drupal training within to reach the same level of knowledge.

When: We have been conducting the Drupal transition project for the last 1.5 years and still continue with ongoing projects.

Result: From an IT prospective, we have gained knowledge and possession of an infrastructure that is manageable and fulfills the digital needs of the whole campus. Just by learning Drupal, the users effortlessly use various applications on campus.

This presentation is the success story of how various needs can be satisfied and solutions can be found to many complex issues of universities and other educational institutions as Drupal can work wonders within the educational medium. I believe the story of our experience with Drupal at SU may benefit both the educators in Turkey and the international community gathering in Amsterdam.