Extension hosts a robust WordPress environment with integrated Extension branding. Our current web strategy consists of 3 major components.

• Extension home - Institutional information such as our mission, highlighted programs, news, events, staff directory, and Institute landing pages that act as a portal to our educational Topic Hubs.
• Topic Hubs - Generally organized by Extension Programs, Topic Hubs consolidate the programs and information of educators throughout the state into a topically focused hub of everything related to that topic.
• County websites - Our local connection is what differentiates Extension from other UW outreach programs. Extension County websites provide

For more information about public-focused websites, please contact the Extension office of Communications & Stakeholder Engagement.

Extension leverages two primary platforms for internal, employee-focused websites.

Office 365 SharePoint/Teams (Extension Intranet)

Extension has built a robust intranet in SharePoint for internal websites, business workflows documents, newsletters, team collaboration (MS Teams), team calendars, and more, with a robust search that customizes results based on your individual affiliations.

For information on getting a SharePoint website, contact Kevin Graeme at ETS.

Extension Handbook (KnowledgeBase)

Built on UW-Madison’s KnowledgeBase platform, the Extension Handbook is a one-stop shop for Extension Employee Policies and Procedures.

Extension maintains a centralized YouTube channel for hosting educational videos. Extension also has a separate channel for internal, employee-focused videos. For information see:

• ETS - YouTube - Extension's Official Internal and Public YouTube channels
• ETS - YouTube - Submitting video to Extension's YouTube Channels
• Compliance - Accessibility (ADA) - Video Captioning - Divisional Policy

Extension has central social media presences for both Facebook and Twitter. If you have an Extension program that you would like to have highlighted on these, contact the Extension office of Communications & Stakeholder Engagement.

Additionally, various Extension programs and counties run audience-targeted social media which are handled on an individual basis.

As part of UW-Madison, Extension utilizes Canvas as the Learning Management System for online courses. Canvas can be used for both public education as well as internal employee training.

See: ETS - Canvas - Extension Canvas Courses

UW-Madison provides multiple platforms for both cloud-based documents and local network file storage. To try and help simplify when to use which, we provide the following guidance:

Google Drive

• Public learner/partner collaboration and sharing.
• Quick personal/small-workgroup files

MS 365 SharePoint/Teams

• Institutional knowledge and official documents.
• Desktop-integrated file storage for Institutes and teams
• Full integration with Windows and MS Office
• Generally limited to Extension employees and UW partners

MS 365 OneDrive

• Personal document storage
• Full integration with Windows and MS Office

Box

• Legacy cloud platform at UW-Madison
• Best limited to collaborating with other UW-Madison offices that have standardized on it.
• Special options for HIPAA-compliant storage (requires additional setup).
• Extension ETS does not provide Box support

See: UW-Madison Box - Getting Started

Many other options exist on campus for file storage and management for specialized needs such as sensitive research data. Contact Extension Educational Technology Support (ETS) for guidance.

Zoom

• Primary tool for video conferencing used in Extension. 

• Best video quality

• Use when working with public clients and partners

MS Teams

• Fully integrated with Microsoft tools

• Easy to schedule meetings through Outlook

• Quick for individual person-to-person meetings