Case Study
Research College of Nursing
Research College of Nursing in Kansas City brings 115 years of excellence to nursing education across a 12-month accelerated BSN program, traditional BSN pathways, and a 78,000 sq ft facility with advanced simulation labs. eWay Corp partnered with Stamats Communications to build a custom WordPress theme using Bootstrap 5 and Advanced Custom Fields Pro, with 24 reusable Gutenberg blocks, WCAG 2.2 level AA compliance built into construction, and CRM-integrated iframe forms.
- Industry
- Healthcare
- Platform
- WordPress
- Services
- WordPress Development + Custom Gutenberg Blocks + Accessibility
- Engagement
- Project-based
Client Snapshot
About Research College of Nursing
- Founded
- Approximately 1910 (115 years of nursing education)
- Scale
- Premier nursing college in Kansas City; 12-month accelerated BSN, traditional BSN pathways, 78,000 sq ft facility with advanced simulation labs
- Website
- researchcollege.edu
Research College of Nursing is a fully accredited nursing college based in Kansas City, bringing more than 115 years of excellence to nursing education. The college offers a 12-month accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program designed for career changers, alongside traditional BSN pathways for students entering nursing as their first career.
The college operates from a state-of-the-art 78,000 square foot facility equipped with advanced simulation labs, classrooms, and clinical learning environments designed to prepare nurses for the demands of contemporary healthcare.
The college's website is the primary recruiting and information channel for prospective students considering a nursing career, families evaluating programs, and the broader community connected to RCoN's century-plus mission of preparing nurses for the field.
The Challenge
A nursing-college website that needed to be accessible, modular, and editor-driven.
Research College of Nursing's existing website did not meet modern accessibility standards, lacked modular content management, and was difficult to maintain and scale. The college needed a fully accessible, responsive, and marketing-ready platform that could improve student recruitment, engagement, and digital experience.
eWay Corp partnered with Stamats Communications for the rebuild. Stamats led the visual identity work, providing approved Figma designs. eWay's role was to translate the design into a working WordPress site with WCAG 2.2 level AA accessibility compliance, modular content management, and the integrations the college's marketing team needed for day-to-day work.
Beyond the visual fidelity bar, the build needed to support reusable Gutenberg and ACF-based content blocks, CRM-integrated iframe forms, SEO readiness, analytics integration, and a scalable CMS that allowed non-technical staff to manage content efficiently.
What was missing in the existing site
Did not meet modern accessibility standards
No modular content management for marketing campaigns
Difficult to maintain and scale
No CRM-integrated lead capture for the recruiting pipeline
Content management dependent on technical support for routine changes
The Solution
Custom WordPress theme with reusable Gutenberg blocks and accessibility built in.
After receiving the Figma designs from Stamats, eWay built a custom WordPress theme using Bootstrap 5 and Advanced Custom Fields Pro. 24 reusable Gutenberg blocks form the kit that the college's marketing team uses to build pages: hero banners, carousels, statistics, testimonials, accordions, events, CTA blocks, and others. Accessibility was treated as a build requirement rather than a final review pass. Every component meets WCAG 2.2 level AA from construction.
Custom WordPress theme built from the approved Figma designs
Bootstrap 5 as the responsive baseline and Advanced Custom Fields Pro for the modular field structure
24 reusable Gutenberg blocks covering hero banners, carousels, statistics, testimonials, accordions, events, and CTA blocks, among others
Full WCAG 2.2 level AA accessibility through semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support
CRM-integrated iframe forms for direct lead capture into the college's recruiting pipeline
Google Tag Manager, GA4, and Yoast SEO integration for analytics tracking and search visibility
Modular CSS variables and components for upgrade-safe scalability across future campaigns
End-to-end delivery including environment setup, CMS configuration, quality assurance testing, stakeholder coordination, training, and deployment support
Architecture
A glimpse of the stack
Application
WordPress with custom theme
Frontend
Bootstrap 5 with custom CSS variables and components
Block System
24 reusable Gutenberg blocks built with Advanced Custom Fields Pro
Accessibility & Marketing
WCAG 2.2 level AA, GTM, GA4, Yoast SEO, CRM-integrated iframe forms
The Outcome
Modular, accessible, marketing-ready WordPress for nursing-education recruiting.
Modular content management for marketing
24 reusable Gutenberg blocks let the marketing team build new pages from a kit. Hero banners, carousels, statistics, testimonials, accordions, and CTA blocks are configured once and reused across the site rather than rebuilt page by page.
Accessible by construction
WCAG 2.2 level AA conformance is built into every component through semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support. Visitors using assistive technology can use the site the way it was meant to be used.
CRM-integrated lead capture
Forms across the site integrate directly with the college's CRM through iframe forms. Prospective-student inquiries flow into the recruiting pipeline without manual handoffs between the website and the back-office systems.
Built to scale
CSS variables and modular components make the theme upgrade-safe. New campaigns and design refinements layer onto the existing system rather than requiring rebuilds, giving the marketing team a foundation that grows with their needs.
The Research College of Nursing website is now a modern, accessible WordPress platform built specifically for the college's nursing-education mission and the marketing team's daily workflow. Modular Gutenberg blocks, ACF-driven custom fields, WCAG 2.2 level AA compliance, and CRM integration form a coherent platform that the college operates with minimal technical dependence.
Common questions about this engagement
What buyers ask before engaging us on a project like Research College of Nursing
Why 24 Gutenberg blocks instead of a page builder plugin?
Page builder plugins add complexity to the WordPress stack and can become a long-term maintenance burden as both WordPress and the plugins evolve. Custom Gutenberg blocks built directly with Advanced Custom Fields Pro use WordPress's native block editor rather than depending on a third-party builder. The result is faster, lighter, and easier to maintain over time. The 24 blocks delivered cover the full range of marketing layouts the college needs, from hero banners to events to CTAs, without the overhead of a separate builder.
Why does WCAG 2.2 level AA matter for a nursing-college website?
Public-facing higher-education websites are subject to ADA accessibility obligations and increasingly to WCAG-aligned conformance expectations. WCAG 2.2 level AA is the most current accessibility standard at the time of this build, and represents the conformance level commonly required for institutional websites. Building accessibility in from construction rather than retrofitting at the end produces a template that holds up under audit and serves every prospective student consistently regardless of how they interact with the site.
How does the CRM integration work?
Forms across the site are implemented as iframe-embedded forms from the college's CRM platform. Inquiries submitted on the website flow directly into the CRM's lead pipeline without an intermediate handoff or manual data entry. This keeps the recruiting team's pipeline current with the website's actual inquiry flow and eliminates the class of errors that come from copy-pasting form submissions into a separate tool.
How did Stamats and eWay work together?
Stamats led the visual identity work for RCoN, providing the brand language, the Figma designs, and the design system. eWay was the technology partner: building the custom WordPress theme, the 24 Gutenberg blocks, the accessibility implementation, and the integrations. The two organizations operated as a paired team where Stamats owned the design and eWay owned the technical implementation that made the design real on a WordPress platform the college's team can manage day to day.
What does eWay own day-to-day after delivery?
The site was delivered as a working WordPress installation that the college's marketing team operates day to day. The custom theme, the 24 Gutenberg blocks, the ACF Pro configuration, and the supporting integrations are part of the WordPress site itself. eWay built and delivered the platform; the college's team owns content and routine operations from delivery forward, with eWay available for theme-level updates, additional blocks, or future enhancements as needed.
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