Content Management

Challenge

Learn Where Your Live Concept Brings Education To Your Door

Elearnnetwork.ca is part of Ontario’s Reaching Higher Plan aimed at providing residents in Eastern and Southern Ontario with increased and direct access to learning and training opportunities close to home. Before the elearnnetwork.ca website was created, students looking for distance training courses had to conduct their own research by contacting colleges and universities online or via phone. Search engines like Google are wonderful sources of information if they can direct you to exactly what you are looking for. But what if course and program names vary within each university (for example a Nursing 101 program at one university can be called Basic Health at another.) That’s the problem that Ontario students were experiencing and what Contact North and the Government of Ontario were determined to resolve. They wanted to offer Ontario residents a comprehensive database (or mini search engine) of available courses for online distance learning. To do that, they sought the expertise of the team at 3DA.

Process

Making a List and Checking it Twice

The first challenge that the 3DA team faced was to standardize the list of courses offered in the Ontario education system. Once they had all Ontario institutions on board, they needed to compile 7500+ courses into one master list. They started by ensuring that the master list would have consistent course titles and descriptions. In addition, many file formats (excel, database, word) had to be combined into a single file format. 3DA generated shortcuts for each school by offering them “backdoor access” to a special form which would later serve as the master for the final online list. They then developed a software to anchor numerous name possibilities within each category (ie Nursing 101 and Basic Health, as mentioned above).

The Smart Way to Choose Your Eductation

In addition to building the tools to navigate the site, 3DA had to find new ways to explore and manage the enormous flow of information. A toolbar of tabs makes it easy for students to move from one screen to another and offers them the option of searching by program or course names, by college or university, or by credential type (diploma, certificate, graduate certificate or other degree). Once they make a selection, they are automatically provided with a detailed course description categorized by college or university.

3DA staff worked diligently to ensure that the visuals, structure and design of the interface was clean and simple yet packed with information so that students could easily make informed decisions about their education. They had to be able to search courses, schools and certification details in order to weigh their options before making their final choice.

When users find a course of interest, they simply use the Add to My Options tool to save the selection to review and compare later. They are also provided with a link which connects them directly to the university or college. The contact information for each school is also readily available at their fingertips. Four times a year, as courses are added, each school has access to the master list in order to update it.

Results

This high-efficiency search engine is Ontario’s first and only search engine database for online distance learning. To date 19 colleges and 15 universities are participating in and supporting elearnnetwork.ca. With over 7500 courses now available online, it is an indispensable tool for students that puts their educational choices right in front of them. It’s a great accomplishment for the province of Ontario and offers numerous benefits to each school board, directing more traffic to their sites and more interest and participation in their courses.