1. HOW TO FIT OVER 10,000 COURSES IN
ONE ONLINE SEARCHABLE DATABASE
WCET Pecha Kucha Smackdown– November
2010
2. Objective
To share lessons learned with regards to
making a jurisdiction’s courses and programs
findable online
3. We will share
1. A brief overview of our database project
2. Lessons learned along the way since 2008
3. A few dreams for the future
4. Who We Are
Contact North/elearnnetwork.ca is the
Canada’s largest distance education and
training network
112 local centres span the more than one
million square kilometres that make up Ontario
The network collaborates closely with the 43
public Ontario colleges and universities, over
100 literacy organizations, and training
providers
5. Over 100 Educational Providers
Ontario, Canada as a jurisdiction, has over:
5 literacy & basic skills online providers
6. Over 100 Educational Providers
Ontario, Canada as a jurisdiction, has over:
42 high school online providers
7. Over 100 Educational Providers
Ontario, Canada as a jurisdiction, has over:
24 college online providers
8. Over 100 Educational Providers
Ontario, Canada as a jurisdiction, has over:
27 university online providers
9. Over 100 Educational Providers
Ontario, Canada as a jurisdiction, has over:
15 non-profit informal learning online providers
10. Unfindable
Most educational provider websites focus on
their on-campus offerings
2008: no one-stop shop to find Ontario online
offerings
11. What We Did
Copy & Paste!
Built database from scratch from websites of
educational providers because they did not have
the resources/expertise/willingness to provide
(with government’s support);
Year 1: 3 electronic data transfers
Year 2: 6
Year 3: over 20 and counting
We’re on our way!
14. Lessons Learned
Belief in what you are doing in terms of
supporting customers/students/real people can
help you get by when the going gets tough
15. Lessons Learned
Sometimes beginning a good project with a
good dose of naiveté can be a good thing
Visit www.contactnorth.ca/support
16. Lessons Learned
Only relentless results-focused project
managers ever get anything done:
Ontario Online Learning Portal
Ontario’s only online search engine with over
10,000 courses and over 800 programs
18. Portal Statistics
Sector # of Programs # of Courses
College 858 8,135
University 155 2,199
Secondary 2 1,724
Literacy 12 137
Other/Informal
Learning
17 784
Total 1,044 12,979
19. Portal Statistics
Programs by Type
Program Type Number
Advanced Diploma 5
Bachelor’s Degree 24
Certificate 771
Diploma 109
Doctoral Degree 1
Graduate Certificate 27
Masters Degree 12
Recognition of Achievement 97
Total 1,044
