General Principles of Intellectual Property: Concepts of Intellectual Proper...
Contact North | Contact Nord - The Portal - Help Us Help Your Students
1. THE PORTAL – HELP US
HELP YOUR STUDENTS
college, university & literacy programs & courses
right where you live!
2. About Contact North
We are your recruitment and support team in small,
rural and remote areas
1986
Non-profit organization
112 staffed online learning centres in small, rural
and remote areas, Aboriginal and Francophone
communities
Support services to colleges, universities and
literacy and basic skills providers
3. Where we are
There are 112 online learning centres across Ontario supporting small, rural and
remote areas and Aboriginal and Francophone communities.
4. What we do locally
At each online learning centre,
students and prospective students
can:
Meet with a Coordinator
Obtain information on available
programs and courses;
Get assistance with the registration
process;
Get technical support throughout the
course;
Obtain support and encouragement
from staff and peers as they pursue
their course.
7. The Contact North | Contact Nord Portal
Key features:
1,097 program options
19,579 online course options
Includes OL courses and non-OL college online courses
Keyword search and search refinement since 2008
Context: Getting Started, Find a Career, Student
Services, Success Stories
Direct links to institutions on search results pages
One-stop shop for online learning in Ontario
8. Portal Analytics
Current Contact North Analytics:
Unique Visitors – Apr/10 to Mar/11: 43,754
Unique Visitors – Apr/11 to Mar/12: 102,268
133.73% Growth
The Search Tool is the page (www.studyonline.ca) that is
most frequently accessed by visitors
92% of visitors accessing the Student Portal website
use the search tool
9. Benefits for your College and OL
Increased reach in other/rural parts of the province
(and to a lesser extent in other jurisdictions)
Link-outs to your eLearning/Distance education or
program pages from interested individuals (registration
referrals/leads)
Projected growth in unique visitors in the coming year
due to promotional efforts including 750,000 course
guides distributed in 112 communities
More timely information to more prospective students
can lead to increased registrations
10. Current Status
Data Transfer:
2 automated XML feeds (Algonquin, Lambton)
8 semester based Excel (csv) uploads (Cambrian,
Collège Boréal, Conestoga, La Cité collégiale, Loyalist,
Mohawk, Niagara, Sault)
14 colleges: manual data entry is still used (not
effective nor efficient)
11. Automated Data Transfer Benefits
Benefits to colleges:
Increased accuracy of course and program data
Timely access to information by Portal visitors
Link-out reports coming this fall
There is work involved to get started, then once
automated there is less work than there is now for
everyone involved, and better value for prospective
students
12. Our Proposal
To each college: Join the Data Transfer Initiative
Fall 2011 Student Usability study: students need timely
and accurate information on Ontario publicly-assisted
online study options to make an informed decision
Begin by uploading Excel files containing course and
program data each semester (starting in June)
Begin planning for an XML data feed for maximum
timeliness and accuracy (live in 2012)
Let’s meet: luc@contactnorth.ca