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!

12. Lessons Learned
 It’s better to ask forgiveness than to beg for
permission

13. Lessons Learned
 Complexity has killed projects before, and will
continue to do so

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

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

17. Ontario Online Learning Portal
www.click4onlinelearning.ca

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

20. The Future?
 More user-driven functionalities:
 Compare courses and programs
 Print Study Options
 Search possible programs by job title

21. Contact Us
Luc Comeau
Contact North/elearnnetwork.ca
1-866-601-1501
luc@elearnnetwork.ca
www.contactnorth.ca
www.elearnnetwork.ca
www.click4onlinelearning.ca